To be bothered by how much we consume as a society...

[Cakelesswonder]

Don't get me wrong I love a retail therapy session but today just felt utterly gluttonous in the amount of ads for Black Friday, the 'deals, I couldn't move for emails offering me 20% off lots of things I don't need. I'm not suggesting everyone knits their own yogurt and lives like Mormons but I really feel we don't have the resources on Earth to keep consuming, throwing and consuming like we do. Everything is disposable, straws, clothes, we buy water in bottles then throw them away polluting the oceans and planet for ourselves and future generations. I have no idea what the overall solution is but it really got to me today .

I'm with you. We are killing our planet. I try to only buy essentials (not easy to work out what is essential though). The unnecessary packaging everything comes on really bothers me.

The sheer volume of plastic tat I see every day actually depresses me. Someone designs it, a factory churns it out, its shipped halfway across the world, & it ends up in a landfill site.

This has been playing on my mind too, more than usual after watching that Blue Planet episode.

I’m just as guilty as anyone else. I’m trying to reduce, reuse and recycle but it feels quite futile.

Even me, who isn't that bothered by such stuff, is horrified by how much plastic packing comes in my deliveries, my normal Sainsbury's shop. Terrible.

You're so right about the packaging! It's so frustrating buying fruit and veg that's in a plastic tray then wrapped in plastic. It's definitely been a post WWII/rationing phenomenon where we have placed the onus on convenience at the expense of everything else and society has been geared to spend spend spend. Doesn't help as well that manufactures make products so they fall apart so we have to buy more

Often when I’m in a shop I wonder if every item in there will eventually end up in landfill somewhere.

Then I think about all the shops and just the sheer volume of disposable stuff. Clothes, electronics, toys.

Where does it all go. How can there possibly be space on the planet for so much stuff?

I find it appalling too, but the absolute worst thing you can do to the planet, by far is have a kid.

Absolutely with you.
It's so depressing and only getting worse.

Agree. Black Friday is horribly vulgar.

Hate Black Friday.
Remember watching it on Mat Leave in 2014 and everyone trampling over each other to get a tv and their was kids in the line.
It just felt so ugly.

"There" 😳

well some of those things, disposable especially have an undeniable utility value but there there are things that are completely pointless like all the packaging that comes around fruit-I really doubt that my avodcado is going to get cold. Or when you order sonething online and it comes is a massive box that is mostly filled with packaging materials-it just annoys me.

I read recently that if everyone on the planet consumed as much as the average American, we'd need 9 planets to sustain it. If we all consumed as much as the average Parisian, we'd need 3 planets. Not sure how they worked it out and where we fit in here in the UK, but it seems very obvious that our current lifestyle is unsustainable.

I'm really trying to reduce, reuse, recycle - with the emphasis on the reduce.

It does seem like the plastic message is starting to get through, I'm hoping 2018 will be the year where the message really takes off

I bloody hate it, especially because it’s really tricky to avoid. A package less shop has just opened in my town which helps assuage my guilt slightly. I do wonder how muc packaging they actually get through before they stick it in all the enormous Kilner jars that make it feel like you’re doing a good thing when you turn up with all your Tupperware.

Agree and strangely I was thinking about this driving home. I was driving past a place that used to service and fix my dads lawn mower. The place, of course, has closed down.

I was thinking how no one repairs anything anymore, we all just buy again (me included!).

Stuff has become so much cheaper to buy and replace than to make and mend.

I recycle as much as I can, wear my clothes until they have holes in them and manage to convince myself that everything I buy I do really need, but in reality, I’m probably as guilty as everybody else.

I do wonder when we will hit ‘crisis point’ but what does that even look like?

Yanbu.

I think the plastic message is starting to get through, I think Wetherspoons are banning plastic straws from January which is brilliant as they really are so pointless.

I am trying as well to reduce what I buy, use reusable items, buy second hand clothes and not waste what I already have but it does feel like a drop in the ocean. Then again if we all do something, we'll be going someway to reverse the tide.

It's such a shame that things have become so cheap we think nothing of replacing them (guilty as charged). I've found these blogs a really excellent read if anyone is interested: www.paris-to-go.com and www.therogueginger.com. Lots of good ideas to reduce waste a bit and I like that they acknowledge that most people will struggle to go as far as them but every bit helps.

I feel the same way. I hate going into Poundland and the like because the sheer amount of landfill crap in there upsets me. What's the endpoint of all this consumption? This question keeps me awake at night. I worry for the next generation and what sort of planet they will be left with.

A package less shop has just opened in my town

These used to be really popular in the 80's, our local ones were called weigh and save. One is opening up in my nearest city. I'd happily use one again if one opening nearer.

I'm becoming more mindful of waste. But it's frustrating as our Council sent a letter out reminding people to rinse out their recyclable containers as they can't recycle them if they are dirty. If an open or leaking container is in the bin, the whole recycling bin is treated as normal waste. You walk down our road and you can see all the food crusted jars and empty drinks cans and random food in.

I thought they rinsed it out before recycling but apparently not.

I also hate my Mom's attitude. She thinks I will be long gone by the time any significant environmental impact has happened so why do I worry. She also thinks global warming is made up as it's never warm in this country

YANBU. I feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of 'stuff' in the big chain stores and supermarkets which can't possibly all get sold, despite all the shopping frenzy at this time of year. I hate all the unnecessary waste. I frequently worry about what will happen when all earth's resources are used. Will we be digging stuff up from landfill and trying to reuse it in 100 years time?

Bit off topic but I recently asked a Mum pal on my whatsap chat for a loan of a Xmas jumper for a do (she has lots) and I felt like a bit of a cheapskate, however also felt there is so little borrowing from others nowadays- it’s not just the plastic but the mountains of clothes that are so cheaply made they’re no use for charity shops or resale.

Agree entirely. There's only two of us at home (me and DS) but I get a veg box because at least everything isn't wrapped in plastic, the boxes are reusable, and I am in a city where the scheme is already doing a bunch of deliveries, so the transport extra isn't high. And if I do buy fruit and veg in the supermarket I will buy it loose, if I can, and just put it in the basket, not in a plastic bag first.

I get overwhelmed and depressed looking at so much stuff forever on sale. I like stuff but there's a limit, and most of us have long since reached it.

I agree. The amount of plastic! The amount of shit! I shop in charity shops mainly, and the amount of tat in there that will end up in landfill....

Also, the fact this is fucking celebrated. The fact that kids idols aren't Nobel Prize winners, but some vacuous teen showing off their "latest haul" and celebs showing off their 40 Chanel handbags. Ugh.

It's so nice to know there are so many of you that feel the same.

I was reading earlier about an orca that was accidentally caught up in a fishing net off the coast of Scotland and when tested, she had the highest levels of PCB (a toxin from plastic) ever recorded off the coast of the UK. It's speculated that because it's a known endocrine disruptor it had made her infertile and there was no evidence she had ever given birth which for an orca of her age is very unusual. I found that a very hard piece of information to hear and I cannot believe what we've done to the planet.

loveablether I don't think it's off topic at all it's a really good point. I am trying to replace clothes with secondhand/ethically made options because I am no longer comfortable buying tonnes of things from Primark and similar as they just break and I can't believe the people making them have decent working conditions. I just bought some Ralph Lauren jeans from Ebay for £10 which is what I used to pay in Primark for a pair but these will last longer and I am taking someone elses cast offs so they don't go to landfill. Win win for me