Green Bean Eco-Tableware

This second post is due to an accidental New Years "evolution", which helped me realize writing might be a new outlet for me to spread ideas and action about sustainability.


The accidental part.......well, I was aimlessly shopping in Melbourne around Christmas time (very rare to shop, let alone aimlessly, and to be in Australia, let alone Melbourne).....when I was intrigued by these cones in a homewares shop (Green Bean eco-tableware), made from "sustainably grown, untreated, ethically made, Chinese white pine".


Ecopraise for their marketing, their desirability, their efforts ("not resource intensive to produce") and step away(?) from paper plates........


At the counter the assistant asked me what I was going to do with them. Not having an answer, out tumbled "I'm going to write about them for my blog". So the blog was born.


Also born was the possibility that writing might alleviate my frustration about all this environmental knowledge in my head that doesn't seem to be put to sufficient use. Jumping the gun even more - that the writing might one day be even decent enough to engage other people into spreading ideas and action about sustainability !


But back to earth, the cones. What might they actually be for? And what kind of person would pay $6.50 for 10 pieces of bark? This is the clincher for me..............Would they grace some eco-fashionista's summer BBQ table and be filled with locally-sourced prawns? And would guests feel fulfilled that they had participated in being more environmentally conscious? This is where green gets browned.


I chuckle at the notation on the back "single use" (very paper plates !) and think perhaps we might use them at home for popcorn. Yes especially when my kids friends are over and I get to play eccentric mummy and teach my kids friends about something they may call "weird". And likely we'll re-use them and re-use them as much as possible (they'll be "greenwashed" !) until they are crushed in our overflowing drawers and my husband demotes them to the compost.


But it's precisely the people in the malls in Melbourne and the kids eating popcorn that I'd love to teach about this stuff - the implications, the status of Chinese white pine ecosystems, of international shipping and of our unsustainable food consumption habits generally.


All this lumped onto a lowly bag of bark. Well, sustainability was never going to be instant gratification, but sadly, it is still too much to stomach for most people.


They are still wearing the cones on their heads.