“Did you know that’s unsustainable?”

In middle school, if you told me that shopping was unsustainable, I’d probably say, “You’re crazy! No. it’s not. Leave me alone,” just because I loved shopping after school, and the mall was only a block away. I was also uneducated in terms of what was and wasn’t sustainable, let alone what “sustainability’’ meant. Now that I work as a Sustainability Specialist in college, my whole life revolves around sustainability. Ever since then, I’ve been exposed to eye-opening concepts about the world and our climate that I never knew of, many of which I will share with you today.

Do you know what “sustainability” means?

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, “Sustainability is based on a simple principle: Everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment. To pursue sustainability is to create and maintain the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony to support present and future generations.” In other words, it’s about being able to survive as the current generation with the resources we have without jeopardizing the lives of future generations.

Did you know that overconsumption is unsustainable?

Overconsumption is when humans use resources faster than they are produced. I used to be a culprit of this too, buying cute shirts and hoodies even when I had so many clothes at home. Shopping was my stress reliever. Let’s be honest: how many of the clothes in your closet have you never worn or worn only once? This leads to other polluting trends like fast fashion.

According to Earth.org, “The fast fashion model is so-called because it involves the rapid design, production, distribution, and marketing of clothing. This means that retailers can pull large quantities of greater product variety and allow consumers to get more fashion and product differentiation at a low price.” Some companies that practice fast fashion include Zara, Shein, UNIQLO, and H&M. Taking a look at the statistics, fashion production comprises 10% of total global carbon emissions, as much as the emissions generated by the European Union. The industry dries up water sources and pollutes rivers and streams, while 85% of all textiles go to dumps each year. Even washing clothes releases 500,000 tons of microfibres into the ocean each year, the equivalent of 50 billion plastic bottles, as mentioned in an article published by Business Insider. This heavily affects our aquatic life, plus it depletes our resources by a tremendous amount.

With a heavy demand for land to use for cotton and leather production, fast fashion also contributes to deforestation. The fashion industry has been linked to the destruction of the world’s largest rainforest, the Amazon. Earth Day.org shares, “Each year over 200 million trees are cut down to be transformed into textiles for clothing, and most concerning fast fashion, production.” This is a huge blow to biodiversity and wildlife populations.

Looking beyond clothing, consider the daily coffees you purchase before heading to your workplace. An article by The Guardian quotes Preetam Basu and Thanos Papadopoulos, professors at the Kent School of Business and co-authors of a 2022 report on coffee cup waste, “Paper cups are biodegradable and compostable under the right conditions, making them a relatively better choice. However, paper cups often have a plastic lining to prevent leakage, making recycling difficult… If not properly disposed of or recycled, paper cups can end up in landfills where they decompose anaerobically, generating methane, a potent greenhouse gas.” Plus, consider the amount of trees that needed to be cut down to make that cup. According to one study, a single paper cup (served with a paper sleeve), emits about 110g of carbon dioxide.

Now, hopefully, you understand how terrible overconsumption really is in the long run. Not to say that you can’t have your morning coffee, or that you have to live with the closet you have for the rest of your life. There are other ways that you can do so in a sustainable manner, such as bringing your own reusable coffee mug to the coffee shop, and going to thrift stores and second-hand stores to purchase clothes and other items (plus, you can save a lot of money, and there are a lot of clothes of good quality that people donate–you’d be surprised).

Did you know that not sorting your trash properly is unsustainable?

Some states and countries have three bins, which are compost, landfill, and recycle, while others have only two bins, recycle and landfill. Whether you have one or the other, it is still very important that you know how to sort your trash properly. Why, you ask? As mentioned by Our World in Data, “when plastic waste is mismanaged – not recycled, incinerated, or kept in sealed landfills – it becomes an environmental pollutant. One to two million tonnes of plastic enter our oceans yearly, affecting wildlife and ecosystems.” Plastic waste in landfills takes up to 10 years or more to decompose, which then seeps into the soil and water, creating soil degradation and water pollution. “Cigarette butts — whose filters contain tiny plastic fibers — are the most common type of plastic waste found in the environment. Food wrappers, plastic bottles, plastic bottle caps, plastic grocery bags, plastic straws, and stirrers are the next most common items. Many of us use these products every day, without even thinking about where they might end up,” according to the UN Environment Programme.

