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.

Components for lots of today’s essentials are made in China.

YANBU. It’s just depressing. We’ve know about climate issues for decades (I remember learning about global warming in the 1990s) and here we are wasting energy and resources more than ever. The focus on continued ‘growth’ is just leading to more and more unnecessary stuff, it’s all so futile.

I bet most of these people who change their Xmas decs every year, replace both their matching toaster and kettle when just one of them broke, summer scatter cushions etc don't take the working/good condition stuff to the charity shop. They either tip it or worse, fly tip it.

Some of these fast fashion/SM trends are just too chavvy. Matching PJs at Xmas, decorate half the bed with cushions. A friend badly twisted her ankle from tripping over the cushions she threw onto the floor to get into bed. She got up in the middle of the night to use the loo. She got rid them all after that.

Would be great if more people embraced mending and repairing. There are a few "repair cafes" in my city where you can take along electricals which aren't working or clothing which needs to be adjusted which is a great concept. But it involves EFFORT and many just prefer to chuck something away and get a shiny new one.

The trend for matchy matchy christmas "schemes" which have to be a certain colour(s) is crazy and definitely a social media thing.

Our library has an electrical drop off point so at least broken stuff can be recycled

my kettle broke but I still have the matching toaster itms

maybe people buy all this because they can’t afford the bigger things and it cheers them up

Agree with all of this.

But most people look at you as though you have sprouted an extra head if you say so.

If we really need something these days, we try to purchase second hand.

Interesting how the judgement and classicism can't be escaped, which is also part of propaganda and marketing.

I'm honestly really fascinated by it. We start with the subject of mass production, and the fact that it's out of control, bad for the environment etc. It's tied into "progress" because for the last 100 years or so, technology has kept advancing, so we have new "essentials" with practically limitless scope for upgrades. Plus, old essentials such as fridges, cookers, etc are being tied into the tech so before long, we'll have an illusion of choice but will we really be able to find a fridge that doesn't answer back or prompt you to buy kale?

In terms of the "non-essential" but nice to have stuff, as humans we all mostly want a comfortable nest or den. Whether we're buying from John Lewis or B&M we're meeting a natural urge that is ripe for exploitation in very sophisticated ways.

So we can take more "individual responsibility" and make more sustainable choices such as "pre-loved", and that's brilliant, but then suddenly, the market gets a whiff of another orofit stream to grow and exploit, and there's an app for that (which feeds into the whole tech being bad for the environment anyway thing), so even making those choices is theoretically good, but practically there are issues behind that too.

Who drives the demand for the tat indeed? I'm not sure entirely, but I don't think it's actually us at the consumer end. Most of us don't wake up one day and say "You know what would make my life complete? A special giant sized water cup with heat controls that come in a variety of styles and I'll need them all because there's a whole fun community for that." But these trends etc are shoved in the faces of certain age groups and demographics thanks to algorithms and smart phones, and while my generation (56) rolls our eyes and scroll on by, it's because in my case I can hear my Mother saying "and if all you friends jumped off a cliff, would you?" When I would whine for the trendy thing of my era that she couldn't afford / didn't approve of.

Sorry this has turned into a bit of a ramble. This is such a complex subject really. The solutions could be simple, but I think the economic fall out would never be allowed.

Following SM trends is sad and chavvy.

Problem is that most electrical items are sealed. I remember my parents bought an element for their Russell Hobbs kettle in the 80s as could be removed from unscrewing screws on the outside and it slid out of the hole. Now the element is sealed at the bottom. I don’t think you could buy kettles with exposed elements for the past 25 years.

One of the kettles I had, the thing that keeps the switch on broke. So had to keep finger on the switch in order to boil water! When kettle boils, you do other things. Such as breakfast - get mugs, tea/coffee out, put bread in the toaster, pour cereal into a bowl etc. I wasn’t able to do these. It hurt my finger. I doubt that piece would have been repaired

My dad used to go on about plastic tat and mindless consumerism all the time, until my sister pointed out his collection of CDs - 400+ of them, in plastic cases, in specially bought racks. Alongside were the VHS tapes and DVDs (never got to bluray). And 2 different hobby magazines every month.

So it's definitely not a new thing. Just that music, film, mags, books can be got online now, so maybe the "collector" habit has moved to other "stuff".

Humans have produced art and music for thousands of years. I think it is very much necessary as it is a way of communicating.

Probably because they're depressed and want to cheer themselves up!!?

Yes - charity shops have become far too expensive and they charge £5 for t-shirts that were probably £2 originally.

I buy things like non-fiction books, ceramic pots for my plants and art frames and some of the prices for these are also increasing hugely. Used to be 50p - £1 now £3.00 upwards.

Just watched this. It's very interesting - but people just don't want to hear it.

If you look at price and demand just on economic level it’s the effective way to lower demand.

Would people want higher prices though? Look at US tariffs and the reaction to those. If it came to it would people want tariffs on Chinese goods here? I’m
not sure they would, but perhaps given this thread.

