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.

It's also disgustingly cheap (which should tell you all you need to know about the quality!) and buying to last is often out of price range. I know it often is for us as a family.

Aluminium in neurofibrillary tangles - cause or effect?

There was some evidence that aluminium was found in post mortem of those involved in the Camelford contamination.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camelford_water_pollution_incident

I limit my aluminium exposure. I also limit my exposure to pthalates & bisphenolA but still use non-stick cookware & greaseproof paper despite the issue of PFAS.

From what I've seen the Al connection to Alzheimers is still suspected, but as I said upthread I haven't kept up with that particular issue.

I want a future with breathable air and pollinators that allow me to eat.

I want a world that is not 3'C hotter (which means 6'C in cities.)

I want a home that is not flooded.

I don't want wars over water and mass migration.

Economics and money are made up human ideas. We can change the rules.

Exactly. And IMO is even more likely to end up on landfill as the higher price points will likely mean that not all of it sells. Now that IS wasteful.

@WithManyTot
"The film Wall-E becomes more and more of a "fly on the wall" documentary every day."

Yers. That, and 'The Idiocracy'. I wonder if a remake of Wall-E as a non animation film would be a good idea...

Recyling/buying secondhand has finally become fashionable, which can only be a good thing. (I with they’d bring back jumble sales too). Not sure about all the hate for primark - I have clothing from there that’s lasted very well.
I’m on holiday at the moment and the latest thing seems to be shops totally devoted to the needs of dogs.

Again, unless you've inspected every piece, you can't possibly know what's there...

@Pumpkinforever Re the house 'feels better', I totally agree. I try to think of decluttering as gaining space rather than getting rid of stuff. The idea of gaining something is much more appealing than losing something. It's also good to think that somebody might need or make good use of the things I don't want.

Absolutely. Sites like Temu and Shein are a big problem.

I buy secondhand, and only when we absolutely need a particular item. Most of my furniture is antique, which is built to last. It’s a shame that modern furniture and clothes etc. aren’t built to last like they once were.

Big companies want us to keep spending, so items aren’t well made, so we keep replacing them when they break.

Stuff that lasts doesn't have to be expensive. We have 30 YO Ikea bookcases that have survived a house move and I wish they would fall apart so I could justify replacing them with some that fit better in the house we're in.

Our crockery, which MIL bought us from Argos, is of similar vintage and cost very little. But it's still fine, so obviously I can't allow myself to replace it with one of the lovely designs I see in shops, because we don't need more stuff.

I had a pair of green linen cropped summer "holiday" trousers from Primark which I wore for about a decade every holiday until they ripped beyond the point of repair. I also have a few of their cotton long sleeve t-shirts which are going strong after about 5 years. I also picked up very recently a 100% cotton short summer dress from Primark in a charity shop, the quality is pretty good and it cost me £2. I am not a slave to fashion though and I will probably keep it for several years at least.

But Primark, Zara, H&M and shitey Shein don't want you keeping things for years. Their entire business model is built around only making pennies profit per item so they need you coming back every couple of weeks to buy more and more and more. And because very few of us live in houses with endless wardrobe space, there comes a point when you can't store any more and so declutter, take 5 bags to the tip (because nobody wants second hand primark) and so the cycle starts again.

I watch 'Sort your life out' and it blows my mind.

All this crap is making people poor AND sad.

Imagine if they added up the cost of all the items binned and money wasted, plus the carbon and nature impacts.

Sostren Grene has some lovely stuff. I wanted to order some bows for my bannister for Christmas like the beautiful ones DD had bought for her tree. Unfortunately the ones I liked couldn't be purchased online and the nearest store is quite a drive away. I don't know how they made them for the price the ones my DD bought were lovely.

I thought the name indicated a Nordic/Scandinavian country as the producer but they do tell you where each product is made and it's either China or India. So I will have to learn how to make the bows myself as I'm not being responsible for transporting stuff across the ocean. Shame I can't sew😂I'll have to do without

Even when cheap clothes are made of natural fibres, they’re still made in sweatshops - that’s why they’re cheap. Basically they’re the clothing equivalent of battery chicken except it’s people who suffer instead of animals.

So just...keep on buying??

Or instead of five pairs of imported jeans you could buy one British-made one.

Not biodegradable. Recyclable (with an energy cost of course), and you may have noticed that cans are much flimsier now as manufacturers are trying to cut costs.

We’re all consumers and we can all do something about it - consume less.

Why not arrange a jumble sale? Be the change you want to see.

Thank you for sharing this outlook. I am a bit of a hoarder. ("I can use that small piece of cloth for something!" 5 years later it's still at the back of the cupboard, unused.) I find it very difficult to throw things away. This outlook changes my perspective!

This is what people seem to be having difficulty understanding. That nobody is saying consume NOTHING, but just that we need to consume LESS. And obviously it's easiest to start with the poorly made tat.

Oh, I remember jumble sales, in the church hall in the Eighties! You don't really see them anymore. I suppose people sell things online instead. The humble jumble sale!

The thing is, even with jumble sales, everything gets thrown away eventually. I keep and use most of my things, but this thread is bringing to the fore my guilt about having anything beyond the essentials, since everything will be thrown away eventually.

But hopefully recycled.

Yes I agree. I totally blame social media. People’s entire careers now is simply buying stuff to show on their page and waffle about and encourage you to buy it too. Our children are absorbing this and it’s affecting them. My daughters will tell me about something they’ve seen on kids YouTube (which I heavily limit anyway and am now thinking of blocking altogether) that they want because some child influencer is flogging it. The skincare craze for tweens, it’s all rubbish being put in their faces by kiddy influencers. Grown women are buying a dozen dresses, trying them on (presumably returning them once they’ve conned you into buying them). I’ve unfollowed people because they are always shopping and displaying the tat. Another floral midi? Because the 30 floral midis you sent now aren’t enough????

I just want it all to stop.

I think car boot sales replaced jumble sales.

Plastic recycling is very dubious. Best is to buy natural fibres, keep until they get beyond repair, and then dispose of properly so that they biodegrade.