Breaking down the negatives of living a sustainable lifestyle
By Vilma Gerulyte
Abstaining from yet another episode on Netflix at midnight, refraining from buying entire trolleys of food when hungry, avoiding cigarettes when you’re trying to quit or forcing yourself to jog every morning – these are challenges many of us face when trying to lead better, healthier lives. Sustainable living is also a lifestyle that also comes with challenges of its own.
While living sustainably is not as extreme as jogging every morning, it does take a lot of commitment. Don’t you, daily, find yourself in surroundings that seem to discourage you from living environmentally friendly live? Yes, you do, as it is hard not to notice shelves that are stuffed with plastic-wrapped food or try to cross the road without seeing all that buzzing polluting traffic.
In such cases it becomes difficult to purchase a toothpaste that is not sold in a plastic tube (FYI – even if the tube is plastic and it’s meant to be recyclable, it is still very hard for it to be properly recycled, if at all), unless prior research helps to figure of how to avoid it by getting the toothpaste in a metal or glass tube. This, and pretty much any other scenario, means that alternative arrangements continuously need to be made in order to live truly sustainably.
Sophie Spratley, 22, is a Fashion Design student at London’s Kingston University who often finds sticking to a sustainable agenda difficult. “I care about the environment but I can’t always be as sustainable as I want because not all the fabric I use is sustainable,” she says.
Though the world is slowly growing into a more sustainably conscious environment, it still remains a challenge to find sustainable options in stores. According to a Forbes article by Mike Scott, the reason behind the lack of full range of sustainable items lies within the world’s brands struggling to keep up with the pace of the ongoing environmentally conscious change.
“The best way to be sustainable is to buy natural products, like cotton,” continues Sophie, but adds that natural products are expensive. And while she scours warehouses to find them, she cannot always afford them.
Costs are another major issue that arise when it comes to a conscious living - on a low income or on a student budget it would be impossible spending £30 on zero-waste shampoo. Sustainable items and materials do cost more due to growing and manufacturing expenses.
There have been plans in the business world on working on an environmental management that would result in an increased business profitability and in cuts of direct costs, Harvard Business Review article on challenges of green living suggests. However, it might still not be possible to cut the costs of items because ‘environmental costs are skyrocketing at most companies, with little chance of economic payback in sight,’ the article says. And, as it’s known, business is all about making profit.
Organic food is promoted as an example to a more eco-friendly living way, and that is true as it is both beneficial to the environment and the consumer. Organic Market report even revealed that the UK organic market saw a total growth of 4.5% in 2019. However, with organic food comes an unwanted price tag that gives it bad reputation. Less chemicals and more labour, slow organic food growth and organic certification contribute to the increase of product price.
Blogger Besma Whayeb’s blog, Curiously Conscious, is all about sustainable living. “I love organic agriculture in how it protects the land and wildlife, but I’m also unable to afford organic food all of the time.” She recommends choosing a combination of organic, local and seasonal food as an alternative to an all organic/expensive living instead.
These are, by no means, all the difficulties that come with sustainable living, unfortunately, because as Besma puts it: “there are huge unsustainable systems in place that are far more convenient than sustainable ones,” that stand in the way of people to living a more sustainable life. What, nonetheless, is inspiring is that more and more eco-friendly businesses emerge, that hopefully will soon enough make the sustainability market be available and affordable to all.
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