Or maybe it costs too much for repairs in some cases ? I got two pairs of shoes re-soled and re-heeled recently (loafers) and they cost almost £50 each. For some, the original cost of the shoes wouldn’t have been that much. These shoes were Russell & Bromley, so were expensive enough but I’ve had them for three years and I did hesitate before agreeing to the price.

The problem underlying this is that most of what we have now is so cheap (and cheaply made) that it's not worth trying to repair it. We're funneled towards throwing away and replacing. A lot of things have built in obsolescence and are made to fail after a limited number of uses. Lightbulbs are a prime example of this. It's possible to make lightbulbs that last for years, but obviously that limits how many people buy. So the light bulb manufacturers made the decision to make the filaments thinner, so they would burn out sooner, and people would have to replace/buy more often.

Look at DeBeers, peddling the notion that an engagement ring should cost 3 months wages as they control the diamond market by limiting how many stones are released for sale. Diamonds aren't rare. And diamonds don't hold their value, either. Second hand value is a fraction of the original cost.

It's a massive problem for charity shops because they have to deal with thousands of tons of cheap clothing that has no resale value. People give themselves a pat on the back and tell themselves it's not waste because it went to a charity shop. But Primark/new look/H&M and Shein clothing is worth nothing because it was cheap rubbish to begin with. It is put on cargo ships and taken to countries in Africa and added to their landfill, because they don't want our cheap second hand crap either.

We are manufacturing far too much and throwing most of it away unused, with a constant race to the bottom to see who can produce the cheapest, and we are told that the solution to every problem is to buy more. And we've got used to having too much.

I think we're in a bad place as a species if regularly buying random stuff is seen as necessary for taking part in society, and a solution to feeling depressed or empty. It's easy to see how we've got there over the past century, but very hard to see how it could be scaled back when so many very wealthy people and corporations have an extremely lucrative interest in perpetuating it.

This is a really good illustration of the issues with capitalism and modern life in general. It used to be if you wanted to extend the life of cheap shoes, repair was a viable and affordable option until you could buy new. Now it's cheaper to buy new in the moment.

The reason why such repairs are becoming more expensive is because those who do them have to pass on their ever rising costs to the consumer, which depends on continually increasing trade etc. Repairing one's own shoes is possible if they are already good quality, and you have accessvto the right tools eg. Leatherworking etc. But cheap man made shoes, which we are encouraged to buy because of animal welfare and the benefits of veganism to the environment are trickier. The right glue for the right synthetic for example. How many times as a teen did I stick a flapping sole back on, for it to start flapping half a day later because I didn't have "the right glue" or an industrial vice to clamp it or the weather intervened?

I'm honestly not trying to say we shouldn't bother repairing when we can etc but as I said before,many problems come with their own solutions.

As to modern cars, which according to friends that own them, everything is computerised and electronic, exclusive to the dealer and you'd need NASA qualifications for things that the average motorist used to do themselves. Which feeds into other ways of sucking more money out of the owner under the guise of vital industry and jobs etc.

It's like going round in ever decreasing circles when you start digging in.

I think - judging from this thread - that anything in pp's homes is curated, cared for and essential and anything is any other random house is plastic tat. Your CD collection is a great example of this.
This thread is going like Monty Python's Yorkshiremen sketch - dozens of pps all trying to outdo each other with their competitive environmentalism.
I don't do plastic generally - several rooms in my house are entirely single-use plastic free now - but I can walk into a - shudder - B&M without busting into tears and judging everyone in there.
The privilege on this thread is amazing, and made worse by the fact that posters can't seem to see that money buys you options that others don't have.
This is MN at its worst - judgy, snobby and superior wrapped up in faux naivety about other (inferior) people. Gold stars all round.

Sounds like my dm and I probably say it to my own dd.

similar age to you 😀

mind you my dds tend to be quite thrifty and buy second hand, love Vinted, charity shops and gumtree

There was an Irish woman on YouTube trying to use an American accent dragging out her vowels and doing shein hauls and when I mentioned in the comments section about the chemicals in the clothes that go into skin and the environment her response was really aggressive, she said not everyone can afford to shop new and told me to scroll on repeatedly. I mentioned charity shops and that if she wasn’t doing shein hauls every week she could buy less that’s new and better quality but she didn’t want to hear it

Everyone who wants fast fashion needs to look at those pictures of the clothes on the beach in Ghana. Just appalling.

"Who"? Probably the same people who the following week are out blocking roads, airports, spraying Stonehenge with paint etc.

I just think it doesn't have to be all or nothing as so many people seem to think. Nobody is saying buy nothing or live in a cave. Never have a phone or buy balloons for a birthday party. Wear rags or never buy new anything.

Just that things have got so far out of hand with waste and fast fashion that things have to change. Buy one dress rather than two. Ignore the pressure to change your decor every season, or if you do want different decorations for christmas/easter/halloween, buy second hand or swap with a friend. Just THINK ABOUT what you are buying.

And when you are finished with your stuff and give it "away", realise that there is no "away".