The less waste we throw in landfills the better, and incineration produces a copious amount of greenhouse gas emissions. It is crucial that we know how to recycle and compost since the materials will be reused. For example, compost will be used for soil enrichment (much better than fertilizers filled with chemicals), and recycled materials will be used to make new products. Items that are mistaken as recyclable are plastic bags and other film plastics. They are not easy to recycle, and you should instead use a reusable bag to reduce waste!

Did you know that eating beef is unsustainable?

To all the meat lovers, I know this is hard for you to hear but a cow’s burp emits methane, a potent greenhouse gas, which according to Sentient Media, has 80 times the warming power in the first twenty years of its release into the atmosphere as compared to carbon dioxide.

In the figure above, we can also see that the amount of carbon dioxide produced per 100 grams of beef is the highest among all meats and other protein sources. Another reason why beef is unsustainable in the long run is due to the large amount of land required to raise the livestock. “In 2017, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that total annual emissions from beef production, including agricultural production emissions plus land-use change, were about 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2010. That means emissions from beef production in 2010 were roughly on par with those of India, and about 7% of total global greenhouse gas emissions that year,” as revealed by the World Resources Institute. Plus, many trees need to be cut for new and bigger pasturelands to be created for raising cattle. There is no doubt that getting rid of a habit you’ve had for your whole life is very difficult, and it is true that it is your choice. But think about the lives of your future generations–your kids and your kids’ kids. Their lives will be miserable because of the inconsiderate decisions we make. Baby steps go a long way! If you want to start by cutting down the amount of times you consume beef in a week or month, that is a great start! Hopefully, the information and data above will broaden your understanding and insight into what things people do very often that are unsustainable and harmful in the long run. Of course, this is a very short list, and there is so much more information out there that everyone should educate themselves on. Our future is determined by our actions; are you ready to leap into a sustainable world?

 

References

Learn about sustainability | US EPA. (2024, October 1). US EPA. https://www.epa.gov/sustainability/learn-about-sustainability

Maiti, R. (2025, January 20). Fast Fashion and its environmental impact in 2025 | Earth.Org. Earth.Org. https://earth.org/fast-fashions-detrimental-effect-on-the-environment/

McFall-Johnsen, M. (2021, November 11). The fashion industry emits more carbon than international flights and maritime shipping combined. Here are the biggest ways it impacts the planet. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/fast-fashion-environmental-impact-pollution-emissions-waste-water-2019-10

Helwagen, L. (2024, June 12). Fast fashion and its devastating impacts on forests revealed. Earth Day. https://www.earthday.org/fast-fashion-and-its-devastating-impacts-on-forests-revealed/

Nowell, C. (2024, January 22). The disposable cup crisis: what’s the environmental impact of a to-go coffee? The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/22/disposable-coffee-cups-environmental-impact

Ritchie, H., Samborska, V., & Roser, M. (2023, November 1). Plastic pollution. Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution?insight=only-a-small-share-of-plastic-gets-recycled#key-insights

Visual Feature | Beat Plastic Pollution. (2022, March 1). https://www.unep.org/interactives/beat-plastic-pollution/

Waite, R. (n.d.). 6 Pressing questions about beef and climate change, answered. World Resources Institute. https://www.wri.org/insights/6-pressing-questions-about-beef-and-climate-change-answered

Ólafsson, B. (2024, November 22). Why beef is bad for the planet, explained. Sentient. https://sentientmedia.org/explainer-beef-climate/

Barnes, M. (2024, January 12). Why is Eating Meat Bad for the Environment? Green Element Group. https://www.greenelement.co.uk/blog/why-is-eating-meat-bad-for-the-environment/