You can buy reusable cutlery. You can limit your shower to a quick 3 minutes. You can campaign for green legislation in your community. You can do 100,000 things to try and be eco-friendly, but sometimes you still end up feeling guilty that you haven’t done enough. We get it! Sometimes our heart’s in the right place but everything still goes wrong.
“You can do 100,000 things to try and be eco-friendly, but sometimes you still end up feeling guilty that you haven’t done enough.”
We thought we’d share some of our office’s eco-fails because maybe you’ve done some of these silly things too. We can’t be the only ones, right? RIGHT?! Come commiserate with us in the comments, OK?
Take a hike, carbon
I went for a day hike in a national park and decided to double down on the nature of it all by taking public transit there. I didn’t pay attention to the schedule and realised, at the end of the day, that the bus service had already ended. I had to call a cab from literally an hour away to come and get me. It probably would have taken less fuel if I had just driven myself. – Luke, Design Lead
The meat of the issue
I recently started eating a plant-based diet, but I still have all of this food from my omnivorous days. I know I can donate some of it, but what about this slightly used jar of mayo? Should I toss it? Eat it? What’s the move!? – Lori, Copywriter
The final straw
I ordered a variety of reusable straws (it’s the spice of life, after all) off of the internet, and each shipped separately! With A LOT of packaging. Like those straws were more secure than the future of our planet, that’s for sure. – Mike, Retention Marketing Manager
Face palm
I once went out and spent a bunch of money on different shampoos to try and find a good one without palm oil. Turns out the ingredients sodium lauryl sulphate and glyceral are actually palm oil. Every single shampoo I bought had one of those in it. Every. One. – Michelle, Email Marketing Manager
I had it in the bag
I’m not proud of this, but I forget my reusable bags nearly every time I go to the supermarket. I don’t want to get single-use plastic, so I end up buying new ones. I must have about 50 reusable bags at this point. I should really start handing them out at the office. Except I’ll probably forget. - Jehan, VP of Growth and Strategy
That’s a wrap on plastic
I bought a 5 pack of “ethical underwear” and each one was wrapped separately in cardboard, tissue paper and had 3 business cards inside. I also did the same with a dishwashing soap bar - got the 3 pack and each one was in a separate metal container. It was super cute, but so unnecessary. – Amy, Business Development Manager
I got sili-conned
I got those silicon lids to replace plastic wrap and I thought they were super. They're meant to last for like, what, forever? After a few weeks, they no longer stick to the ends of plates or fruits. Now if they’re even slightly wet, they won’t work, which pretty much means they are useless for food. I have no idea what to do with these unusable, “reusable” lids. Gah! – Cat, People & Culture
Total wipe out
I bought reusable face wipes and they were scratchy, comically big and came in a lot of packaging. I also bought silicon bags to replace the plastics ones I had, but I CANNOT for the life of me get the sliders on to seal them. I really need to stop shopping eco Instagram ads. – Vanessa, Creative Director
OK, we’ve admitted our eco-fails. Now what are yours?
