The Real Cost of Pollution (or how our econonomic status quo cooks the books)

Products like plastic are “green-washed” all the time.  We’re told that plastic bags are better for the environment than paper because plastic is lighter and costs less to transport.  What those “green-washing” arguments fail to account for is the cost at the other end of a plastic bag–after it’s used, where does it go?  What’s the true cost of manufacturing a plastic bag (made from chemicals and petroleum) vs. a paper bag (made of water and trees chopped into pulp)?  A plastic bag’s impact on the environment as pollution, clogging up waterways, littering roadsides, filling up taxpayer-funded landfills  and congesting the creatures who swallow it is considerable.  A paper bag will decompose back into the earth, leaving no trace, no environmental degradation, no costly clean up.

The Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ) has issued a series of articles that discuss how pollution can be calculated.   From disease to environmental degradation to wasting water to polluting the air, there is a cost not factored into the economics of production, consumption and pollution.

What really gnaws at Enviro Girl is not just the cost of pollution (which is considerable–go, read the link!).  It’s the fact that individuals get to profit off a system that allows them to pollute the environment while collectively everyone suffers and pays for their pollution–whether through taxpayer-funded clean up of hazardous waste or through air pollutants causing lung disease or inadequate access to clean drinking water.  Our economic system is loath to attach a real price, ignoring the cost of pollution and making much of the importance of growth and profits when totalling the “bottom line” of services and goods.  It behoves us to start calculating the cost of pollution when pricing everything from plastic bags to airline tickets.  It’s time we attach a real price that includes pollution for full disclosure and accountability.  Until we do, we’re all left holding the bill for the clean up which isn’t fair or equitable business.