Lars Anderson was the most cerebrally unique member of the club I managed in 2007 in Greenville, South Carolina. He and I chatted about world topics with baseball sprinkled in. Even then, at just 19 years of age, he had conscientiousness unfamiliar in the pro sports world. His thoughtful post comes as no surprise to me. I was proud to call him a friend then, I’m even prouder now.
“How will my actions affect the generations to come?” This question was once asked regularly, but seems to have dissolved with the passing of time. As a culture, we dipped our hands into the fountain of the quick fix and drank deep. The high road is seldom taken and convenience is at a premium. Quick and easy takes over from reusable and sustainable.
There are some places taking steps to combat this. San Francisco is the first major U.S. city to ban plastic water bottles (it also banned single-use plastic bags in 2012). This example is often drowned out by people crying “Double bag that 3 oz. tube of tooth paste for me because that’s how I’ve always done it.” We can’t be bothered with disrupting our routine – the way we’ve always done things without second thought. And there isn’t a creature on planet earth more routine oriented than a professional baseball player.
Walking through a clubhouse looks like a house of horrors for someone in Greenpeace. Faucets are left running with no one near the sink, shower heads washing nothing but the floor. Finding recycling bins? You might as well be looking for a yeti.
Professional baseball has always been a bit behind the evolutionary curve, and we celebrate this. We love the tradition, the old time feel of it. We love, especially in this era of rapid development and growth, that it stays much the same. The shadow side to this, however, is that the game and its players miss the mark on many of 21st century’s positive aims.
Players come in after their at bat, grab some hydration in the branded paper Gatorade cup and throw it on the ground. On the way back out to the field, they repeat. After 9 innings of ball, that’s 18 single use paper or plastic cups on the dugout floor awaiting their fate in some landfill, possibly disintegrating sometime in the next millennium. 18 cups multiplied by 25 players and you’ve gone through 450 cups in a single game. At 162 games, your favorite team has just burned through 72,000 cups during their season. This doesn’t include batting practice or locker room activities – just games.
It is, quite simply, excessive waste. There’s only one planet for us to live on, only one planet to sustain us. There has to be a better way to treat your keeper.
In discussing this issue with teammates, I’m often surprised by the indifference I hear in return. Many range from uninterested to utterly opposed to cutting back on wastefulness. I find it odd that a group of such dedicated, focused, intelligent individuals won’t even play with the possibility that they could do better for our world. It seems so clear cut that the world would be better off if a plastic bottle is reused rather than buried in the earth. It appears obvious that turning off the faucet or shower after use is better than leaving it running. Time and time again, I hear “it’s not my problem” or “things won’t change, so why bother?” and it passes below our collective radar.
There is some good news on the horizon, and I’ve noticed some progress this year. Many players on my team are now using stainless steel canteens for their water. Our clubhouse manager bought reusable Gatorade bottles for each player. After eight years of drinking coffee out of styrofoam cups and eating off of paper plates, I’ve finally made the adjustment of bringing in my own coffee mug and dinner plate from home (like I said, baseball guys can be slow on the uptake).
This is how I see change taking root, with small steps that can be implemented with just a small amount of effort and awareness. I’m hoping to see a few more steps, like adding ceramic plates and silverware to the pre- and post-game spreads, a recycling bin in the dugout and clubhouse and replacing the individual bottles of water with 5 gallon jugs.
Like I said before, we are creatures of habit. Once a player falls into a routine, it becomes second nature, and that is powerful. Habits create momentum. All it takes is a little conscious effort to make an impact on both our baseball world and our planet.
Thank you so much for the daily posts. This one I particular like. We as a society need to make slight changes to help preserve the world we live in. I appreciate you getting the word out on wastefulness and speaking/educating people. I see it all around us – people just being wasteful and not caring. Living in Las Vegas I worry about global warming and our water resources drying up in 20 years or so. But am I one of the few who worry about that and what the world will be like for our children? Thanks Kap – keep up the great blogs.
Appreciate you stopping by, Ryan.
