A Wren Says

All of the plastic cups were found in an incinerator in Alabama. They took the journey from the recycling bin in a Massachusetts Starbucks, not to be used to make new plastic items but to be destroyed and thrown into the waste pile. The article was calling in to question the coffee chain’s practices and whether it was misleading customers to think they were doing good for the planet. The powers that be said that it is wakeup call and they need to do better. I think it is much more complicated than that.

You could easily take a moment to chastise the employees. Clearly it is on them for throwing bags into the trash can. But really, what about the consumers? What about the people who throw their half drunk Frappuccinos in the bin? What about the choices we make to turn the recycling into a garbage can? What about the choices we make that tell the stores that we don’t care, trash it anyway?

When we talk about taking care of environment, how much responsibility belongs to corporations and how much belongs to us? Do we play a bigger part than we’re letting on? And if so, what is it?

You can see the CBS video and article here.