The basket of rewardable(s)
Handed down in my family, is a rectangular rattan basket that is over seventy years old. It is far more sturdy than any plastic bag. It is more durable and reusable than paper. It will never take as much water to produce as 100% cotton, or worse, petroleum by-product fabric.
Some corporations give away tote bags as a kind of green-washed, feel good product to promote themselves. Just be aware of this.
A war, bordering on culture wars rages about what materials are the greenest when it comes to reusing, and thereby, wasting less, of our precious resources.
Do we use plastic bags? Do we use paper?
Like the riddle of the Gordian knot, it is a trick question.
You do not really need either one for pure survival.
The answer of course is, you don’t need to buy all that stuff.
Yet, we will still buy some things.
With durable woven baskets from wood, jute, hemp, branches, sisal, or any organic material, you have a tote container that could outlast your lifetime.
All totes still have their uses and re-uses
Personally, I love tote bags from moving sales and thrift stores.
They are also fun to be creative with, cover an obnoxious corporate logo with a colorful, left-over fabric patch. Or support artists that recycle, re-purpose, and reuse.
They are usually free, or of little cost. Until it was stolen, I had one that was over thirty years old. The longer you keep and use a tote, the less destruction it does to the environment.
Plastic, however, will persist in the environment for hundreds and sometimes thousands of years.
As if by magic, my heirloom basket will kill no organisms, but will decay in the next hundred or so, years.
It is a rare case of here when we need it, and gone when we’re gone, unlike most single-use containers.
Our relationships with food and each other
If you are like me, you absolutely wince when you see a shopper stuffing single-use polluting plastic bottles into single-use plastic bags. If they do this with no thought whatsoever to the habitats that are now being destroyed, it is cringe-worthy.
But, until all people know how their consumption habits are profit-driven, they just don’t know any better. Until people learn that clean-up costs will fall on them and their children, they will continue as before. Until people know the true amount of suffering of others and biodiversity, they just won’t have incentives to be better.
Until they realize all that garbage is dumped upon impoverished nations, or into the soil and water — and our own bodies — they won’t get it.
We only do better when we know better. Knowing your carbon footprint is wise, but knowing the profiteers are blaming you, and, at the same time, staying trashy, is a whole other incentive.
Demand an end to single-use pollution, by demanding options for eating.
Over time, we will learn to do better. We will demand climate leaders, not just infinite economic growth leaders.
Grandmothers like mine used this basket in Europe. Once upon a time, no one had plastic bags. They shopped with things like bulk burlap, crates, and baskets.
Making frequent, interactive purchases with other human beings, not online, could help us become a greener world.
Our survivors will demand greener cities. Vertical, water retaining cities and gardens will be ubiquitous. Daily shopping, as is done in walkable places, and meeting people more directly by gardening communally will have a bigger impact.
Make America crate again
Crates, if made of sustainable, renewable forest products could also help. They could be used endlessly for toting, and then around the home.
They are made once, unlike single-use cardboard. They won’t rot, or cause as much trash as cardboard, and of course, cats love them too because they are boxes.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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You may also like these posts on The Good Men Project:
 White Fragility: Talking to White People About Racism |
 Escape the “Act Like a Man” Box |
 The Lack of Gentle Platonic Touch in Men’s Lives is a Killer |
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Photo credit: Alexas_Fotos on Unsplash
