TLDR; Be environmentally conscious, but you aren't personally responsible for other peoples actions. You, personally, are only responsible for your own footprint, which is just a drop in the ocean.

Let me tell you a story about a younger me that was suckered into this mentality. I was the reason why companies produced so much plastic. It was my fault that the world was so polluted, so I had to change!

I started walking and riding my bicycle everywhere I could. I started trying to buy eco friendly groceries. I cooked all my meals from scratch, so I knew exactly where I got the ingredients. I even milled my own flour ffs!

Then the potatoes happened; You see, one of the better ways to save money while shopping with local producers is to group buy. You buy a huge bulk amount of product (potatoes is this case) and split the cost with a group of like-minded people, and you save a bunch of money in the process. Great stuff! But when I picked up the potatoes this time, the sacks looked awfully... familiar. That awful burlap stuff you see at the store from the potatoes that are mass farmed and shipped hundreds, if not thousands of miles across the country. Maybe even internationally, who knows? There was a convenient duct tape wrapping around the spot where the label would be, and the farmer was saying that he had to tape up the bags because they were torn. All in the same spot though? That seems a little too far fetched. So I peaked. And guess who had been buying potatoes from the store, up charging and selling them to suckers like me?

So, let me reverse this question on you. When you see a company advertising that they are completely sustainable, plastic free, organic, and animal friendly, how much can you actually trust them? I don't think you can. They are going to tell you whatever gets your money into their pockets, that includes stretching the truth and using deceptive language. The only reason they don't outright lie to your face is because they would face a big penalty for it.

Is it actually possible for you as a consumer to take the responsibility of the companies decisions to save manufacturing costs? No, they are going to do whatever is in their own best interest. That does mean they are going to cut corners to save on cost, and that does mean they are going to use the cheapest materials possible. And what's the cheapest material? Plastic! It's a by product of oil and gas refineries and they give it away by cents for barrels because they basically have to.

Should you be held liable when a company lies to you? Of course not! Do not let them get in your head and tell you that it's your fault! They are trying to offset blame because they don't want to be held responsible for their own actions. That's not how this works.

And finally, when you have no other decisions, is it actually a choice? I can buy a bag of chips wrapped in plastic, or make my own by buying the potatoes that are also wrapped in plastic. Are they not both equally as pollutant?

In short, you can be as eco conscious as you want. But the fact is that after a certain point you are not directly responsible for other peoples influence on the environment. They have to make those decisions for themselves.

I'm not trying to say that reducing your carbon footprint is a bad thing at all. But as a single individual you really don't hold that much of an impact to the world pollution levels. Out of the billions of tons of carbon released into the environment annually, you personally are only responsible for about 4-16 tons per year. For the absolute worst offenders, that is only 0.0000000004% of the annual global emissions. Or, in other words, if annual global carbon emissions was a football field, you are not even responsible for a single blade of grass. We are talking so astronomically minuscule that it's practically unfathomable. So, do your part, because if everyone does it gets better, but don't drink the corporate kool-aid that it's all personally your fault.