Most shops are just landfill waiting to happen.

I don't think it's more frustrating. A large proportion of what we recycle will end up exported and mismanaged. I'm very much environmentally minded but I don't recycle most plastics because I'd rather they ended up in our landfills than polluting a beach somewhere, poisoning marine life with plastic nanoparticles, or poisoning lungs with toxic fumes.

Anything with batteries shouldn't be put into household waste of course, but electronics recycling is another con. It's another thing that's exported, any valuable parts are stripped and then what's left will be dumped and left to pollute the environment.

What I find hard to get my head around is just how many variations of the same thing there are now. Why are there so many brands of shampoo or makeup for instance, with new companies trying to break into the market constantly? Is it because of the internet? There used to be much less choice which personally I found a lot less stressful.

To go further, it's about buying 4 pairs of £10 shoes, of which one pair is worn twice and the others are never worn at all. Then throwing them away because they're cluttering up the wardrobe, and the next season doing it again.

And it's also about the overproduction that keeps this going - as someone else has said, a significant quantity of new clothing is destroyed. There was a story a few years ago about Burberry incinerating leftover stock. This is brand new, unworn, unsold, all perfectly usable, chucked on a bonfire to make room for a new batch of almost identical stuff, a chunk of which is also destined for the bonfire.

Yes, and Autumn decorations too. It's like the retailers have realised we've reached peak Christmas in terms of the annual volume people will buy and so are expanding into other seasons too.

Agree I've noticed there's a lot more Easter tat than there used to be. I hate those plastic eggs that most likely won't be used again and can't be recycled. Hate all the mothers day tat.

That fecking Jeff bezos, hoarding all the wealth while the rest of the world drowns in plastic rubbish shipped out in his name 🤬👎🏻

I agree.
I do what I can but have a constant battle with DH who whenever he cant find something in 30 seconds will say "I'll just order another one from amazon, it will only be a few quid"....

There's a lot of truth there, but that's not what the thread is about. It's not (to use one of your examples) about one pair of £40 shoes that are less good quality than the expensive pair, but about the person buying 4 pairs of £10 shoes that are even worse quality.

And people buying seasonal cushion covers, plastic ornaments and pet accessories from B&M are not in "survival mode".

personally, I care not how much something is or whetehr some would view it as tat or as classy.
I think there is just too much stuff being manufactured full stop.
if you buy christmas cushions for £4.50 each or £45 each they are still unnecessary, using energy, and creating a disposal problem

I'm in my early 60's, so grew up in a time when there was much less plastic tat than there is now. We also had far fewer clothes and furnishings were only changed when they wore out. Whilst I do despair at the amount of crap people buy and the fashion for constantly changing colour schemes, I equally appreciate that it all keeps people in jobs (retail and delivery - as most of the manufacturing is not in this country).
I think it applies equally to the food industry. So much choice that we never had when i was young and most of it highly processed and not good for our health. Would people really suffer if ice cream only came in vanilla, strawberry and chocolate as it did when I was a child? I doubt it. In fact there are far too many choices to be made in every aspect of shopping now which only serves to stress people out as far as I can see, before you even get onto the waste of cheap disposable tat and it's packaging.

Up to 30% of clothing manufactured apparently goes to landfill without being sold. This giant clothing landfill is visible from space, appalling if all true.

vm.tiktok.com/ZNdFRbL5u/

There is a massive human cost to leveraging cheap manufacturing (poor working conditions) too.

Absolutely nailed it. We have a new ‘The Range’ open, the people shopping there are not shopping at John Lewis, why shouldn’t they be allowed to decorate their homes. I have very ecliptic taste so most items on sale don’t interest me I’d rather go around auction houses or charity shops but that suits me not everyone. Allow other people joy to decorate as they want.

what did you actually buy.
maybe it will help with the WHY you are buying it?
( and I'm nosy!)

The big question is……how many times can the word tat be used in this thread…..

I think since Covid, I've made a concerted effort not to buy for the sake of buying and am applying that principle across my life.

Sitting in my lounge and looking at the furniture and soft furnishings I can only see a handful of items which we have bought brand new since DH and I moved in together 15 years ago. I like neutral tones, everything blends, and actually the overall look is one of a cosy Nancy Myers aesthetic before that was even a "thing".

I don't want to be surrounded by seasonal throws, mugs and cushions, anything I do buy (and only when I absolutely need to) is bought because it has been considered not to just fulfil a want.

Planetary resources are finite - so I do my bit.

You'll also avoid the potential for BPA if you use a metal bottle, though opt for stainless steel rather than aluminium.

Fast fashion makes big profits.
Big profits give you the power to lobby governments so that laws are made in your favor and you can continue to make big profits by destroying the planet and exploiting the poor.

I completely agree. What's even more frustrating is poor recycling awareness, habits or people just not caring. We live in a flat so have shared waste disposal and the level of cross contamination is shocking. People chuck food waste in with recycling or small electrical items just chucked in the rubbish.

Sostrene sells a lot of craft material so I’m not sure it applies.

Fast fashion is an absolute disease and really should stop, though. We just don’t need these many clothes and most of them are poor quality as it is.

Yep . I agree. I avoid buying plastic tat but our house is full of tat from birthday party bags.
It's everywhere and it is shocking.

I think one problem is that being frugal and economical takes discipline and planning. The more stressed and under pressure you are the harder it is to have the mental energy for discipline and planning.
Broadly speaking those with the least money are the most stressed and therefore the least able to be frugal and economical.

Yes! One of these days (hopefully a way into the future) someone will go through my things and bin 99%. I have no children, no relatives who would want my stuff so I have figured its best to stop the accumulation and slowly declutter. Its a liberating realisation.

Completely agree. Hate seeing the seasonal things binned so often. Saw it first in the US - Halloween bagged up and waiting for the rubbish truck. Then in the UK after Christmas - plastic trees with their lights still attached waiting for the rubbish truck. Also the sheer plasticness of it all.

Fast fashion was deeply concerning 25 years ago. How there haven’t been brakes applied is a political disgrace.

Capitalism thrives on selling solutions to "problems". Once all the "problems" are solved, to sustain the system, we have to be introduced to new, invented problems and convinced that buying their solutions is a good thing
Very well said @MistressoftheDarkSide 👏🏻😁

Wouldn’t bother me if those shops were banned. But that ain’t gonna happen. But as I said earlier it pisses me off that they are talking about banning the wet wipes that make the difficult task of wiping bums easier but allowing this kind of tat to be merrily sold. Again, perhaps a false dichotomy but it really does show you where society’s priorities lie.