Hi friends. Now that it's been a few days and I've calmed down from Tuesday evening's events, I've got a little story to share with you all. So, as I was sitting in my last Public Relations class of the semester, minding my own business and watching a final presentation by a group from my class, a surprising thing occurred. I suddenly found myself being called out directly by another student for something that was A) inaccurate and B) kind of relates to this blog. About five minutes later, another girl in the same group called me out again! So what was I doing and why did they feel the need to call me out publicly? Well let me give some background info:

For our final PR projects each group of three to four people had to choose a pretend client (any client you want, but must be either a for-profit or non-profit organization) and put together a pretend PR campaign for said client. This particular group had chosen an environmental organization and their pretend PR campaign was aimed at getting people to ask for no plastic straws at restaurants.
I was sitting there in class with a compostable disposable iced coffee cup and straw and a plastic water bottle. I should note that I specifically go to the coffee place on campus because they serve Fair Trade coffee and all their disposables are compostable and this was the second plastic water bottle I've used in months because I almost always have a reusable one with me. However this time I forgot my reusable bottle, couldn't find a water fountain on campus and resigned myself to buying a disposable water bottle before class. (In case you're wondering what the other one was: I also bought bottled water about a month ago at work because the street's watermain broke and our office water suddenly became undrinkable. Whaddaya do).

So anyway, part way through their presentation, one of the students is talking about how alternatives to single-use plastic straws already exist and are quite accessible in urban areas. She then looks at me and says "not to make you feel bad, but if you'd bought that iced coffee at the university coffee shop all the packaging would be compostable. I don't know if you know that." I attempted to respond that actually the cup was from the uni coffee shop and I specifically go there because I know that all their disposables are compostable, but was drowned out by other students talking. I shrugged, mildly annoyed by her rudeness and the fact that she never gave me a chance to respond, and moved on with my life. Wasn't too upset, decided to let it go.

BUT THEN a few minutes later, a second member of her group was talking about successful anti-plastic campaigns and mentioned plastic water bottles. She then looks around the class and says, "wow, this class is actually a lot better than I expected. There aren't many single-use plastic bottles here, except for you (looks and gestures towards me)... not to make you feel bad or shame you or anything, though!"

After that, I think the girl sitting beside me could see the actual steam coming out of my ears.

You guys, behaviour like this is not ok, at all, ever, under any circumstances. I don't care how passionate you are about something, treating others like garbage in order to get your point across is mean, ineffective and just makes you look like a dick. Acting this way makes the sustainability movement so much less accessible because no one wants to be targeted if they screw up.

The thing that just makes this so much worse is that this group had no idea that I try pretty hard on the daily to reduce my waste, write this blog and already made a commitment to refuse plastic straws as of several weeks ago (ironic timing). They did not try at all to understand the person they attacked. The other big problem is that anyone in that class who was on the fence about trying to move towards the eco-friendly/sustainable/ethical living community and way of life was most likely deterred to some degree by their behaviour. I know I would have been! I also know I've heard from various people over the years that the sustainability/ethical/eco/fair/etc community can seem really unfriendly at times. I’m starting to see why.

Guys, we need to do better. If we truly want people to make changes, we can't be combative and judgemental like this. We need to be welcoming, accepting of small changes people make and forgiving of mistakes. Be willing to help others, instead of lambasting them because their version of "better" doesn't look like our version of "better."

Because no one is perfect, even those of us who make sustainable change a daily effort. Sometimes I forget my reusable coffee mug on Sundays and use the paper coffee cups at church. Sometimes I accidentally trash things that are compostable. And a million other things I'm still learning to navigate well. But I have made big changes: I almost never use plastic grocery bags anymore, brought a french-press to work so I would stop using k-cups and have been pretty successful with that. Ironically, I also started avoiding and refusing plastic straws several weeks ago. And a million other things I am successfully navigating.

AND THAT IS MY RANT OF THE DAY. I'm now going to clean my apartment with my ALL NATURAL cleaner, while drinking my FAIR TRADE coffee. I will then eat the curry I made using FAIR TRADE sugar and partly FAIR TRADE, COMPOSTABLE PACKAGE spices. Also, as you can tell, I'm not bitter at all.

I was called out in public for not being eco-friendly?!