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 agree, it really worries me and I’m finding myself increasingly concerned and desperate to do something substantial to help.

I try as much as possible to use reusable nappies for me children in nappies (at one point I was getting through over 70 disposable ones in a week). I buy about 90% of my children’s clothes second hand, I rarely buy clothes for myself, I recycle everything I can, don’t use energy unnecessarily and avoid beef as much as possible but there needs to be a bigger globalchange

Oh and I only use reusable sanitary products for myself after ignorantly flushing tampons for years

Oh and I only use reusable sanitary products for myself after ignorantly flushing tampons for years

People all agree with this, but what can we do about it? Shall I stop buying yoghurt just because it's in plastic pots? Shall I stop buying laundry liquid for my clothes just because it is in plastic bottles? Shall I generally not buy anything that's wrapped up in something that we throw in the bin after opening it? How is it my (average buyer's) fault? It's the big companies we should go after because it's them who make the decision how they make their goods, what materials they use and how they wrap their product up.
Here's the thing: as long as something is available cheap to customers they WILL buy it as long as they can afford it. So you know what? Make it unavailable, expensive or really hard for us. Because we all moan about consumerism and it bothers us big time yet we have to buy things to keep our lives going on, and most of these things are dirt cheap. Make it harder for us.
I was angry when they decided to charge 5 pence per plastic bags in shops. You know why? Because they should be charging 1 pound for them! Then people would think twice about buying so many of them. What the fuck is 5p for an average Joe? A drop in the ocean. Of course he will buy tonnes of it and they will eventually all end up in our oceans.

When I was a kid there were hardly any plastic bags where I am coming from. We used woven baskets and net bags for shopping and they lasted for long years. Then capitalism happened and cheap plastic bags took over and you can guess....everybody uses them now. You spoil people by giving them stuff really cheap so they will not value it. Also, you couldn't buy drinks in plastic bottles. Everything was in glass bottles. When the bottle got empty you could take it back to the shop and you got some change for it in return. Everything was beautifully recycled this way. Then capitalism set in and western companies flooded our shops with their cheap plastic bottles and other disposable goods.
But how are you going to take all these things away from people now that they are used to them?

So true Vitalogy, everyone worships at the altar of consumerism, capitalism has created so much greed and belief that happiness lies in what you own instead of what you are, I have a lack of money this Christmas so through necessity am not in the madness of it all and it now feels quite liberating to not be part of the mass buying and general frenzy, our generation might be able to keep going at this pace but I don’t know how the world will be for our kids and grandkids as a result of our greed

I ve just read the full thread.

The whale and her dead baby is heartbreaking. I do worry about the effects of plastic toxins on our own bodies, could that be part of the reason cancer and infertility seem to be on the increase??

I certainly believe that future generations will be going back into our landfill sites and recycling.
I do return my carrier bags to sainsburys and more supermarkets should be doing the same.

Things that worry me as well as single use stuff, is plastics in clothing and other fabrics put into landfill the natural fibres would eventually rot away but what about the polyester bits?

People have bulked out gift children's gift piles for years, what are selection boxes and annuals about if they aren't bulking gift piles. Nobody ever just gives those do they?

Something that bugs me is things that are difficult to recycle, for example electronic bits attached to children's books.

Maybe before things are allowed to be sold / manufactured their recycling and disposal should be considered.

Why can't all supermarkets only accept fruit and veg either loose or in egg box type cardboard trays not plastic. At least you can repulp the trays.

I am more selective about products with regards packaging; eg. buying Sainsbury's own brand pink barrelled stain remover and not Vanish; not just because of cost, but because the Vanish label takes days to soak off for the recycling and the Sainsbury's one peels off in seconds.

I try to throw away one bin bag or less of rubbish a month, recycling everything else.

I am wondering about all the stuff we, as consumers are wasting.

All the gifts that are never used, all the gadgets used once and put away and all the stuff bought to be thrown away.

There is an entire industry 'devoted' to working out the 'next big thing', producing it, making us want it and selling it to us whilst leaving us wanting more.

It's psychopathic cynical manipulation and we fall for it every time.

I subscribe to Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus who are The Minimalists

They're American, but a lot of it is very relevant.

