When good things go bad: Re-thinking environmental choices

I've had several occurences where people try to do a good thing, but instead of checking the facts, they just assume what they're doing is the best way because it seems intuitively so or the media says so. This does work a lot of the time, but some things - some of them intuitively "right" things - might do more damage than good. This post is about debunking (or at least re-thinking) some myths:

1. Myth: Separating trash into as many categories as possible is always good. Germans are crazed with separating trash, often up to 4 different types of trash categories at home plus several others for other trash (like empty bottles - sorted by colour). And of course some bottles you can return to the store where you bought them. The fact is, in many big cities, the trash separating machines at the utility company have become so efficient that it's actually inefficient for the consumer to separate it into so many categories. Check out how your city/community does it.

2. Myth: Eating organic makes my carbon/CO2 footprint THAT much lower. It usually does make your carbon footprint lower provided that you're comparing to someone who has the same eating habits as you. But often it's the type of food that makes a bigger difference. Eating a salad instead of a steak makes SO much more of a difference than eating an organic steak.

3. Myth: Local food is always more energy-efficient to make. This generalisation is quite wrong. It depends on a lot of factors to see what food is more energy-efficient. Buying local and in season is a better guide to higher energy-efficiency. Sometimes driving to the supermarket to buy the food that is shipped in from Kenya is more energy-intensive than the rest of the supply chain altogether. The Boston Globe has a nice article on this.

4. Myth: It's ok to create a lot of CO2, I can just buy some certificates and it's as if it never happened. This is currently a very popular subject. But many difficulties arise and often it doesn't really work. Read about whether or not certificates live up to their hype in "The Big Carbon Offset Lie?". Here's one tip: Reducing emissions is much better than "compensating" for it.

5. Myth: Paper is better than plastic. Is it really? If you take a look at the whole life-cycle of plastic and paper bags, plastic actually comes up on top often. Read about this in a TreeHugger article. Re-Usable bags are usually better than either. If you re-use them.


These are just some examples of how good things or well-intentioned things do not really work. So, next time you have to make an environmental choice, check out whether the facts support your intuition. Whether it's traveling to a far-away place, buying a computer or even washing the dishes: Which choice is the most environmentally friendly?