I know I may have been a little quiet the last few weeks, but I promise for good reason.

As another semester comes to a close, I finally am finding a little bit of bandwidth where my thoughts can meander a bit more. Of course between coursework, work, and business I’ve had a packed schedule, but my schedule is just about always packed (lol). But before I go too far off track, I wanted to dive into what I’ve been reflecting on.

This semester was probably the best so far. Both of my classes were spot on and very interesting, even with what felt like a never-ending stack of work for one class. However, in that stack, I took a lot away from it. Remember when I mentioned….way back then…that I was taking a polymer manufacturing class this semester? Well, it’s had me in a reflection state and reassessing our (my own included) relationships with polymers and plastics.

As one of my classmates has so eloquently stated, it’s not so much a plastics problem as much as it is a waste problem. (Again, this mainly pertains to the U.S.) But he’s right. That’s what we’ve all been talking about and working to educate people on and one of the whole purposes of this journal, right?! So let’s dive a little deeper into this reflection shall we?

When I started out this semester I was already mindful of my consumption and how I was handling (or attempting) to handle my waste. As soon as I started in my polymers class, it made me think about it more and the complexities surrounding plastics whether they’re made from fossil fuels or from biobased or biodegradable materials. All of the plastic and polymer options we discussed over the semester have their own drawbacks as well as benefits. Whether that’s the energy intensity created when the resin is produced from the very start or how it’s disposed of and if even it has a proper waste stream management system.

There are so many cool innovations happening, such as PHA items. If you haven’t heard, PHA is a biodegradable polymer that degrades naturally in the environment as well as in compost facilities. The downside is that it’s currently expensive to produce and there are limited uses for it due to its biodegradability. It’s made by microorganisms as they consume oils or sugars and store it in their cells. Later, the bioplastic is harvested and purified for use in straws, films, and a number of other products (Moebios, 2024). But I won’t go down the rabbit hole with this one. I just wanted to share one of the innovations we as consumers may not all be aware of.

So back to my reflection. This class, as well as a number of conversations I’ve had lately, has sparked a number of thoughts. As I’ve mentioned earlier this year, sometimes it feels like the people portion of sustainability is forgotten about. Not only that, but the level of the information out there can seem overwhelming for an every day person just trying to get through life. Data is important as well as transparency. However, it should also be delivered in a consumable, easy to understand and practice type of way. Our infrastructure in the U.S. isn’t perfect, nor is it completely perfect around the world, but there can be improvements made for both people and planet.

Lately I have really been chewing on the ideas of attainable goals, transparency, and what a shift in consumer health and behavior could look like compared to how it looks now. I’ve been struggling with messaging that isn’t aligned by action and finding greenwashing and greenhushing are just as nuanced as other marketing and messaging tactics. Understanding that it can be difficult to achieve some of the goals and objectives companies, both large and small, set for themselves, there is a shift happening and another one I feel is on the way. As seen with other large companies and even the UN SDG goals themselves, some of the years that have been marked for milestones to be achieved hasn’t been met yet. And there are a million reasons as to why. When I started digging a little further into sustainability before launching my brand back in 2018, I kept hearing “within the next 5 to 8 years”. Well that timeframe has come and gone. Then it was 2025 for some organizations. Now it’s 2030 to 2050.

The questions I now have are:

1. How can we move the needle forward without enacting proper policy to meet the impact goals set?

2. How can we meet people where they are but actually make lives better as opposed to struggling to get by to meet their basic needs as a human while a small percentage of people profit off of the hard labor of others? (Nuanced and hot topic to debate and will leave here.)

3. What messaging and measurable actions can we take to actively be part of improving our communities for the better concerning energy and materials/waste management?

These are just a few of the many roaming around in my head. But they each bring up further questions of which I will be exploring in my podcast, Looped In. (Which I just released the welcome episode! Unfortunately, there was a lack of tunes situation for this episode that will be fixed before next week.) Plus, you already know I’ll be unpacking some of these questions here as well.

But I don’t want to keep you any longer, as I could go on about these thoughts for days as I finish up the semester. However, life calls and goes on. So for today, I’ll leave you with this to chew on. We use plastics to handle and manage plastic waste. So what is the inherent problem, the plastics themselves or our need (humans as a whole) for convenience and unwillingness to go the extra step?

Until next time, ask the uncomfortable questions and challenge the status quo.