You asked: 3 sustainability questions - lightbulbs, bags & food

Welcome to a This or That episode!

I break down the least impactful options from things you’ve been asking about.

This episode is actually a repost, because some of you have sent in these questions - clearly, we all have choices that keep us up at night. And often, what we expect isn’t actually the truth!

This week’s selection has a pretty controversial topic, and one that maaay just surprise you.

See if you can guess the answers before I reveal them - and then let me know if you got them all!

In this episode let's cover:

• What uses more energy, turning off lights or energy efficient bulbs?
• What has less of an impact, paper or plastic bags?
• What resources and processes are made to make paper bags?
• What matters more, what you eat or where its from?
• What parts of your food intake you should reduce to help lessen your impact? (Don't worry, I'm not telling you to completely give up your favourites.)

Thanks for joining me on this episode of Because Why?!

Mā te wā - see you next week.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Plastic bags are way worse for the environment than paper ones,
right? Well, listen on because it's not
quite that simple. Kyota, and welcome back.
And today we are talking about acouple of things you've asked me
about on Instagram and what is the best option?
One of them in particular is a little bit controversial, but as
always, there is nuance. Today we're talking about
turning off the lights versus using energy efficient bulbs,

(00:20):
which might seem odd, but bear with me.
Paper bags versus plastic. And that's not as cut and dried
as it sounds. And which is better for the
planet, eating local food or what you're actually eating?
Because it turns out the sciencedoesn't match what most people
believe. But first, let's take off the
easy one. Should you turn off your lights
or should you use energy efficient bulbs?
I know, why not use both? But it turns out this is a

(00:41):
thing. And honestly, when this came up,
I thought this was really peculiar.
The obvious answer is turning off the lights, right?
How can you possibly be better than that?
But it actually turns out there is a belief out there that
turning your bulbs back on and off, particularly in a short
period of time, uses a bunch of energy as incandescent bulbs.
So most of your typical light bulbs, they need to get hot to

(01:02):
emit light. So for a few seconds they suck a
lot of energy. This may have been true back in
the day, but it isn't now. Turning off your lights is
absolutely the best option, evenif you know you're going to be
in the room in like a minute later.
Energy efficient bulbs like LEDsuse up to 80% less energy than
traditional bulbs. They also last longer, so fewer
resources for production and disposal.

(01:22):
So they are a massive improvement over a standard
bulb, which is why you find thempretty commonplace.
The real win here is both use energy efficient bulbs and turn
them off. But yeah, this this whole myth
about the the turning on lag thing not a thing.
So that was easy. But this one is not, mainly
because of human behavior and preconceived notions.
Paper versus plastic bags. I'm going to start off with a

(01:44):
surprising comment for you. Paper bags are terrible for the
environment. Plastic bags are terrible for
the environment. So the facetious answers here is
neither go and use your reusablebags or your basket or even a
bucket you already have. I've seen someone shopping in a
bucket in the supermarket and I thought they were genius.
But if you forget your bags, which we all do, 67% of us
forget our bags and you're at the supermarket and you're

(02:05):
having a mild breakdown as you don't want your choice of bag to
have a huge impact, then here are some things to consider.
Paper bags are worse than plastic ones if you use them
less than between 4 to 43 times.And that huge difference is
because there are so many variables and Lcas cannot
possibly consider every single one.
So that's why. And by worse I mean they use
more resources like trees, then use more water, more energy, and

(02:28):
therefore they emit more pollution and greenhouse gas
emissions than the plastic bag. The problem is though, of course
your average paper bag doesn't last as long as a plastic bag,
so you're not going to get 4 to 43 uses out of it.
Your average paper bag will lastjust three before they break.
Paper bags are often perceived as the more environmentally
friendly option because they're biodegradable and they're made
from a renewable resource. They don't choke sea turtles.

(02:49):
They're not plugging out waterways.
They're obviously the better choice, but we're only saying
this because we don't look upstream.
And plastic bags were ironicallycreated because we were chopping
so many trees down for our paperbag habit that we were
deforesting the planet faster than ever.
Now, when you look at the entirelife cycle or something, which
you should do when you want to make an informed decision,

(03:09):
things get way more complicated.Do you know we cut down 40, 2
million trees every single year just to create the 10 billion
paper bags just used in America every single year?
The production of paper bags is very resource intensive.
It's not just trees. It also requires a lot of water
and a lot of energy to produce paper.
And that is why you have your higher greenhouse gas emissions
compared to plastic bags. So plastic bags when when it

(03:31):
comes to the pre use side of thelife cycle, but let's be honest,
we're all focused on the end of life, right?
Plastic bags are not recyclable typically, or compostable, so
they do end up in waterways and animals do consume and they do
break down as microblastics thathave now been found in every
place on Earth, including our hearts and the very deepest
reaches of our oceans, where about eight people ever have

(03:53):
ever been. At least paper bags are most of
the time compostable, right? And if they get into the
environment, they're not wreaking as much havoc.
So they're better on one hand and worse on the other.
So what should you do? Well, of course, the best
option, as I've already mentioned, is to remain your
reusable bags. And if you want to know which
reusable material is actually better, I did a whole blog post
on this and I've linked that in the show notes below.

