Sep 5, 2020. Updated: May 26, 2023.

Part of "Natural Living" series

Products

The products humans use have the aspects of health, ecology and ethics over their production, distribution, usage and disposal. Health refers to the consequences of products on human body. Ecological and ethical aspects refer to their corresponding footprints during their four stages mentioned earlier.

The thumb rule is to use products made from naturally occurring materials like parts of plants and animal, clay, rocks, metals and alloys; all raw materials used in the production of products should be naturally occurring or organic; no production processes employed should cause irreversible harm to ecology and life; and the end product must be bio-degradable.

All products wither overtime and break down into micro particles that are released to the environment. Some products, such as plastic bags, leach their constituent chemical compounds to the outside world even before withering¹. If these tiny particles and constituent elements do not bio-degrade, they first become an ecological mess, then enter the food chain and risking the health of every life form.

Although it has been found that plastics can be bio-degraded by certain bacteria, fungi and enzymes, specific environmental conditions are required for it. Nature is not such that a person can dump a plastic bag in the park or in the woods, and it is bio-degraded in a few days like a leaf. So, at this juncture, plastics are to be considered to be non-biodegradable entities.

The so called proper disposal of wastes does not solve the problem because of the impossibility of building waste management systems across the entire planet, the impracticality of ensuring that every individual conforms to the waste management practices and the non-existence of clean recycling or disposal methods of the collected wastes.

Having said that, it must be noted that modern technology has been built on synthetic materials whose properties cannot be matched by their natural counterparts. Therefore synthetic materials have a place in human lives wherever technology is present. Natural living encourages the use of natural products only when they are feasible and suit better — such as for activities humans have been doing for generations, like cooking, and for activities that have a direct association with human biology like skin care and food packaging.

The order of preference for raw materials to build natural products is: non-living materials, plants and animals. Non-living materials create a void in its place therefore extreme caution must be exercised to ensure that their consumption does not destroy the local ecology. For instance, stone quarrying and sand mining conducted irresponsibly can cause local ecological destruction. In situations where natural materials are scarce, or a healthy extraction is impossible, plant based products must be explored, after which animal based products subject to conditions discussed below and finally synthetic products.

Plant based products take priority over animal based products because of humans' kinship with animals and they must be produced using plants that grew naturally and in their natural habitat to satisfy the ecological and ethical aspects. However, plants from protected areas like jungles and forests are exempted since they serve a much a larger purpose in ecology than satisfying human needs. Plants from non-protected areas like farms must be used by not clearing the entire area of plants, but choosing them randomly so that the local ecology continues to thrive and the replenishment materialises faster.

Using plant based natural products over synthetic may seem paradoxical ecologically and morally because trees are cut and life is taken as opposed to no such losses with synthetic matter. But on digging deeper, one can find that the ecological footprint of production, disposal and recycling of synthetic products is far greater than that of hewing of trees for natural products with a reforestation plan in action.

Saving the planet from climate change is a disoriented campaign because earth does not need saving from anything but cosmic threats, in which case, all life will perish regardless of how much humans try to save it. Ecological destruction does not pose a threat to the existence of the planet; instead it poses a threat to the habitat of many organisms. What needs saving is not earth, but these habitats. And because nature is a super organism of many cohesive factors, fighting climate change by destroying other aspects of nature is stupidity. Natural products, on the long run gives habitats a chance.

About the moral side of taking lives, the number of lives endangered by the ecological destruction of synthetic materials is far greater than the number of lives taken to produce natural products. Health wise, natural products go well with human biology, but synthetic products are notorious for being carcinogenic, toxic and allergic — if not instantly, over a period of time. Every argument in favour of using synthetics over natural products can be defeated by digging deeper into the health risks, ethical and ecological footprints of synthetic products.

The truth is, every product leaves behind an ecological and moral footprint, so much so that the green product or an ethical product does not exist. What must be done is analyse the footprints of each product, and use those that is the most ecologically and ethically sound. People must use natural products with the habit of using them only when required and to the degree required instead of adopting synthetics to save animals and plants. This is the only way forward. Lifestyle systems like minimalism and joint family systems that are less materialistic and requires only fewer products must be adopted.

Animal based natural products like fur, hide, wool, etc, have an indispensable place in human lives. Some — like wool — can be obtained without killing the animal; while others — like raw hide — can only be obtained after their death. Humans have long reared animals ethically and enjoyed these useful materials. But with the advent of animal industries, the ecological and ethical footprints appeared in animal based products. Products manufactured from these industries are against the principles of natural living.

