Meanie Greenie

I was reading a sticker that's placed on every paper towel dispenser here at work and a whole train of thought hurtled through my little brain...

I read in an article that South Koreans recycles 85% of their recyclables, compared to less than 10% here in the U.S. In that sense, Koreans are definitely eco-friendly.

But Koreans aren't really green; they don’t do the whole “organic food” thing and they don’t really worry about using products that are “green.” I have never seen a Korean cosmetics company advertise their new organic line. Koreans don’t care if their shampoo has sodium lauryl sulfate in it. We clean with heavy-duty cleansers that contain heavy-duty chemicals. Korean women use tons of products that have tons of incomprehensible compounds in them.

My mother is most definitely one of those Korean women. She doesn’t worry about zapping Tupperware in the microwave, she doesn’t care about the particles that her non-stick wok might be leaking into the food, she thinks it’s funny that I only use organic shampoo (skincare is a whole different thing- I am not ready to give up hard-working chemicals that make my skin what it is).

My parents are great about being eco-friendly, though. My mother composts, she grows a lot of her own vegetables, she doesn’t waste anything. My dad … he takes the trash and recycling out.

They aren’t green, though. Not in the way that crunchy, granola-y people are (I think they used to be called hippies but are now just … green). The parental unit doesn’t care about pesticides on their fruit- once it’s washed, who cares? They don’t try to refrain from buying things in plastic containers- they’re going to recycle the plastic, who cares? They don’t take their own bags to the grocery store- they’re going to re-use and the recycle the bags, who cares?

I am leaning more and more towards becoming a greenie, with my love of organic fruit and vegetables and my growing distaste for plastics and Styrofoam. I’m becoming a mean greenie, though, which I think a lot of green people are: they are like born-again Christians, loudly evangelizing that their way is THE way, not letting anyone get a word in edge-wise. And like born-again Christians are for all the quiet Christians out there, mean greenies give the rest of the greenies a bad name.

I wasn’t always a greenie, mean or otherwise. I didn’t used to read the packaging on my hair products; I smelled them and if they smelled delicious, I bought them. (Herbal Essences was purchased solely for its smell, and I have to say that I quite miss the fake scent of tropical paradise.)

I used to buy bottles and bottles of water. I recycled those bottles once they were empty, but I certainly did not think about the footprint that my plastic usage might have. I was in the stage that my parents are in now- sure, I’m using plastics, but I’m recycling them, so who cares? I now have a Kleen Kanteen and a ceramic mug at work, rather than bottles and paper cups. I assume my parents will get to where I am now in about six months to a year, since that’s how much lag there is between my changes and theirs.

A lot of my change in viewpoint came about because of the very industry that I work in. VFX, for all its flaws, definitely promotes being green. Sony, the entire corporate entity, uses recycled paper towels and makes sure to provide their employees with recycling bins and coolers of water, rather than bottles of them.

I actually didn’t used to recycle very often because of the sheer inconvenience of it. Rhythm + Hues, where I worked before, changed me in that respect. I started recycling while I worked there, and the habit became ingrained. I actually worked with someone that would yell at me if there was an aluminum can in my wastebasket, regardless of whether or not I had thrown it in. I guess the reason I really started recycling was because I didn’t want to hear the hollering and I certainly didn’t want to be criticized (lemming behavior at its very best!). VFX people are passionate about their likes and dislikes, and saving the earth is high up on the list of likes (thankfully).

The entire city of Cerritos, where I live, recently (last year) gave all their residents new trash cans. THREE new trash cans: a black one for trash, a green one for compost, and a blue one for recyclables. It has made it much easier for my parents to recycle. (It helps that I live with them and torment them when they don’t recycle.) With just that small change, our trash has decreased to the point that we only leave the trash can out for collection once every two weeks, sometimes once every three weeks.

I don’t know how much of a difference my few changes will make in the long run, but I do know that I feel a little bit better about myself. And I feel like if people as set in their ways as my parents can change … why can’t everyone else?