I’m rooting for Lars Anderson the same way I root for guys like Andrew Ference of the Edmonton Oilers. It’s refreshing to see a professional athlete who is actually informed and cares about environmental issues.
I find Lars refreshing as well, Andrew. Thanks for chiming in.
Thanks for the post, Lars. I’m glad there are athletes out there thinking of these important issues. The letting the water run in the showers and sinks would drive me insane. What a precious resource (that we can’t get back) they’re wasting.
Good stuff, Curtis. Thank you.
Thank you Lars for sharing your thoughts. It is nice to know that some professional athletes are trying to do their part in bringing about progress and change. I’ve never understand the 99 cups in the dugout from Gatorade drinkers. We’ve tried several measures here in my laboratory but there has been a lot of resistance. When people do things the same way generation after generation, it can be really difficult to get them to see the light. One of the changes we made was getting rid of all the styrofoam in our kitchen and breakrooms in the laboratory. No cups, plates, or bowls. We have asked everyone to bring plates and cups from home and the state bought stainless steel utensils that you are to wash after use. There was some protests at first because people were worried about others using their plates and bowls but people are starting to come around.
This is one of my favorite posts thus far. Thank you Gab for posting this love.
-Kelebek
Glad you enjoyed Lars and his contribution, Kelebek. We always appreciate your thoughtful comments.
Unfortunately, as a society, many of us get caught up in how things affect us and only us as we’ve become a drive thru, disposable culture. Once inside that silo we often forget how our actions affect those around us. The continued persistence of you, Lars and the people who follow your blog will hopefully be a part of the change process we all strive for to create a more sustainable world. As always, thanks for your efforts Kap!
We’re all in this together, right? Thank you, Dave.
My cynical take on persons changing – If they can’t care enough to eat right, why would they care about any other perceived inconveniences to change other habits.
I don’t l let those feelings keep me from trying to make changes myself. I have solar panels on my house. I bag my groceries in my trunk (I’m not smart enough to bring the bags into the store). I compost….
Cute story. My 7 yr old daughter didn’t want to listen to her bedtime music because, follow this, electricity causes heat, which melts the polar cap and endangers polar bears. I explained we had the solar panels and were doing our part…. The music went back on.
Music is killing off the polar bears….what a narrative.
Great idea about the bags. I never remember to take them in.
Haha…me neither, and I never realize it till the checkout.
thanks for the post Lars/Gabe….long time/first time
This post resonates big time with me. I’m a native Mainiac and now live in the Bay Area and still am religious about watching the Sox via MLB.tv. I was watching the superb comeback tonight and they panned the dugout watching Brock Holt leaving and it was a disaster. Similar thoughts crossed my mind as to why so many plastic water bottles.
All it takes is a single person to start using a reusable water bottle….maybe Lars is the beginning of something to shock the world!
Love this, TPJ.
Another way to save on garbage is by using glass mason jars for left overs or veggies/fruits/herbs instead of plastic baggies.
Thank you Lars for this excellent post and Kap thank you for allowing him a place to voice it! An outstanding surprise! My family realized a few years ago that how we lived our lives was not a good way to live. We try to recycle everything possible. We recycle all cans, bottles, paper and cardboard. We compost for our garden, we poopost (dog waste compost) for our plants and flowers. We shred all paper and cardboard which goes to both poopost and compost as the dry portion. We also use stainless steel water containers and reusable bags.
I could go on and on however this is about the planet and what we can do to change how we live. I admit starting was not easy but keep at it and it becomes routine. We just have to keep at it.
Wow! 72000 cups! Thank you Lars and Kap for this educational post.
Always a pleasure. See you tomorrow, Duane.
Quality young man there! I see first hand on my own street the waste. I fill two recycle bins a week, we have neighbors that don’t even put one out. I often wonder if the proper things are being done with what is collected.
Andrew Francis first brought up Andrew Ference of the Edmonton Oilers (and before that the Boston Bruins). I think he would make an excellent guest contributor to this blog. You two have so much in common.