This year has seen a crest in the wave of trendy environmentalism. A video of a sea turtle crying as rescuers remove a plastic straw from his nose spread like wildfire on Facebook and Twitter, prompting Americans to take a closer look at their carbon footprints and single-use plastic habits. By and large, it is good to seek out reusable alternatives or forego creating waste entirely whenever possible, but we cannot allow ourselves to believe that the environmental integrity of our earth revolves around buying more stuff—quite the opposite, in fact.

The presented solution for the poor sea turtles is twofold: pass a law banning straws, and have everyone purchase a stainless steel or glass straw instead. Neither of these options are feasible or will entirely eliminate waste, yet zero-waste Instagram has dubbed itself the straw police, pushing a $15 metal straw everywhere from chalkboards in front of cafes to “Shark Tank.” Eliminating plastic straws is a good idea in theory, but it does not consider that the disabled and elderly may not be able to enjoy their drinks without them. If every plastic straw used by Americans in a year were put in the ocean right now, they would only account for .03 percent of plastic ocean waste.

Most of environmental scientists’ hand-wringing is in response to carbon emissions and global warming. The means of production for your stainless steel straws, reusable takeout containers, Hydroflasks, Swell bottles and essentially everything else we buy from the internet involves a massive amount of carbon output, starting with the chemical manufacturing plants and ending with the FedEx truck that brings it to your door. We are spending more and more money on products that have very little net positive impact, and corporations are happy to let us believe we are making a difference.

Lauren Singer, CEO of the Instagram-famous Package Free Shop, can fit all of her trash from the past five years into one Mason jar. Though her dedication is impressive, and it is easy to get behind the idea of completely eliminating plastic from your home in favor of wood or stainless steel, the Package Free Shop is a thinly veiled cash cow. There is nothing wrong with capitalizing on the public’s interests; in fact, it’s good economics. I also do not doubt Singer’s personal sincerity, but again, buying more stuff is not the answer to this complicated global problem.

Skipping a straw is great. Buying less and buying local is much better.
It is self-defeating to believe that there is nothing we can do for our planet or to resign ourselves to thinking that expensive reusable containers are the best and only solution. Learn to appreciate new things without having to bring them into your space. Recycle whenever you can, use your belongings for their entire service life, repair your clothes and tools to extend use and buy as little as possible. Being smart and sparring with our consumerist tendencies is our best first step toward a planet with less carbon and less trash.