Gen Z is sometimes hailed as the “sustainability” generation, as they are more likely to pay a premium for eco-friendly products and make purchasing decisions that incorporate personal, societal and environmental values.
According to several studies, they score impressively when it comes to environmental concerns. In a global survey conducted by international marketing firm Kadence, respondents expressed concern about the state of the planet, with 72% saying they have actively changed their behavior to reduce their environmental impact. Deloitte states that “many are actively trying to align their careers and consumer behavior with their environmental values.”
But conversations with perhaps the most passionate and environmentally active teens at one Bay Area high school reveal that the situation is far more complicated.
Members of Generation Z—those born roughly between 1997 and 2010—have grown up in a world saturated with information and convenience. Students at Woodside High School in an affluent area of San Mateo County know the dangers of plastic and fret about their inability to avoid it. But they can’t imagine a world without it, and they know they’ve become accustomed to it, perhaps to their own detriment.
“I use too much (plastic), I’m in the green club, I majored in environmental science, but I still use too much plastic. Whether it’s ordering clothes online, ordering from Amazon, getting food delivered, or going to the store and needing groceries and half of it is plastic. I try to consciously avoid buying things that have plastic in them, but I just can’t help it,” said Kayla Barfoot, a 2024 Woodside High School graduate who plans to study cognitive science at UC Berkeley this fall.
Earlier this year, the Green Environment Club held its weekly meet-up in Ann Akey’s Advanced Placement Environmental Science (APES) classroom. Represented by eight young women on the day, the group regularly participates in environmental activities, including the occasional beach clean-up, but also works to educate their peers and the community about plastics and recycling.
For example, the club formed a small “watch” committee that would hang around the trash bins during lunch breaks with the goal of helping other students decide which of three bins their trash should go in – landfill, recycling, or compost.
“So we stand there and whenever someone is about to throw out their trash, we ask, ‘Hey, do you know which bin that should go in?’ If we know, we give them a candy. If we don’t, we tell them,” said Jessica Lin, a 2024 graduate who plans to attend UC Berkeley this fall to study clinical psychology and biology.
“And it’s really powerful as a student to see other students rethink the things they’re discarding after we’ve helped and educated them. It’s also inspiring because it shows that change can happen,” she added.
Unlike previous generations, for the Green family, environmental literacy has been part of their educational experience since they started school.
“I think our generation is pretty educated in terms of recognizing that there’s an environmental crisis,” Barfoot said. But education is pointless if people don’t take action based on what they’ve learned and what they know, she added.
“When I go to the store, I want to buy fresh produce and stuff,” said Kate O’Toole, who will be entering New York University this fall to study film and television, “but I can’t do that. When I buy a pack of raspberries, I have to buy the plastic container they come in. It’s really hard to avoid plastic. Even if I tried, I can’t control what’s in my Amazon packaging – the plastic wrapping, the big boxes that have little notebooks and things like that in them.”
Her comment prompted the group to discuss the utility of plastic and its ubiquity in our lives.
“I think most of us have grown up being used to seeing plastic and plastic waste in the environment,” Lynn said. “When I was a kid, my parents used to take us to the beach, and I’d be playing and they’d say, ‘Go to that area or that area, because there isn’t as much washed up plastic there,’ or my mom would say, ‘OK, let’s pick this up.’ I think a lot of us are just used to it. It’s not like it wasn’t there and then all of a sudden it was there. It’s just been there all the time.”
The students said they have never known a world where the plants, grass and soil along highways were not covered in plastic, or an ocean where animals were not suffocated and killed by plastic.
They also don’t know about a world where you can order something from Amazon and have it delivered to your door the next day. Scroll through TikTok shops, Lin says. “That’s addictive enough, but there are also ads offering to buy super cheap things that will be delivered straight to your door.”
Indeed, price and convenience weigh heavily on the minds of many young consumers: A recent survey reported that “the current cost-of-living crisis (and that giant inflation demon shows no sign of stopping) is reducing Gen Z’s willingness to purchase sustainable products,” which “often come with a price premium.”
Of course, these reports ignore the fact that while some people may have the opportunity to make such decisions, many others do not, and they are often the ones most likely to feel and suffer the effects of climate change. And marginalized groups are reported to be more severely affected by heatwaves, extreme weather, wildfires, labor unrest, and environmental degradation.
Lin acknowledges some of the challenges of being a consumer in 2024. “Convenience is powerful and people tell themselves that when they receive a product packaged in plastic they can recycle it, but in reality they can’t. But they tell themselves they can, they throw it in the recycling bin and just walk right past it,” she said.
Barfoot agreed, saying it’s one of the things her generation perfected: segregation.
“I know plastic is bad, and I try to look for alternatives when I have a choice,” she says, but she can’t resist the instant gratification of Amazon and TikTok.
The Green Party says businesses and politicians must do more. “So no matter how many people go vegan or stop eating beef, millions of pieces of litter will continue to be dumped into the ocean by companies,” Mr Barfoot said.
“At the end of the day, plastic is here to stay because it’s convenient, but we’re going to soon realize how inconvenient it actually is,” Barfoot said. “In 20 years’ time, when we’re all literally part plastic,” people might have second thoughts.
And Barfoot and her classmates placed all the blame on the older generation.
“I’m growing up in this world that I didn’t create, and I feel like there’s a certain gap, and it seems like older generations expect us to fix it, but I think it’s their responsibility to do their part to bridge that gap and make this world a better place to live for us and our children in the future,” she said.
The government also needs to give people the opportunity to choose alternative, plastic-free lifestyles, some Green Party members said.
“I think there are some really good ideas out there for sustainability,” Lin says, “but in our society and in our current economic environment, it’s not always possible to achieve them. Living sustainably costs money, and it shouldn’t have to be.”
Perhaps chief executives and government officials would understand more, they say, if they sorted their own trash and looked at all the unnecessary waste that comes with single-use Starbucks cups and energy shots.
“Empathy and compassion allow you to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, and even your children’s and grandchildren’s shoes,” Lin said. “You have to think differently.”
