Jacob on "Tonnage and Toxicity"

Tonnage and Toxicity Lecture

Presented By Samantha MacBride

Two Mondays ago I, along with Michelle Dent and a few other students, went to a presentation of Samantha MacBride’s thesis work entitled, “Tonnage and Toxicity.” Her lecture focused on industry’s production of the vast majority of global wastes every day. She discussed the facts that producers enjoy unregulated management of the huge amounts of nontoxic waste, there is a minute presence of scientific research into this waste and its effects, and there is even less movement historically to institute legal regulation of industrial waste. She believes these facts are the effect of America politically and socially blaming the individual consumer in matters of waste and the environment instead of the collective producers.

What I found most interesting was MacBride’s take on the “Green movement.” She believes this movement, now being advocated by all sorts of companies producing “greener” products, is designed to keep society blaming the individual consumer. She even stated that consumers are left with no choice but to waste due to the product designs producers utilize to maximize profits. The designs referred to are ones such as, the concept of “to-go” products to be used once and discarded and planned product obsolescence. She suggests meaningful change should come in the form of consumers demanding an overhaul in product design and most importantly in lobbying for legislated policy concerning industrial waste.

I agree with MacBride that consumer society is in a state of denial if it believes we can significantly reduce overall wastes at the individual level, especially when producers give us the choice between wasteful product A, B, or C. It seems in the conflict between producer and consumer, we, the consumers, should look to our government for aid. I asked MacBride if any international legislation from institutions, such as the UN or WTO, has been passed to regulate industrial wastes. She answered that only the European Union has instituted environmental laws (with a rather high level of success). Overall, I definitely enjoyed this lecture because it enlightened the audience on the one hand about a rather unknown subject, industrial waste, and on the other hand gave an alternative view on a very well know topic, the green movement. The lecture raised many important questions such as: how much power does the consumer really have? And in looking towards government for aid, how much more government security are we willing to establish for the sake of the environment’s security?