A Lifetime with Consumers

Each quarter, a group of students, faculty, and staff at WWU convene an environmental justice reading group to read and discuss recent texts. This quarter (Winter 2019) the group is reading excerpts from Sharing the earth: An international environmental justice reader (Ammons and Modhumita, eds) and Between the Heart and the Land: Entre el corazón y la tierra (Cardenas and Vázquez, eds.). The following entry reflects the group’s discussion last week.

 

A Lifetime with Consumers

By: Karissa, Julia & Cassidy

 

Have you ever thought about where your Hydroflask came from? Whether it was made by a person, or a machine? Where it was made and what went into the process of forming and crafting the material that would soon make up you water bottle? Have you ever thought about where your old cell phones go when you buy a new, upgraded model? Do they go to a landfill, or a recycling center? Where do they go after its lifetime with you?

If you were uncertain of the answers to these questions, you are not alone! In fact, most people in developed countries are highly unaware where many of their everyday items come from, and where they go after their lifetime with consumers.

This week’s readings focused on the social and environmental context behind the production of goods. The readings all shed light on the producer and consumer chain and gave perspective into the lives of people affected by this chain. From the electronic waste in guiyi village in “Sort by Day, Burn by Night,” to the massive landfill created by wealthy travelers in “The Rubbish Dump,” to women cooking food in “Empanadas”, the readings covered an expansive variety of perspectives related to consumerism.

In the class discussion, we had our peers reflect on how the readings affected them and what their thoughts were. Many noted that “The Rubbish Dump” hit close to home because much of the waste generated at landfills stems from white travelers, who often have no concept of the social and ecological significance of their waste. Students also brought an interesting perspective to this waste conservation. They discussed how the reading “The Rubbish Dump” spoke to how material objects, even if they reside in a landfill, connect different people and places together. In another one of our readings, “Hanging Clothes in the Sun,” a father cannot hug his daughter when he gets home until after he showers and changes his clothes, which are covered in chemicals from his factory job. This reading resonated with many students since it humanized the people behind the production of goods that we, as Americans, rarely ponder.

To extend this discussion, we had our peers tell the journey of an everyday object in a similar light as the readings. We gave them a choice in perspectives, explaining from the point of view of the object or worker, and where the object comes from or where it goes post-consumer. In the final writings, students envisioned the lifecycle of coffee, jeans, and plastic recyclables burned for energy. Students looked outside the classroom for a full lifecycle, but consumer’s usage was kept within the realm of Bellingham.

For instance, one group of students told the story of coffee. In the story, students created a dichotomy of good and bad coffee lifecycles as summarized in the picture below. In the “good” version, coffee was fair trade certified and the labor workers were paid fair wages. Once harvested, the coffee was roasted and packaged in biodegradable bags on site. The coffee was then sent to the Bellingham Community Food Co-op at which point the consumer brought a reusable mug and the grounds were composted.

Alternately, in the “bad” scenario, coffee production was not fair trade. The production used lots of pesticides and the workers were underpaid. The beans were then sent to be packaged in plastic and foil in California. The bean’s next stop was Woods Coffee where the consumer was given a single-use coffee cup. Going beyond the Bellingham area, the “bad” scenario assumes a well meaning consumer who recycled their cup, however, the cup was not recyclable and in turn contaminated the rest of the recyclables. As a result this added to the local landfill and global greenhouse gas emissions.

The story’s focus on worker wage, production, and disposal practices illustrates the broad thinking that consumerism requires to fully understand products’ impact. On another level, it reveals how everyday items in our lives tightly connect to issues of environmental justice. This understanding is not obvious to the average person, but it is useful knowledge to guide low-impact social and environmental decisions.