The burden of going "green" to fall on women?

[Annasgirl]

I was reading a newspaper article this morning about the new zero waste eco warriors and as I read about what we all need to do I realised, as I have before, that the burden will fall on women.

Now before you all chime in and say well your problem is your DH, etc etc, surveys throughout the world have found that women do 75% of housework and think of all the wife work we all do. SO, bearing in mind we are not going to turn around the oil tanker that is the patriarchy in the next 30 years, all of the adapting to old technology and extra work that involves will fall to women and hands on men.

And as I thought more about it I realised that being a zero waste family would be difficult to achieve if you were a dual working outside the home family or a working single parent since a lot of the stuff involves added work for the person.

Now I'm not saying we should not do it, but all the worthies have ignored the fact that women will end up doing most of the heavy lifting on this - what do you all think?

As a pp said, the vast majority of damage is caused by energy production, industrial processes and industry transportation. Fucking around washing milk bottles makes a negligible difference. When the people who actually do the damage and can do something about it, take action, I might consider ways I can do more. But I'm not going to allow myself to feel guilted if I fail to put the odd yoghurt pot in the right box, not while there are still coal fired power stations operating.

I noticed an ad the other day for a McDonald’s milkshake or some such.
Paper straw there proud as all fuck but still in a plastic cup.

I wonder if McDonald’s would allow you to bring a reuseable cup in for milkshakes.

I wonder if McDonald’s would allow you to bring a reuseable cup in for milkshakes.

I should think hygiene would be an issue.

Doesn't work for drivethrus either

We have drive-thrus where you can get coffee in a reusable cup you bring. I would guess there is going to be quite a lot of rethinking of hygiene standards as many of the single use plastics are eliminated..

Interesting. Surely that would take extra time while they donned gloves, collected the cup, sterilised it(?), before making the drink- surely that's all time where the engine is running, burning fuel?

Yes, hygiene is going to take a dive.

They are already wearing gloves and they just fill ‘er up. 35c cheaper too.
No idea how they legislate it, because at work I’m not allowed to fill my soup mug with a lid directly from the tureen - I have to serve it into a bowl and then tip the contents into my mug and put the bowl on the dishwasher rack. Perhaps that’s what they do at the drive-thru makes you buy an overpriced plastic travel mug with their logo on it anyway!
Not that Canada has any rights to the moral high ground after the last two days. Declaring a climate emergency and approving the trans-mountain pipeline in essentially the same breath is the height of hypocrisy.

I hadn’t thought of the hygiene aspect of it to be honest. Although coffee shops here allow you to bring in a reuseable cup/travel mug and I’ve never seen them pour into a throw away cup first.

The one across the road from my office has filled up my proper mug before. Admittedly I’ve washed it first. But they’re happy to do it.

Am I the only one who totally misread approving the trans-mountain pipeline?

TBF, it's Canada. And this is FWR.

^But I do also think women consume far more.
In my bathroom, I have shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, hair product, two different moisturisers, spot cream, and coconut oil.
My partner has shower gel and shampoo.
I own a lot more clothes than him, and most women I know own even more than me.
I don't wear makeup much, but that would skew it even more.

I'm probably an outlier, but it's the opposite here (DP isn't particularly well groomed or anything) - he has: razor, shaving foam, shower gel, shampoo, moisturizer - all in plastic bottles. I have a bar of soap and a bar of solid shampoo, some face oil (glass bottle) and a stack of flannels, and I share a conditioner spray with my youngest. He has more clothes than me, and way more shoes and coats (trainer habit - I have a pair of plimsolls, a pair of trainers, and a pair of boots, and one padded jacket).

I do all the recycling, I do all the stuff for the kids (who have water bottles, and lunch boxes rarely with anything plastic wrapped).

I don't even consider myself particularly green, I just don't need much to get by!