Materials like wool must be extracted only from domesticated animals that lived naturally in its natural habitat satisfying their role in ecology. Materials like hide, that can be extracted only after the death of the animal, must be extracted after the natural dead of the animal, or after it is slaughtered for food as per natural rearing.

Snake skins, elephant tusks, hides of big cats, and other animal parts can be used only if only they are collected from their natural habitat leaving the rest of the carcass to serve ecology. Practicality prevents such actions; sometimes laws² too.

Using natural products requires one to contribute to reforestation and vegetative regeneration projects, or simply plant few trees somewhere out. Though trees take time to grow, mature and offset one's footprint from natural products, such actions are a way of showing one's commitment to offsetting the footprint created. It is as though an individual has earned the privilege from nature to use natural products with these actions.

In the spree of going natural, all existing synthetic products should not be discarded for new natural products. Doing so will only generate tons of synthetic wastes and an immense demand for natural products, which the ecology cannot sustain. Natural resources can be used only at the natural rate of their growth cycle and humans must respect this. Moreover, dumping synthetic products will not actually solve anything because the ecological damage is already done when it was manufactured, transported and bought. It is advisable to use what is bought till its end of life and then buy a natural product thereafter, unless it is a product that interacts with human biology. Such products must be replaced immediately with natural products as they affect health. The longer such products are used, the more one is exposed to their health risks. They must be replaced in the order of products interacting with human biology internally (food, cooking, packing, etc.) followed by products that interact with human biology externally (cosmetics, clothing, plastic sheets, asbestos, etc.).

Examples

Here are some examples of the use of synthetic products that are against the principles of natural living.

As they age, the bristles of tooth brushes bend and break during usage. The broken pieces either find its way to the stomach, or if the mouth is rinsed properly, down the drain. They are so tiny that they cannot be collected by the existing disposal systems and therefore stay in the environment until finally ending up in our food chain.

Consider the clothing humans wear, of which, only few are made with 100% natural fibres and dyed with natural dyes. The rest, which is made purely of synthetic fibres of a combination of synthetic and natural fibres have health, ethical and ecological footprints. For instance, fibres unravel as they age and wear out. These tiny fibres which are visible to naked eyes only at close inspection, finally breaks off the clothing, depositing itself to the surrounding environment. Natural fibres will organically decompose while synthetic fibres will stay in the environment until finally breathed in or consumed through the food chain.

There are indeed benefits to synthetic fibres especially in sports, hazardous environment and fire fighting. But 99% of humans live an every day life 99% of the time, for which, natural fibres are the best materials — they are comfortable, ecologically friendly and healthier. Moreover, the use of natural materials contribute to economy at the grass roots level since such fibres are produced by farmers.

Consider the furniture and home decors most of which today are made of synthetic materials for cost effectiveness. Many confuse plywood, particle boards and block boards to be natural, but an extensive amount of synthetic glue and processes producing inorganic wastes are used to manufacture them. Natural products require you to be 100% natural — in raw materials and manufacturing processes. It is only a matter of time that inorganic wastes, the particles of synthetic wood glue and wood polishes end up in their food chain. Flame retardants are a great examples of this tendency. Scientists have found the chemicals used in the manufacture of flame retardants in oceans, ocean life and human body³.

Consider paints. After painting, the prevailing practice is to clean the paint buckets and paint brushes with water which drains back to the soil or to rivers and oceans. This is how paint contaminates environment and finally ends up in the food chain.

Consider ropes that have become stronger and cheaper with the advent of synthetic fibres such as nylon. Every rope withers overtime, and natural elements such as sun and rain accelerates this withering. Soon, the outer fibres of the ropes break, unravel, stick out and when subjected to force, they break off from the rope. If this rope was used as a cloth line, small shreds of rope fibres are visible on clothes, especially at the contact point with the rope. If such ropes are used in boats and ships, these ravellings fall into the ocean. Wherever these synthetic ravellings fall, they eventually find their way back to our food chain.

Consider plastic sacks that are made by weaving together long plastic strings in a particular pattern. They grow brittle as it gradually dries up either exposed to sunlight or by other means, until finally it unravels the weave breaking plastic strings into smaller and smaller pieces to almost plastic powder. When these sacks are used as gardening bags outside on soil, the powdered pieces mix up with the soil forming an almost inseparable mixture of mud and plastic. It is only a matter of time it lands up in the food chain.