With more and more young people turning towards sustainability and plant based alternatives for everyday products, a Redfern woman is taking it a step further in an attempt to make her smoking habits more conscionable.
“I jumped on the vaping train pretty much as soon as every other bored Inner West living millennial did post 2020 lockdown. It wasn’t long until I realised it was like, so much plastic, which doesn’t really align with my ethos,” says Danielle, a dedicated vegan and self proclaimed conversationalist of over 15 years. She recalls her choice to stop eating meat when her Year 5 teacher brought in and gutted a bream he had caught the previous weekend in front of the whole class. It was unclear whether or not it had anything to do with the curriculum at the time, or whether it was an attempt to share his hobbies with the class.
“Plastic waste accounts for 8 million tons of waste each year,” Danielle tells us “I learnt this while watching a documentary about male turtles who have been refusing to mate with female turtles because they started favouring discarded, curvy milk bottles. The females have gotten so mad scientists have observed large groups of them ganging up on old bottles of Paul’s and taking turns flipping the milk bottles onto their backs — that’s when I realised I had to make a change”.
When asked about how she’s adjusting, Danielle told us “I’m spending so much more money on cigarettes, and it tastes disgusting. But I have switched to menthols because at least then it feels like I’m smoking and brushing my teeth at the same time. I won’t lie, it’s been hard, but getting to pretend I’m a character on Mad Men whenever I want has made it all worth it”.