Debunking the Old Green Myth

I came across this editorial in a Facebook post. So far, searches to find the original author have come up short, but versions of the parable below have appeared in social media since 2012.

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic bags are not good for the environment. The woman apologized to the young girl and explained, "We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days."

The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."

The older lady said that she was right -- our generation didn't have the 'green thing' in its day. The older lady went on to explain,
"Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the 'green thing' back in our day.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things. Most memorable besides household garbage bags was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our school books. This was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags. But, too bad we didn't do the 'green thing' back then. We walked up stairs because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks."

But she was right. We didn't have the 'green thing' in our day.

"Back then we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts. Wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing."

But that young lady is right; we didn't have the 'green thing' back in our day.

"Back then we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity."

But she's right; we didn't have the 'green thing' back then.

"We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blade in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull."

But we didn't have the 'green thing' back then.

"Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service in the family's $45,000 SUV or van, which cost what a whole house did before the 'green thing.' We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint."

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the 'green thing' back then?

Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart ass young person.

We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off... Especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced smart-ass who can't make change without the cash register.

There are a lot of things to take into account in this piece, but there are other factors at play which throws water on the old person's argument. Let's assume, for the sake of argument, the old person is around seventy years old. That would place the old person's birth at the start of the Baby Boom in 1945. Let's also assume for the same argument that the young person is around twenty years old, making the cashier a Millennial born in 1995. What the author fails to address in this parable is many of the changes that the Baby Boomer laments, and the Millennial believes violate the 'green thing', happened under the Baby Boomer's influence.

When the Baby Boomer was a child, milk delivery was still popular through the 1950s and 1960s. Soft drinks purchased in the supermarket came in glass bottles that had cash deposits, which was returned by the consumer when they brought the bottles back to the store. The transition came in the 1970s and 1980s when milk and soft drinks came in plastic bottles. When this change came about, most people accepted the change because it was more convenient. This was foreshadowed in "The Graduate" when Ben Braddock was told the future is in one word: plastics.

This change happened when Baby Boomers were in their thirties and forties, the innovators of progress for the sake of convenience.

Up until the 1980s, you could take your groceries home in paper bags. Many supermarkets still have them. Some local governments ban plastic bags outright so they don't end up in landfill, in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, or blowing around in an eddy, shot on video by the weird next door neighbor kid because he thinks it's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen. Plastic bags were viewed at the time as more convenient.

This change happened when Baby Boomers were in their thirties and forties, the innovators of progress for the sake of convenience.

Reusable cloth diapers are still available today, though they are not as ubiquitous as decades past. Disposable diapers became popular after they were introduced in the marketplace in the late 1960s. By this time, the first Baby Boomers were starting or expanding their families, so they used the disposable diapers because it was most likely convenient for them.

This change happened when Baby Boomers were in their thirties and forties, the innovators of progress for the sake of convenience.

Starting in the late 1960s, there were major demographic changes in the United States that prompted the necessity for these new conveniences. With the advent of the new interstate highway system and the ever increasing popularity of cars, many families moved from the cities and into suburban neighborhoods. This is commonly known as White Flight. Since the population of suburbs boomed in the 1960s through the 1980s, bedroom communities were separated from the businesses and facilities that were within walking distance in cities. The new normal became tract houses in subdivisions. While most schools stayed within the bedroom communities, families needed two cars to get to shopping, entertainment, and work. However, suburbanites did not bring the benefits of city public transport with them. They preferred to use commuter rail to get to their jobs in the city center while using their station wagons and eventually SUVs for everything else. Cars were preferred because personal freedom, and they eschewed public transport like buses and light rail because socialism.

This change happened when Baby Boomers were in their thirties and forties, the innovators of progress for the sake of convenience.

There were many changes in American society thanks in large part to Baby Boomers (old people) that made things convenient for everyone. But it takes the fresh eyes of Millennials (young smart-asses) and Gen Xers (who grew up during the transition) to recognize the good and bad of these changes. This way, we can improve on the good and remove the bad.