I just got back from a wonderful vacation with my family to
St. Maarten. This is the third “warm weather” trip we’ve organized in lieu of
all gathering in Ohio. I have to say that it’s been quite the improvement.
This trip, I talked a lot about school because, well, that’s
all I’m really up to these days. We talked in depth about my team project-
analyzing the problems around disposable plastic water bottles. This would have
been a nice academic conversation had it not been for the cooler full of said
bottles that we took to the beach each day.
Before you scold me for not addressing this with them, let
me clear that up. If there’s one part of the sustainability movement that I
think is incredibly counter-productive, it’s trying to guilt people who don’t
care into changing. Such measures work on some people, but to everyone else
it’s a giant nuisance. After a while, that nuisance gets people to shut their
ears completely.
However, it was enlightening to me to talk to them about
why. It was interesting seeing what drove their behavior. And in most cases,
very sensible patterns came to light.
When someone wanted water at our rental house (where tap
water couldn’t be more convenient), I asked why grab the bottled water in the
fridge? “Well, this bottled water is colder,” came the response. Fair enough,
so I looked for a pitcher to fill for the fridge, unsuccessfully.
To the beach, where there is no source of tap water. I
filled a (reusable) water bottle, no one followed suit. To a restaurant, where
if you ask specifically for tap water, you generally get a dirty look or don’t
get the option because it’s not really ok for the to charge for it (this was
especially true in French St. Martin). Walking down the street- no option other
than bottled water. Never mind that on top of all this, any mention of tap
water usually got a response like, “tap water isn’t safe in other countries.”
(Given that St. Maarten is a giant tourist destination, I beg to differ).
It seemed like wherever I turned, the world was against me
just having tap water. So, I can’t really get all guilt-trippy with my family
when it’s so difficult. Changing behavior here is definitely going to be a
battle!
Let’s not forget that there are still plenty of problems
looming. Given the global trends for decreased freshwater supply, behavior is
going to have to change. Recently, Waterless,
makers of a waterless urinal, and the GAO report water shortage predictions all
over the place.
But, my team is up to the challenge, and there are a lot of
companies out there doing the same. As we look for companies to study, it’s
amazing to see all the possibilities out there. Of course, there are the big
bottled water supplies like Nestle, PepsiCo, CocaCola. Admittedly, none of
these companies seem completely oblivious to the problems surrounding fresh
water, but also there needs to be a behavioral change in consumers to really
get them to move.
Next up, there are bottle manufacturers like Nalgene. These
companies are interested in replacing the bottles altogether. I think the
jury’s still out on their effectiveness. How long does someone have to hang on
to one of these bottles to make it worthwhile? From a waste perspective, it may
be quite hard to have much impact.
In another direction are the filter companies like Brita.
These companies try to be the provider of premium drinking water without the
(single use) bottle. There are a lot of interesting technologies in this space,
and some really compelling company structures.
Fundamentally, the biggest way to make a change is to change
behavior. Doing so by guilt is not likely to work, and may in fact backfire.
So, we need to make the entire drinking water system more convenient for all
players. On vacation, there was an economy around just having bottled water,
including a bunch of convenience and comfort-drive consumers. How do we incentivize
all those to be less wasteful?
This is a hard question, and one that I don’t have a good
answer for. What do you think? It seems to me that there are a lot of pieces that need to be improved all at once to actually change behavior.
