I admit it. Sigh Looking at them on the table tonight, I was and am part of the problem.
I spend a lot of my working and creative life being (and believing I am) part of the solution. Just the last 3 days alone, I have had two meaningful discussions about developing more sustainable packaging and why Pure Thai Naturals CAN'T have more plastic, or cheap Chinese chemically treated wood. That it MATTERS that I somehow procure something natural & different that fits with who I am and the natural-organic products I produce.
In my "other" professional life, in Australia, I was a fountain pen devotee. Always carried an elegant one, and everyone knew it. I adore the sound of a fine nib scratching on elegant paper, and the smell of good ink is bordering on orgasmic for me. I have always loved the sustainable nature of them, despite occasional bad flashbacks to the nuns and the all-too-many-sore-rapped knuckles in the quest for ladylike penmanship. Several reconstructive hand surgeries have rendered my penmanship more along the lines of a rushed emergency room doctor after a torrid 30 hour shift, and yet my love of good pens and the art of writing continues.
Fast forward 16 years - I am delivering my sustainable, hand-made herbal products to various outlets and customers here in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand, multiple times per day. And I lose about 20 pens a week. I fill in the product sales sheet, cheerfully hand it over with my pen for my client's OK and signature, chat and generally get distracted, and they return my copy of the sales slip and the monies owed. BUT VERY, VERY OFTEN KEEP THE PEN!!
So there we were in the big Makro store this evening (think Costco) and my daughter says, "Mama, we need pens again."
And so we grabbed some. 12 for 27 baht. (about USD $0.90) I felt pleased, as I have been scratching around for pens for days and days, both at home and while out delivering. It was't till I was putting away the shopping that I really saw them again and it hit me:
Cheap disposable plastic pens that will last a few weeks, at best, but which will be littering and poisoning Mother Earth for the next 200 years. And I use literally hundreds of them every year.
For the rest of this evening, I have struggled with myself. How did I get this lazy? Why did I let the inconvenience of buying them here in Asia stop me from using beautiful environmentally friendly refillable pens? When did I stop SEEING the parts of my own life that destroy Mother Earth?
The other part of me has been equally busy justifying and reminding me that fountain pens are hard to get ink for in Thailand, that I no longer own one, that they are expensive here and that sometimes it's OK to just use what's there. That I'm a mom and mom's sometimes have to make-do a bit.
And yet I hear myself retorting that while it may all be true, it doesn't HELP. That I CAN do better. That if we all take that approach, our children's children will be living in a sea of plastic debris and paying the health costs of our poor decisions for hundreds of years to come.
I don't know what the answer is. But tomorrow, at least, I'm going to find and use a wooden pencil for my delivery sheets and buy a good pencil sharpener. My clients will get over it, the accountant will hopefully get over it and I shall try to find a fountain pen and some blue ink for signing official documents.
I can almost smell the seductive ink and am looking forward to scribbling and scratching again in a quiet room.
Be Aware, Be the Change
Ahhh the signaling of own behavior and taking action on it. Good conclusions, good catch! It is so easy to fall into our own traps again and again.
Our own traps are the sneakiest and deadliest...
Great post and again something I can relate to and question myself why I have become so lazy with regards to certain throwaway things that I know will cause damage to the unborn .
Still I balance that out by being active on the other mountains of damage we are teased with on our daily lives .
Maybe you could get a company stamp made out that would save on the pencils .
Like how they use in japan . For your delivery sheets .
Official documents I have no answer apart from we are all using far too much paper as it is ,as well you know ,but many documents are done in digital format ,so again something to look at
Remember the days when we thought it would be a paperless world after the year 2000?? (haha - yes, and I would be happily married with 4 kids?) :) Some good thoughts about reducing the need for paper. Your support much appreciated, Jamie. Thank you!
Another great read!
I completely relate to this as I struggle with competing desires for both sanity and eco-friendliness all the time.
Sometimes I am very conscious of my water consumption and sometimes I realize I've been mindlessly running the hot water for several minutes while I scrub the sink.
You are not alone. Thanks for sharing. : )
The competing desires thing is real!! We just need to breathe and ask which one our future self needs most... works everytime. Grateful for your support. :)
I am obsessed with writing tools, and I no longer allow myself to purchase high quality tools. Being a planetarian and a mom, I appreciate your efforts for sustainability. Thank you.