Credit: Photo by Chris Juhn
Sustainability is personal
Most of us are mindful of waste and overconsumption to some extent. No matter the varied fluctuations of the economy, our habits around making everyday items as multipurpose as possible stay the course.
The dozens of plastic bags in the kitchen cabinet that double as lunch bags and small trash can liners, the vanilla yogurt tubs that are used for other food storage, or the drawer filled with sauce packets and plastic cutlery are some lighthearted indications that, indeed throwing things away that could have another use makes you uncomfortable.
I haven’t been inside your place. I just know.
Where we are headed with the amount of stuff we consume—food, new clothes, and single-use products—coupled with current methods of industrial waste management is very concerning at best and somber when you understand the first-hand experiences of populations, often because of location, class, and/or race, that are forced to endure some of the worst impacts on their quality of life.
One person who takes this seriously is Filsan Ibrahim, an environmentalist in her nine-to-five job and a mindful consumer daily at all other hours.
Over the past decade, Filsan has committed to studying and implementing sustainable practices in how she purchases items of all kinds and, subsequently, how she disposes of trash. This approach to mindful consumption can be referred to as a low or zero-waste approach.
Filsan’s list of to-dos at Cub Foods during a modest grocery run wasn’t long, but she shared a healthy dose of knowledge about how we can increase our stewardship of finite resources.
Our first stop was in produce, where Filsan packed away broccoli in her reusable bag instead of using plastic produce bags. “Some of the best low-waste products are fruits that peel, like bananas, oranges, and melons,” Filsan said.
Filsan showed a low-barrier step in reducing waste by reducing the amount of plastic used to wrap and carry things. “I don’t want to harp on plastic because plastic is not the issue. Plastic was a big win for modern science. The issue is using something that will exist for hundreds of years and using that [largely] in single-use items,” she said.
Filsan openly shared why she is so deeply engaged in the sustainability of the environment and its gifts to humankind.
“A lot of people think about waste as ‘I’m going to buy [stuff] and whenever I’m done with it, it will go away’ because there [seems] to be a linear [garbage] process that leaves your house but it doesn’t disappear, it goes to somebody’s backyard, somebody’s everyday living. A lot of those people are folks of color, in poor and disenfranchised neighborhoods.”
Filsan explained, “It never really goes away; it just goes away from you. Depending on whether the waste is being buried or burned, it adds a layer of harm to a neighborhood’s water or air. There isn’t a magic situation where trash just goes away.”
In its most recent report on the state of waste management, the United Nations Environment Program supports Filsan’s sentiment that we are experiencing a dire cycle of consumption and its process through waste systems that come with a cost we are contending with—costs to human health, economies, and the environment. The cost of trying to keep up with all the trash is projected to surpass $600 billion per year by 2050.
“Waste is a byproduct of a system that is failing. When we have created our waste system, we think we need to burn it or bury it instead of finding ways to give it new life for a cyclical system instead of extracting, using, and dumping,” Filsan affirmed.
Filsan shared some advice on pacing yourself to activate more intentional habits in what you bring into your life. “Give yourself grace in trying to do something different from how the system or any system is functioning,” she said.
“Slow down and observe how much you take in, what you are taking in, why you are consuming what you are consuming, and then when you have an understanding of that ‘why,’ you can change however it works for you [such as] consuming less, buying less, buy things collectively with your homies, whatever it might be. Slow down and think.”
When asked how her mom felt, Filsan chuckled. “She had to get accustomed to many things, such as composting. But now, [Mom] participates and also takes the compost out herself. She’s proud of me because [she sees] the values she instilled in me.”