Well, hello there and welcome back. My name is Stephanie Safarian and you are listening to yet another bonus episode of the Sustainable Minimalist Podcast, where I am answering a listener's question about how to best manage and handle and navigate the countless

eco contradictions that we face every single day. So this question comes from Heather. Heather wrote me an email. I'm going to go

ahead and read her email, but please note I did edit it slightly for brevity and

clarity. So here's the email. Hi Stephanie, one topic I would like

covered is all of the ways that trying to live a low impact lifestyle can

actually contradict each other. Here are three examples.

Example one. Buying mostly used clothing means a lot of polyester which can lead to

microplastics in our waterways.

But on the other hand, buying purely eco-friendly clothing

would mean buying new, which doesn't feel sustainable

since there are so many clothing items already in existence.

Example number two, eating plant-based

actually leads to more plastic sometimes because many of the items you need

like vegan butter and nutmills come packaged in plastic. An example

number three supporting small businesses leads to more plastic consumption

overall. Is it worth it to buy a completely sustainable package-free products online at a zero-way store

when you could be supporting a small or local business.

Thank you for any help you can offer, Heather.

All right, Heather, I'm going to answer your three specific questions,

but I'm more importantly hoping to leave you with

some tried and true tricks that I use in my own life

as I navigate these specific eco-contradictions that you mentioned and more.

...