The concerns about microplastics in our food supplies have reached a fever pitch. This is certainly going to result in a funding frenzy … after all, scientists and researchers always follow a crisis with the need to study.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/20/well/microplastics-health-risks.html?unlocked_article_code=1.JU8.zeHz.8-0oblTRtZGk&smid=url-share
But, what about doing the obvious and simpler things: stop using plastic and return to paper? Of course, as the article points out, the damage is already done, so we need remediation and a better understanding of what these particles are doing to our health.
But we also need to stop adding to the problems. Then, let’s rewind the clock and look at what we did before we had all these plastics in our lives. I fondly remember the milkman who would deliver fresh glass bottles of milk and take the empties back to the farm. I remember covering my textbooks with the paper bags we took home from the grocery.
My kids would make facemasks, and we would use paper mâché to create all kinds of things from used wire hangers, newspapers, and paper bags. The idea of single-use came out of marketing modern plastics, and this needs to stop.
Convenience almost always shirks some level of responsibility, yet we seem to be barreling forward on this path with little to no regard for more sustainable answers. Electric utilities seem to have given up on time-based pricing that aligned with least-cost planning and have also relinquished their relationships to consumers to free market actors on fundamentals like energy efficiency and conservation.
Remember when energy utilities did in home energy audits? Customers loved them, and they created the opportunity for a partnership in EE and DR which many utilities developed over time. But, just when it appeared timely to expand these relationships, the industry abandoned just about everything to reduce costs and improve earnings in the short run.
Yes, there may be challenges with EVs, solar, and wind, but the best kWh and therm is the one that you didn’t use. Doing the right thing never goes out of style, even when doing the wrong thing may make you more money.
Look clearly in the mirror, my energy utility friends: Have you given up on doing the right thing for your energy consumers?
Really enjoyed this. Such a refreshing mix of common sense and personal reflection. The part about the milkman and paper bag-covered textbooks brought back memories I didn’t even realize I had. It’s wild how much we’ve shifted away from those small, sustainable habits that actually worked.
I especially loved the connection you made between convenience culture and how it’s seeped into everything, even utilities. You clearly have a lot of insight there. I would love to read more of your thoughts on how energy companies could shift back toward that kind of responsibility if they wanted to. Seems like a topic you could go deep on.
Thanks Katya
I spent about 40 years of my professional career in this area and it is sad … and a bit tragic … that the industry has drifted away from these basics.
That is the basic reason I started writing these blogs over 10 years ago.