For those of you familiar with the pop culture sensation, Breaking Bad – you know that even according to its creator, Vince Gilligan, “All bad things must come to an end.”

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During the first three seasons of the Breaking Bad series I was only slightly aware that the series existed. Over time, and continuously hearing “water cooler” conversation about what seemed to be some sort of obsession – I succumbed to my curiosity and experienced a weekend long marathon of this story with a cult like following.  It was quite amazing how I and so many others became so invested in the story of a chemistry teacher gone bad.  After spending hours and hours of what could be characterized as wasted time – I decided to turn what I learned into a lesson for breaking bad sustainability myths.

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Sustainability Myth #1 –Sustainability is another word for environmentally.

Sustainability is not all about the environment, it is about providing products and services that you can continue to produce or provide without the risk of depletion.  That depletion could be of money, customers, resources, and the legal ability to operate as a business or a planet to deliver services on.  A sustainable business operates taking all of these factors into consideration not just the latter.  Unfortunately, Walt’s entrepreneurial endeavor into pharmaceuticals was not legal in this country or any other – a definite red flag to the sustainability of his ‘business.’

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Sustainability Myth #2 - Free recycling is good recycling.

Pay now or we will all pay later.  “Free” recycling is not free.  See more reasons why we don't like to recycle in this blog. Someone is paying.  Either the supplier of services or the planet through bad operational practices.  For many businesses to remain “sustainable” they must cut corners.  In e-waste recycling this shows up in the form of containers of e-waste being shipped to developing countries where they provide low cost labor to extract the valuable metals from the discarded e-waste.  Despite the fact that the below video was released by CBS News in November of 2008, not much has changed in the way of the illegal dumping of e-waste.  In fact, now with the increased volume and velocity of technology consumption the problem will likely persist and continue to pollute the planet and poison the people.