Whenever I need a thing, I will look in charity shops first.

I did a thread last year about the plastic beads in cosmetics that wash in water systems and ingested by marine life. The manufacturers do seem to be banning them now which is good.

The other thing is banning helium filled balloons from gift shops and stopping balloon releases which are such a waste and harmful to wildlife . DH highlighted it at a scout fete and all credit to them they cancelled the balloon releases at their events which was good news.

I don't feel guilty about buying a few gifts for Christmas because I buy so little during the year.

Our carbon footprint is very low (vegetarian, no car, recycle everything, low energy consumption, never bottled water, foreign holiday every 3 years, rarely buy tat, fix everything that breaks, wear clothes for 15 years etc).

It's the cars and the animal consumption we really need to worry about, not a few selection boxes (which are great value for money).

Christmas happens one day a year, it's the 363 days we need to worry about.

Tesco don't sell 5p single use carrier bags any more. All supermarkets should follow suit. It was only 5p but it did reduce the usage by about85-90% I understand so it has made a big difference

To get rid of old clothes, if they can't be passed on to charity shops as useable clothes, ask if the shop takes rags.

There is a market for clean rags which can be shredded to make shoddy.

Cut off buttons, zips, collars etc, pass on any item that can be cut up for patches or rag rugs and the remaining shreds can by bagged up and taken to the shop labelled as "RAGS".

Round here in the West Midlands, there are proggers, craft groups and the like who are always on the look out for free, useable bits.

If things made of plastic are priced more expensive doesn't it mean even more profit for the manufacturers? Not the desired effect ...

Balloons are a criminal waste of an irreplaceable resource.

. As it is an element, it can't be manufactured and once it's gone it's gone.

It's not just animals that are going extinct.

But eventually rags will end up in landfill. Rags are also for cleaning the ends of pipe sections, mechanics also go through lots of rags but once those rags are dirty they are disposed off.

Cheaper and easier to buy new rags than to wash old rags.

Like a PP I feel I have to be careful about who I offer hand me downs to, accept them from and admit my charity shop habit to. I'm not a cheapskate, I just hate waste.

Thinking about the borrowing habit, I wonder if it's because fewer people live near a big family and friend network these days. The main advantage to me of lending and borrowing is that no everybody has to store everything when it gets used twice a year. We lent our neighbors our roofbox this summer, when I told them I needed to buy a jet washer to clean a path, they had one and insisted I should use theirs. It would be nice if people could pool resources more.

It's the big companies we should go after because it's them who make the decision how they make their goods, what materials they use and how they wrap their product up.

That's not strictly true. Next time you're in a supermarket fruit & veg section watch how many people pick up the bagged and packaged stuff, compared to how many go for the loose. I'm afraid it's us consumers who are choosing to use more packaging in that situation.

I haven't watched that Blue Planet yet. I think it might make me cry.
I've bought stainless steel straws to use at home. Had them for about three years now.
Carry my own mug around
Bought veg bags to place our fruit and veg in at the shop
Have reduced my consumption of almost every product I can
Definitely follow the make do message. Our microwave is really rusty inside - so we just spray paint it (with the correct paint) every time it looks bad and the lightbulb hasn't works for ages either.
We investigate the cost of repairing at item every single time. Our Dyson broke, dyson wouldn't repair but offered us a discount off a new one. Took it to a local shop and had it repaired for about £50. It's 14 years old at least.
I recycle as much as I can too.
So glad to see others following all these mantras.
A Mumsnet campaign would be awesome.

Yanbu. I try to buy things like books and stuff for my home in charity shops or secondhand. I wear clothes and shoes until they have holes in them. I take my own bags when I go shopping and never use plastic bags for fruit and veg.

As a child, I remember seeing cardboard boxes at supermarket checkouts but haven't seen them in supermarkets at all these days.

I moved house earlier this year and still have the cardboard boxes I moved with, I'm not going to throw them out as they are in good condition but keep them until I move again. Although I will use one to take my Christmas foodbank parcel to the foodbank on Thursday.

I only go shopping if I genuinely need to.

Ifailed yes there are loose products in supermarkets. Maybe 25 people choose the loose apples but 237 people will go for the packaged ones.

