Written By:

Bringing Back the Milk Man and Returnable Containers: The Loopstore

In general Ecozoans tend toward deep ecology. Deep ecology stresses the inherent worth of all living beings and the need to reduce human impact on other species. Deep ecologists favor “down-scaling”:

The [principles of deep ecology] can be reduced to three simple propositions:

  • Wilderness and biodiversity preservation
  • Human population control
  • Simple living (or treading lightly on the planet)[1]

They are suspicious of green initiatives of large corporations.

What about this initiative announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 24, 2019? The Loopstore—end recycling, buy products in reusable containers, and have the empty containers picked up in the same way.

This project was developed by Terracycleand now has these partners:

Is the good the enemy of the best? Or is the best the enemy of the good?

My view is that we should celebrate the better. It took a billion steps to get us in the fix we are in and it will take a billion steps to get us out. I’ve “reserved my spot” for when the store opens.

[1]John Barry; E. Gene Frankland, International Encyclopedia of Environmental Politics(Routledge 2002), 161. quoted in Wikipedia contributors, “Deep ecology,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia,

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Deep_ecology&oldid=882901076 (accessed February 24, 2019).