Individual or Corporate Responsibility?

An article written for the school newspaper.

“Reduce, reuse, and recycle.” This slogan, first introduced around 1976 alongside increasing efforts to conserve the environment, has become ubiquitous in everyday life. We know to turn the tap water off while we brush our teeth and to shop local for pesticide-and-fertilizer-free produce. But recently, people have begun to question the effectiveness of these small choices, especially after a report made by the Carbon Disclosure Project revealed that 100 companies were responsible for a stunning 71% of total global emissions. What impact does the average consumer have if companies are the major contributors to climate change?

After all, it is not as if sustainable methods are accessible for every single person in the first place. The green, organic products promoted by environmental activists are often costlier due to being “all-natural,” and can often spoil faster too. Long-lasting, high-quality clothes are endorsed over their fast fashion counterparts, but the reality is that there are citizens who cannot afford to spend money on such goods which could otherwise be saved for bills. When it comes to the question of climate change, then, it seems obvious that the focus lies on pushing initiatives and the burden onto corporations rather than on sole individuals.

From mining primary resources to manufacturing final products to other countries, corporations produce millions of tons of carbon dioxide and huge masses of other waste. In the current global market, companies then need to ship products to and fro from one country to another, eventually resulting in businesses like Apple emitting 25.2 million tons of carbon dioxide in just one year—a stark contrast to the average carbon footprint of one person, which is just seven tons. In the grand scheme of things, does one can of Sprite you toss into the trashcan do much, if anything at all?

The short answer is that it does not. Chucking a bottle into recycling or smashing it on the ground to your heart’s content means nothing as an individual action, apart from perhaps feeling a bit guilty about the mini-mess you made on the floor.

But the Earth is more than just you—there are 7.8 billion versions of you on this planet, all of whom can choose to reuse or not to reuse. …And this is where the real question emerges. The question is not if you alone can create change, but instead if you can make a difference with the rest of the world—to which the answer is always yes.

Corporations do bear a large burden in the destruction that continues to ravage our planet, but to blame only them would be to scapegoat them unfairly. The statistics of individual versus corporate waste hide the fact that these companies are often fueled by consumer greed in the first place, which has resulted in them responding accordingly by producing an exorbitant number of goods. The waste in our oceans is not a problem evenly split into corporations and the individual, but a joint mess that both sides must fix immediately.

Instead of consumers pushing for ineffectual policies like paper straws, which promotes a superficial solution, consumers need to return to the original adage—to first “reduce” the products they purchase, all as a group. Unless you really need to, why use a straw in the first place? Your mouth is nature’s most eco-friendly tool at your disposal

Yes, the power of the individual is minimal. But the power of the collective, when harnessed properly, can be something more.