Are older generation primarily responsible for unsustainable lifestyle, other probs?

[shootingstar]

My parents were and are sustainable....because they have been and are poor: very little fast food when I grew up and even now for them (and for myself living after moving out on my own). Not much processed foods. We didn't have a car until I was 14 yrs. old and I'm the eldest of 6. I think this memory me influenced ALOT of why I haven't lived in a household with any car for past 3 decades: it is possible to if one chooses to live in right areas with right services/infrastructure.

My mother saved and reused clean yogurt containers because she couldn't afford to buy lots of Tupperware and other storage containers. So now I adopt this habit naturally....and so does dearie who is a yogurt freak. One of many examples how she scrimped and saved money.

I sewed my own clothing until I got into cycling. Again poverty drove all of us to learn how to sew starting as mid-teenagers ...to be fashionable like our friends. I am ever grateful for this skill....which makes me a wiser consumer. I do weird stuff like save wonderful button sets before tossing out old clothing into garbage. I wear t-shirts until there are holes. Lots of clothing for Salvation Army. But I don't buy consignment store clothing....my prejudice: I grew up in a poor where there were a lot of hand-me downs in a big family. Poverty really can make a person /family sustainable. Not all poor families consume junk food (a perception that many poor people don't know how to eat healthy. How wrong.) nor makes poor buying choices/run into debt (and use pay day loan services).

No I don't garden because just ain't me. I don't feel guilty since I cook fresh foods/from scratch (because that's how my mother taught. Not because it's chic foodie thing to do.) and shop regularily at farmers' markets.

Do I compost, recycle to the nth degree? No, I'm just a tad lazy. I just do the easy stuff that doesn't require a lot of effort. Do I think about the environment when I engage in such habits? --honest: rarely. Some of it is just how I was raised as a child or just makes sense /seems healthier to me or saves money long-term. I'm lucky to be with dearie who has similar daily living habits. He also grew up poor with a mother like mine with similar practices and again, these habits become ingrained in both of our ways/way of thinking. Dearie was a cattle farmer and that adds an additional layer of awareness for him.

Sometimes I think it's the journalists that like to create catchy story headlines or consultants who want to find another spin for their clients on market share segmentation.