The Cut - I'm Tired of Being Sustainable

In 2017, Lauren Singer, better known as @trashisfortossers, posted a YouTube video in which she showed every piece of trash she had used over the past four years. It all fit into a single 16-ounce Mason jar. She was living zero-waste, which at that time — my senior year of high school — was unheard of. Or at least, well outside the mainstream.

Watching Singer go through her minimal trash was a transformative adolescent experience, like listening to the 1975 for the first time. I was in. I believed. It sent me spiraling down into a world of environmentalism I never knew existed. Thus I, in all my 18-year-old earnestness, began my journey.

Yesterday, Larry Ray was convicted on all counts related to his alleged role as a cult leader. Authorities began investigating Ray in response to this Cut article, originally published in April 2019. Scientists have found microplastics in the lungs of living humans for the first time. Ukrainian villagers say they were rounded up and used as human shields by Russian forces. A reminder that mushrooms are basically an advanced alien species with far greater capabilities than we know. Check out the winners of Smithsonian Magazine’s annual photo contest. Hailey Bieber knows you’re sick of celebrity beauty brands, but she’s launching one anyway. What’s a woman? Don’t ask Republican senators. In dressing to confront the world with the physical reality of her pregnancy so consistently, Rihanna has gone way past just making a fashion statement. And two years ago today, New York City experienced its largest single-day COVID-19 death toll increase.

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