Tiny Choices Survey: Stella B.
By tinychoices | April 4, 2008
Vital statistics (name, age, location, link to website/blog)?
Stella B, 27, Berkeley CA.
How do you reside (apartment or house, roommates)?
Apartment (converted second floor of a house, really) with one roommate.
Are your housing decisions dictated by choice or necessity? Please explain.
Both. I would rather live alone, but at the moment it makes more sense money-wise for me to share a place. However, I like my roommate and our place, so it’s not a burden. Some day I’d like to have a small house with a yard so I can have chickens and a garden, but that probably won’t be any time soon.
How do you travel (transit, car, etc)?Are your travel decisions dictated by choice or necessity? Please explain.
Day to day, I walk. It takes me about 20 minutes to walk to school. Otherwise, I take the bus/BART or drive. In the Berkeley/Oakland/SF area the public transit is pretty reliable and only occasionally smelly or terrifying, plus I can ride the bus for free as a student. Most of my friends and family live in places that aren’t accessible by foot or public transit, so I do end up driving once or twice a week.
Tell us about a Tiny Choice you’ve made in your life.
I wash and re-use plastic bags until they’re beyond saving.
What is the one environmental dilemma you personally struggle the most with?
Clothes. Conventional cotton is terrible for the environment, and cloth and clothing manufacturing are terrible for people. I have to wear clothes to do my life, and I feel pretty defeated in that direction. I do buy second-hand clothes, and organic cotton when I can both find it and afford it. But there are still a lot of plain old conventional cotton clothes in my closet that someone had to dye and sew.
What is one Tiny Choice you can make in that direction?
I can put more energy into finding earth- and worker-safe clothes, and save up for them.
What is the one environmental Tiny Choice you make that people question (in either a positive educational or a negative hassle way) you the most about?
My plastic bag drying rack. I have been thoroughly mocked for that one by almost everyone who comes into my kitchen and asks what the wooden umbrella thing is.
What is the one environmental Tiny Choice you would like every single person to adopt?
I really wish people would stop buying all of their food in single-serving packages. Do we really need 4-ounce disposable plastic water bottles? “100 calorie packs” make me want to scream. Is it that challenging to put a serving of food in a re-usable container?There’s a Futurama scene where Fry is assembling Oreos by unwrapping separately packaged cookies and filling and putting them together, and it’s so close to true it’s scary. I was raised by a mom who sent me tofu in recycled yogurt cups in my school lunch, so I guess I’m biased, but I really don’t understand why people feel like they can’t live without convenience foods.
Do you feel like you make sacrifices for environmentalism? Please explain.
The only thing that I find difficult is only bathing with hot water once a day in the winter. I love taking baths, and if it didn’t waste so much energy, I would take two baths a day when it’s cold out. But that barely qualifies as a sacrifice. Washing out a reusable food container, or putting on a sweater instead of turning up the heat, or not eating an apple because all the apples at the store are from Chile, or whatever, aren’t really that big of a deal to me. I’m not even close to perfect, and I totally eat imported food and drive my car, but I try to minimize actions that I know aren’t “green”. I feel like it’s better to be practical and positive about it than get overwhelmed and give up.
Are you generally: optimistic, pessimistic, neutral about environmentalism and the future?
I’m pretty pessimistic at this point. I think change is happening, and a lot of people are realizing that stewardship of the environment is important. That’s great. It’s even great that being “green” is trendy, especially if people pay attention to what that really means. But we’re still committed to long-term global warming, and we all have TCDD and PCBs and DDE in our bodies. I don’t think that humans are very good, as a species, at making short-term sacrifices even if they know it’s for a future benefit. I don’t want to sound like we should just throw in the towel, though. It’s still important to try to save what we still have!
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I totally agree about the cotton clothes! Being fat and trying to find ethically sourced clothing is next to impossible.
http://oko-organic-clothing.blogspot.com/2008/02/blue-fishs-plus-size-organic-clothing.html
http://oko-organic-clothing.blogspot.com/2008/02/plus-size-organic-clothing.html
Here are two blog posts about plus size organic clothing. It really is difficult to find, most the regular designers do not make over an XL. A great source for solving this issue is ETSY.COM, cause many of the eco designers will custom make to your measurements for the same price as organic clothing that’s been pre-made. Try someone like “Gaia Conceptions” who offers this service.
The other way to get good organic cotton clothes(in sizes xs-xl) is wait for sales. Buy at the end of each season for next year, when everyone marks things way down.
Still the most eco friendly is vintage, re wear, and re making what’s in your own closet :)
Thanks for your tips!
Thanks so much, Leslie– this is great information!
i love the blue fish clothing