I wish I'd got on this thread earlier because I feel really strongly about this. I come from a family who are huge consumers and forever caught in a war of who has got the best stuff. it's pathetic. Cars, homes, clothes and so on. My cousin owns 700 dvds for example! And atchristmas these people can't think what on earth they want so they end up having something for the sake of it.

I've stepped away from my family for other reasons but being released from all their consumerist shit is a relief. And I find myself not caring about the fact that my paint is peeling, our microwave is nearly 20 years old and our car is ten years old and covered in scratches. Because in truth I don't care about this stuff, its not what matters.

I'm certain that the reason so many people are depressed and anxious these days can be rooted from the social media explosion.

People feel more pressured to measure up with the images of people with 'perfect' lives they are bombarded with daily. They feel they want/ need to buy into that to become more 'perfect' themselves. Hence the piles of tat and rampant consumerism.

I honestly long for a time before social media.

I think reading magazines also makes us feel we need 'more' as they are stuffed with images of skinny people leading sexy lives. For example, a Chanel ad shows a gorgeous woman in Paris. In an attempt to buy in to that fantasy, teenage girls and women will get Chanel makeup or perfumes. But the fantasy isn't real. A lipstick can't suck you in to the fantasy.

I'm a big believer in minimalism and also keep up with the Minimalists Joshua and Ryan. I can't stand having surplus shit in our house now and my wardrobe is pared down to a capsule of three pairs of jeans, three coats, four jumpers, four t shirts etc etc. I always used to get a little knot of anxiety when buying stuff because I knew that what I'd bought would lose its excitement pretty sharpish. I now love clearouts much more than buying things and have more room in my life to concentrate on what really matters.

I switched to soap, because of the paper packaging and drink mostly tap water.
I walk everywhere and buy fewer but better clothes.

I want to avoid plastic as much as possible, but how?

What a great thread! I have to admit I've become a bit obsessed with reducing the plastic we consume as a family. I've started buying milk in glass bottles for example, and when we get a takeaway at "our" Italian we take Tupperware containers. We buy all fruit and veg at the market and use our own bags.
I still use disposable nappies though - I use cloth wipes and find them such a pain to wash that I can't face cloth nappies.

I find it really difficult consuming less now that I have small children - not because of the stuff I buy, which is mostly second hand, but because they get given so much stuff. My mum is any business's dream consumer - she buys and buys and buys, lots of stuff gets thrown away uneaten/unused/after minimal use, she never repairs anything. I have tried to contain her habit of buying things for my DC, but she keeps saying I'm tight and mostly ignores me. It's so frustrating!

Many people seem to think they're doing really well because they recycle, yet have forgotten that the 3 Rs are reduce (don't buy it if you don't need it), reuse, and finally recycle (if you had to have it and it can't be reused). Recycling alone is not enough.

Piewraith I am so glad I'm not the only one that gets annoyed by people putting loose fruit and veg in a plastic bag, then putting that in another plastic bag to take it home. Why do they do it? Every time I go to the supermarket and look at what other shoppers are doing, without fail they're all wrapping stuff up that doesn't need to be. Bananas come in their own wrapping, and a couple of apples don't need to be contained in a bag FFS!

Another massive gripe I have is takeaway food and drink. I always take a packed lunch from home and a flask of drink, yet most of my colleagues buy takeaway Costa coffee, bottled water, and pre-packaged sandwiches. These are intelligent people yet for some reason none of this registers as an environmental problem.

Ooh I love social media, will look up minimalists
We're veggie, don't have a car, don't go abroad, have done, but can't see it happening in future

Re other things
I like fizzy water, add squash for DC (adopted due to overpopulation concerns which really made some people think we were certifiable but humans are a problem at this rate of growth)
Should we get a soda stream instead of buying odd bottles?

I don't use disposable sponges for cleaning, I have silicone pads and cloths from old clothes that just go in hot water for cleaning.

Someone at work buys a massive supply of aloe Vera in a block and we get our moisturiser made by her so she refills jars but we are lucky to know someone who does that

The main thing is not buying unnecessary stuff I think

A rude acquaintance recently pointed out our stereo is ancient, it is but it works!