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The guy at the library who called me out for printing my notes double-sided
Last Tuesday I was at the public library in Salem printing out a stack of study guides for my environmental science class. I always print double-sided to save paper (obviously) but this older gentleman came up to me while I was waiting and said "you know that doesn't actually help if you're using virgin paper, right?" He pointed out that the library's printer uses standard copy paper that isn't recycled, and my double-sided printing was barely making a dent compared to the energy used by the machine itself. We ended up talking for 20 minutes about how small individual actions (like my printing habit) can feel good but might distract from bigger system changes we need. I felt kind of dumb honestly, but he was nice about it. Has anyone else had a moment where someone pointed out a blind spot in your eco-friendly habits?
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aliceharris3d ago
Kind of a refreshing reality check honestly, makes you wonder what other small habits we're all doing that don't actually matter as much as we think they do.
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sagejackson3d ago
That one about spending 15 minutes every morning making your bed so you 'start the day with a win' always felt forced to me. Do people really feel a major difference from that, or is it just something we tell ourselves to feel productive? I wonder if we'd be better off just focusing on the few things that actually move the needle instead of filling our days with tiny rituals.
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shane_wilson3d ago
@aliceharris still think small habits matter even if they aren't perfect, just maybe not in the way we tell ourselves.
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