My fiancee and I are having a green wedding. That means that we’re making conscious choices about the environmental impacts of every wedding-related decision we make, including what we provide to our guests. We decided not to provide soft drinks, but rather to provide a selection of healthier, organic juices. We went to the grocery store and found ourselves in a classic environmental dilemma, much like the ketchup bottle situation that Rick Smith found himself in when writing Slow Death by Rubber Duck. On one side, we found Santa Cruz Organic juices, a product of California and packaged in a glass bottle. On the other hand, we found Kiju Organic juices, a local Ontario product, packaged in a Tetra Pak container. Both products were the same price for roughly the same volume of juice, so there was no financial aspect to the decision. A glass bottle is more sustainable than a Tetra Pak, but a local product means it didn’t travel as far – if only there was a local product in a glass bottle! But alas, this is the classic environmental dilemma – more often than not, when trying to be environmentally responsible, you are faced not with an ideal choice, but with having to choose the lesser of two evils.
Tetra Pak – The Environmental Dilemma
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Firstly, many apologies to those who checked in this week and didn’t find a new post on Monday or Tuesday – it was partly due to the long weekend and partly due to the busyness of life. In fact, life seems so busy that I’m beginning to wonder if its negatively affecting me. I’m usually an exceedingly patient person – I’ve been told as much by many of my friends and family. But these days, it seems like my patience is waning. Is it a side-effect of life, or are we just becoming a less patient, more impersonal, rush-rush society? I’m not really sure but allow me to share a personal story to illustrate this…
As people find increasing opportunities to be frugal, I hear more and more stories about people who advocate price shopping when it comes time to buy anything. What do I mean by price shopping? I mean shopping at the place that offers the product you want at the lowest price. In some cases, where you are making a one-time purchase such as an electronic device, this can make sense. But, in the case of buying groceries, going to multiple grocery stores to take advantage of sales on different items is a complete waste of time and resources.