Most shops are just landfill waiting to happen.

[SummerDaytoNight]

I mean, all are to a point, but I’m talking about the non essential ones.

Our society is engineering its own collapse. We only need food, health, house basics and clothing. And I suppose, technology.

Fast fashion could go. Housing should just be the essentials.

My friend took me into a shop called sostrene grene. It was lovely, but nothing was essential. Most shops are like that.

The horse has bolted, but I wish we could limit the unnecessarily stuff and just have the basics. Im not talking Amish level, but there’s no need for all this waste. It would be so much better if only the essentials were produced.

At the point of production, it’s already basically landfill.

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

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

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.

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

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.

"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.

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 saw your response when I continued reading. Thank you.

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

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?

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

People need to stop buying it though.

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 🤬

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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?

Most of my frivolous expenditure in the last month has been on plants and making a wildlife pond. Hope it helps the local insect population and also amphibians.

Have you ever been to a landfill. There is stillage after stillage full of perfectly good pink plastic tat. It's enough to make you weep.

I don't trust that more expensive brands are ethically produced. Polyester in Reiss, Whistles or Hobbs is still polyester, they just have a bigger mark up on it. Some is more environmentally friendly but most doesn't say either way, so I wouldn't assume it was better.

You’re right, @jellyfishperiwinkle, but you can do some research into brands. If something is B Corp, for example, it isn’t necessarily perfect but it has been through an arduous certification process. Natural fibres from a B Corp retailer are definitely a start.

I absolutely HATE it. All the Easter crap absolutely everywhere. Ten years ago it wasn't even a thing. But I understand why parents feel obliged to get half of it. Keeping up with the Jones' and all that. Feeling their children will be the only ones without the massive haul of plastic shit. I refuse to participate, but it's easy when mine is only a toddler. I have no intention of bowing to peer pressure, but I should imagine it will become more difficult as my DC gets older, especially around Christmas.

Metal tins for hand cream, metal tubes for toothpaste, glass bottles for bubble bath, bars of soap in cardboard boxes.