Superb writing. In French the word instead is durable, and the notion of lasting longer in food business, taste, environmental integrity and decent work has always resonated with me.
Great point about the sliding scale. Another way of looking at 'sustainability' is the scale at which we apply the term. People talk about 'sustainable' in terms of what they personally do but the problems we have are about the aggregate of everyone's impacts.
Very much agree with the thesis, that “sustainable” is only ever meaningful as a relative claim.
I would push back a bit on your take on aluminum though — dirty secret about aluminum cans is that they all have a plastic inner liner (otherwise your beverage would taste like and contain aluminum). And, while a plastic bottle sitting in a landfill isn’t ideal (like you say, nothing is! All our choices as a consumer have some impact on the environment), it’s 1000x better than a plastic bottle or an aluminum can that doesn’t end up in a landfill.
Superb writing. In French the word instead is durable, and the notion of lasting longer in food business, taste, environmental integrity and decent work has always resonated with me.
Great point about the sliding scale. Another way of looking at 'sustainability' is the scale at which we apply the term. People talk about 'sustainable' in terms of what they personally do but the problems we have are about the aggregate of everyone's impacts.
Very much agree with the thesis, that “sustainable” is only ever meaningful as a relative claim.
I would push back a bit on your take on aluminum though — dirty secret about aluminum cans is that they all have a plastic inner liner (otherwise your beverage would taste like and contain aluminum). And, while a plastic bottle sitting in a landfill isn’t ideal (like you say, nothing is! All our choices as a consumer have some impact on the environment), it’s 1000x better than a plastic bottle or an aluminum can that doesn’t end up in a landfill.
Great article.