Most shops are just landfill waiting to happen.

A high quality, sustainable, ethically-produced item of clothing on as new condition from Vinted sells for less than sweatshop made plastic from Primark or Shein - so why aren’t people buying them? Where does this insistence on the Right to Shite come from?

I don't know what the answer is. I'd rather have the freedom and enjoy life while we can than have to apply to the goverment whenever I want to make a purchase. I think ultimately we will get through it with technology and really there is enough going on in my everyday life that I can't say I'm too bothered about it, as it is a pointless worry, I may as well think about how to stop the tide going in and out.

Probably the people buying cheap tut in B&M are not driving massive polluting vehicles and taking dozens of flights a year.

You literally have NO evidence for that whatsoever. Buy OK.

The snobbery towards B+M is quite amusing.
If a new department store to replace BHS/Debenhams etc was launched called Billington and Mayman people would rave about it.
"Ooooh it's like John Lewis but more affordable" people would say.
Billington and Mayman is B+M 😂
It's essentially a department store - just their units are usually warehouse style rather than department store style.

I have kept stuff for best for decades just because it was the thing to do eg best cutlery set, best glasses, best dinner service …. Now I am just bringing it all into every day use. If the odd Waterford crystal glass gets broken the world will not end.

For the past couple of years I have declutterred and refuse to buy any more occasion tat for Easter/ Halloween/ Christmas/ Mothers Day etc. At one stage I had four table mat sets and god knows how many napkin designs. Loads have gone to charity and the house ‘feels better’ and more relaxing as a result. I have friends stressing out as the house is not decorated for the next season and they are struggling to store stuff. I just use foliage and flowers that I grow so I am saving money by being anti-tat especially anything that is plastic.

And this would be fine if they passed it on when they are done with it but 80% of people will bin it.

Glad they’re doing that. Hope they remember it as adults.

I agree, milk in plastic annoys the shit out of me. I have milk delivered in glass bottles, which obviously get reused rather than recycled. I never buy any foodstuffs in plastic bottles, only glass. Mainly because a relative used to work for ICI and warned me against it because of the chemicals. By also because glass and metal are biodegradable.

As for water in plastic bottles when it comes out of the tap 🤬

People need to stop buying it though.

I don't get the hate for B and M, I get my cleaning stuff in there and DIY bits such as nails, screws and have had some lovely paint too. They do sell tat too, but you could equally say John Lews and M and S do as both these shops have a lot Easter frippery on display. I am quite a magpie and am drawn to pretty but useless things. I had a massive clear out recently so now whenever I see something triggers a "ooh look at that, I don't need it but I WANT it" response I imagine trying to find a home for it in my home and then getting bored and trying to offload it

I agree, but if you stop it all at once you will fuck the economy which will have a much quicker detrimental effect on you than climate change.

Shall I do an audit of your house to see what is essential in there and tax you for purchasing unessential fripperies? Or maybe your job isn't essential to the brave new green world either?

Yes, I think this all the time. It’s soul destroying seeing so much tat around.

I saw your response when I continued reading. Thank you.

The kids had a school trip to our local recycling centre, they had some displays that took your breath away.

Our town has roughly 60,000 households. Imagine each one throwing out just one plastic milk carton a week. Imagine the space sixty thousand milk cartons take up.

Then imagine the space that 25 thousand take up... as only 35 thousand will be recycled. 25 thousand a week will go in general waste to landfill. From our town alone.

"I certainly wouldn't want to preach about anything when I'm not perfect myself."

@NursieBernard this comment makes me think of Martin Luther King Jnr's I Have A Dream speech and the Suffragette movement. Without people "preaching" things nothing would change.

I tend to agree, OP. I walked round The Range the other day, (looking for a tube of glue), and I was struck by the number of 'decor' items that people will obviously buy and then bin in three years' time when they get their living room redecorated, or whatever. The 'wine o'clock' signs will be replaced by something else. The ceramic plant holders will be in the wrong colour. And so on. I remember a friend who'd just bought her first house wanting to complete the 'look' she was after by buying absolutely everything at once and I advised her not to, because she'd be likely to find more stuff she liked over the next few years.

Should I quote my response to this specific post from well over an hour ago, since you clearly didn't see it?

Streaming services ( as i mentioned in an earlier post) are terrible too as they are constantly using power.
Whilst I have Netflix. I would accept all these streaming services being shut down for the good of the climate, but it will never happen because of the money they generate.

Well put OP. What can we do about it?
Stop buying and start thinking everything through before we make a purchase. I have started saying no to my children and when they ask why I tell them because it will end up in landfill. Using sites like vinted to buy and sell also helps.
I find a trip to the tip depressing when I see all the waste x

Same. I still use kitchen utensils and pans I bought in the 80s when I was a teenager. Plus, stuff of my nan’s.

@Mightymoog I do get stuff from.charity shops too, I got a teapot and milk jug from one!
Charity shops are getting more expensive, especially for clothes. This may then encourage people to get clothes from primark and shein rather than the greener option of a charity shop. In fact I saw a primark top for £5 in a charity shop, it was probably cheaper originally.

I'm quoting your post in case @IcedPurpledidn't see it.

It uses vast quantities of energy and water. Data centres use as much energy as Japan. https://news.mit.edu/2025/explained-generative-ai-environmental-impact-0117

It affects us though. We live together all of us on this planet. I reserve the right to judge things that harm our society and our planet. Your attempt to stop me making value judgments based on evidenced harm is equally entitled.

The shops grow to meet a demand though. I’ve bought a very sustainable cast iron casserole dish and a couple of houseplants from B&M. The casserole was like a fancy le Creuset one - at a fraction of the cost - and will be passed down to my DC, and the houseplants cost a lot less than in other stores, and are growing beautifully in my house.
I did go into Söstrene Grene when it opened near me and found that it sold a load of stuff at £££ which I could have ordered from SHEIN at a tenth of the price they were charging! But I do agree that it’s purpose as a retail establishment isn’t clear…

100%.

I heard a fella on the radio a few years ago, who’d published a book on landfill. Just tried to google it but couldn’t easily find it. He’d been given access to various landfill sites and wandered among the rubbish to see what people chucked and expected to be buried. He said the most depressing thing was the seasonal stuff: Halloween, Christmas etc. People buy stuff, throw it away and then do exactly the same the next year and think nothing of it. He said, in millennia to come, it’ll be like strata, showing the passing of the years.

I never throw anything away that can be reused, donated or sold. We’ve become so toxic to our environment that people view that as being a hoarder. There are so many people who say: “just throw it”. When my kids where little some people I knew got rid of all their baby stuff (cribs, cots, pushchairs, clothes etc etc) only to have to buy new when they had a subsequent child.

I wish people could be taken to landfill sites. I honestly think there’s a disconnect and if they could see what they expected to bury and the scale of it, they’d be appalled and never throw anything away again. As someone who doesn’t eat meat, I feel the same about factory farms and abattoirs. If most people saw where their meat comes from, and how it’s slaughtered, they’d never eat it again. But people turn a blind eye and don’t consider it.