Non-eco friendly

In the past few years I've been trying harder and harder to be conscious of our environment. I clean with non-toxic, biodegradable cleaning supplies, shampoo, conditioner, soap, etc. I try to make most of my food from scratch instead of buying processed food. I try to drive as little as possible, etc. I have, however, been working for a very non-eco friendly company.

Norpac is a fruit and vegetable processing company, which sounds great. We are a co-op owned by the growers, which is great. However, there are so many non-green things going on. For example, the vegetables and fruits are not organic in the least. I'm sure they're covered with pesticides and washed with chemicals. We ship to locations all over the country, and even sometimes to other countries outside of North America (such as Japan). The most eco-friendly way to buy produce is to buy local. Our processing plant spews smoke every once-in-a-while (not thick dark smoke like a lot of places, thankfully). For our entire ordering/shipping/invoicing process, we use TONS of paper. I'm sure I have my hands on at least 500-1,000 pieces of paper a day. Thankfully we recycle all of the paper that we don't need. I know that there are much greener ways of growing, packaging, and selling frozen and canned fruits and vegetables. I feel a little guilty for working for a company that is harming our environment, but unfortunately that's the job I have, and we can't afford for me to not work right now.

I still do buy Norpac vegetables (flav-r-pac brand) because they're the cheapest, and sometimes my thriftiness beats my eco-consciousness (actually a lot). I like to support our local economy in that way. But it would be nice if they would try a little harder. Maybe I can have some impact on my company.