First post in a looong time, and yes this blog layout sucks. Still. Great short article over at ESPN today, promising and worth a read.
We need to take the hippie-dippiness out of the movement.
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So to continue my eco-rant from yesterday and bring things totally off-topic had this exchange in the office the other day. One co-worker (who leads a fairly active outdoors life) walked into the kitchen and saw a Dixie straw sitting on the counter by the coffee maker and went on a mini-rant about people not throwing away their stuff when they are done with it. One of us stated how it was the straw used to mix their coffee and as they are planning to have another cup he put it there to reuse. “It’s just a straw, just grab another one” was the response he got as his straw met the garbage can. The exchange got me thinking as I try to be conscious of my output and have been using the same red “ghetto pimp cup” here for a few months, just rinse and repeat. I’ve also seen the aftermath of beach cleanup days, and how many cigarette butts (BTW, everytime I see a smoker throw a cigarette out the window I want to punch them in the face. One day I’ll get my opportunity…) make their way to the beach. I’m sure each smoker thinks “it’s just a tiny butt”, but it adds up.
So, anyways, back to straws, I decided I’d try and figure the volume of straws making their way to the North Pacific gyre if everyone in the world threw one away as the thought of head high, straw infested barrels is unappealing to me. It should be noted that the math > me, and I had to make some unscientific assumptions, so if you see anything amiss point it out.  Coming to an ocean/landfill near you Straw size: 5.25″ long. I’m assuming that it three straws crushed down will be 1mm (1/254″) in height and width (very unscientific guesstimates, and yes I mixed metric and standard measurements). So that means the volume of three straws (L x W x H) would be 5.25 * 1/254 * 1/254 = .00008138″. The population of the world at 8:35 this morning was estimated at 6,768,982,726. So taking that times the earlier number we get 550,827 cubic inches. Dividing that by 1728 we get 318.8 cubic feet. Yup, that’s a pile of straws a football field long, a football field’s length wide, and a football field’s length deep. I realize that there are parts of the world not throwing away straws, but I also realize that the package of straws we have in the cupboard comes with 1000 of them in it and it’s not the first package our company of six has used in the past year. Will not throwing away straws save the world? Of course not, but can your finger or a wood stick achieve the same end goal as a non-degrading straw? Yes. As people whose recreational pursuits are dependent on the environment continuing to work in the way we’re familiar with it’s worth considering little things you can do to help out. /end rant, we now return to our regularly scheduled snow stoke Your skis are killing you, and your snowboard is killing the environment. Bold statement or understatement? Take a minute and think about your kit and the toxins used in the creation of it. The resins in your core contains VOCs. Your wax has PFCs, the production of which requires PFOA. Clothing dyes, waterproof laminates, metal zippers and plastic buckles? Yup, more fun chemical cocktails and non- and slow degrading products leeching into your water. What about durability? A more durable product may be bad for business but good for the environment as it’s less waste making it’s way to landfills. It’s mind boggling to think of all the bad that goes into the manufacture of our good times. Thinking outside of output from the direct manufacturing process there’s the core. That wood has to come from somewhere – and odds are good that it wasn’t sustainably grown. Was it grown locally? Every mile from the factory is additional mile of carbon spewed into the atmosphere. Your snack on the lift? That wrapper is filling landfills while you’re filling your stomach. So why is it that an industry that is dependent on winter being cold continues to use products that contribute to global warming? Outside of Lib Tech it feels as if it’s primarily smaller companies such as Venture Snowboards and Purl Wax leading the way, whereas larger companies with much larger R&D budgets merely offer a single line of greener products. Do companies with a business predicated upon the outdoors have an ethical obligation to the consumers and the environment? As consumers will we continue to blindly (ignorance is bliss, right?) purchase product without giving a second thought to it’s environmental effect from cradle to grave, or will we rise up and voice our opinions and vote with our pocketbooks? I’m not pretending to have any answers as the problem gets more complex the more layers of the onion you peel back. Hopefully by merely planting this seed others will think about their purchase habits and who they choose to support when it comes time to open your wallet. |
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