(04:15):
Because that's also complicated because, you know,
sustainability is Gray. But if you have to choose
between the two, plastic bags have a slightly lower
environmental impact when you consider the full life cycle,
but they need to be reused as much as possible before
disposal. Some places may take these for
recycling depending on where youlive so have a look at the soft
plastics recycling in Altaira. For those of you in Aussie and

(04:37):
listens further afield, look at your local councils and
governments for more info. From what I can see from those
I've talked to, sometimes these can be combined and recycled
into harder wearing things like beaches and actually fence
posts. It's not perfect because
recycling is the ambulance at the bottom of the Cliff as I
keep telling you, so do try and remember your bags, but I think
out of the two I would go for that thin flimsy plastic bag.

(05:02):
It's a hard one. It really is.
That's why the best bag is the one you already have.
I know there's going to be a lotof people who say, but I'll use
paper bags to put my compost tape.
I use paper bags for this. I use it for, I don't know,
starting my fire. Great.
If you're going to use it for a few times, then that's useful.
But if you are using your paper bag as a bag once and then
throwing on the compost tape, it's actually a really

(05:23):
significant waste of resources. Yes, you're composting it,
absolutely. But all those resources that
went into making that bag, they are not outweighed by the fact
that it's compostable. And I'm not trying to convince
you that plastic bags are a win.They are not.
They are certainly not perfect, but paper bags aren't either.
And all I'm trying to do when wehave these discussions is show
you that there is more to the idea of being sustainable or

(05:46):
having less impact than just theend of life, which is what media
and so many other people focus exclusively on.
Everything is made out of something and all of that
something that it's made out of has to come out of the
environment. We are a closed system.
There is only so much stuff and I do think we forget that.
Anyway, lecture of it. Finally.

(06:08):
One of my favorite topics is what matters more, what you eat
or where it's from. And I know a lot of people will
get this wrong wrong and there is a lot of nuance and it also
tends to engender a bit of outrage.
So yay. But this is a very nuanced
debate. And I did do a whole episode on
it last year called Sustainable Eating.
If you want to delve into it a little bit more because most
people think it's better to eat local produce and short.

(06:30):
There are plenty of benefits. It's great for local farmers.
You tend to get fresher food. You might understand more about
the animal welfare regulations versus stuff that is proofed
offshore, but the reality is food miles really only account
for 10% of a foods impact on average.
By far and away what you eat matters more.
And here's the list. Unsurprisingly by a country mile
for impact is red meat or beef and dairy.

(06:52):
The impact that the animal agriculture has in our
environment is vastly more than the carbon miles generated
transporting, say, your crackersfrom factory to your house, even
if that factory is across the other side of the world.
And I know that that feels fundamentally wrong, but it is
true. Yes, if you look at two boxes of
crackers, one of them is produced next door and one of
them is produced in, I don't know, China.

(07:15):
Yes, the one that is produced inExplore is beta.
But overall, when you look at the average diet, the choices
you are making as to what you eat have a far greater impact.
So one of the best things you can do is lessen your meat and
dairy intake. Even just giving meat free
Mondays ago makes a huge difference.
And people immediately get defensive about this and I don't
know why. Look, sciences never settled.

(07:35):
It's a silly sentence, but the science is pretty bloody
concrete. And yes, Alteredo produces some
of the least carbon intensive and the most environmentally
friendly beef and dairy, but it still doesn't make it
environmentally friendly. Look at our freshwater to see
how that's going. I'm not telling you to go
vegetarian. I'm not telling you to go vegan.
I'm simply saying, perhaps centering some of your dishes

(07:56):
around vegetables is an option not only better for the plant,
but it's vastly better for you too.
A recent Sunday came out showingthat if you eat 30 different
types of plants a week, your guthealth, and therefore your
immune system, actually your mental health, because there's a
very interesting link between those 3, will be vastly more
robust than those who just eat two or three.
Interesting, huh? Well, how many did you get

(08:17):
right? Did that match up with what you
believed? I remember when I first started
doing research into what mattered more, whether it was
eating local or what you ate. And far and away plant based
vegetarian vegan diets. Infinitely less impact.
Unfortunately, it's not a popular topic to discuss, which
is why people tend not to. Hopefully that was informative
or surprising, and I will see you next week for another

(08:38):
episode of Because Why Gilda?