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.

I agree. Especially with people and their overflowing non-recycling bins. I just don't understand how they manage to have so much that can't be recycled. And some of them have over-flowing recycling bins too! Even our single next door neighbour manages to put out overflowing non recycling and recycling bins every time - she lives alone, so can't blame it on a big family, children, etc. She also constantly gets constant home deliveries - Amazon and DPD virtually every day. She must spend/waste an absolute fortune on utter crap. Her house is like a social media influencer's dream - all the "twee" crap of home furnishings etc the standard "live, love, laugh" crap on the walls and plastic crap ornaments everywhere. Loads of inane meaningless pictures on the walls. And yes, she seems to replace her kitchen and bathrooms every few years, along with forever having decorators in to re-decorate one room or another.

I'm the opposite. I've had two kitchens in the 30 years I've been in the house and felt guilty about changing the first one after 15 years as most of it was still perfectly serviceable, but it was showing it's age and the integrated appliances were started to fail and needing costly repair/replacements. Still, I got OH to fit most of the units into our garage and garden shed, so most of it is still in use which made me feel better and meant we didn't need to buy racking/shelving for the outbuildings. Same with bathrooms, we made the ones bought with the house last about 15/20 years respectively before we had them replaced and have no intention at all to replace the current ones - nothing wrong with them and they're neutral colour schemes so will last another 10-20 years easily.

We also "standardise" things like our tech, i.e. laptops for home and our businesses, printers/screens, iphones, computer operating systems, etc., so OH can "cannibalise" one piece of tech to make another last a bit longer as he's good with "making and mending" small tech. We tend to buy the same make/model of laptops (we use several between home and businesses) and when they start getting older and faulty, he'll swap parts to keep some of them going. Same with printers, scanners, screens, etc., but also home electrics as we use the same kettle at home as in the offices, same vacuum cleaners, same microwaves, same TV in different rooms of the house, etc. He has also kept a couple of old broken kitchen appliances in the garage and we bought identical new ones, so that he can swap bits out of the old ones to keep the newer ones going for longer. It's such a shame that businesses doing small repairs like that aren't viable as it's often pretty close or more to repair an appliance than it is to buy new.

Her house is like a social media influencer's dream - all the "twee" crap of home furnishings etc the standard "live, love, laugh" crap on the walls and plastic crap ornaments everywhere. Loads of inane meaningless pictures on the walls.

Perhaps one day you will wake up to this scene outside: https://x.com/alexshephard/status/1660661411725418501

I agree OP. It is depressing. I was thinking this about all of the new seasonal decorations that appear nowadays. It used to be just Christmas surely, but now it's becoming ridiculous. I don't remember people decorating the homes for Easter previously. Maybe just some nice spring flowers. Where do people store everything during the rest of the year?

They don't store things - that's the problem. They chuck them out and buy new again next year. It wouldn't be quite so bad if people did actually store and re-use things. But if they did that, then the shops wouldn't be full of tat every year as there'd be no one buying it.

It’s all thrown away or put in the charity shops.

Not me. It goes in a box for next year.

Or me. This assertion that 'everyone' buys new things several times a year and just throws it away after one use only to rebuy the following year is so alien to me that I don't believe it's true. I don't know anyone who would do that.

Or me. This assertion that 'everyone' buys new things several times a year and just throws it away after one use only to rebuy the following year is so alien to me that I don't believe it's true. I don't know anyone who would do that.

So who is buying all the seasonal tat then?

The shops wouldn't be full of plastic crap if people weren't buying it.

Oh god, you should meet our neighbours.

New kitchen twice in 7 years.

New plastic grass and hot tub and garden furniture every couple of years

A skip outside filled with really nice looking luggage,.kids toys, sports equipment etc at least once a year. They don't even bother donating it

Forgot to add -seasonal decor for every season, always nee

Constant upgrading decor and refurbishments

And the house was lovely when they moved in

It's horrible to see. Such an immense waste of resources. They are lovely people in every other respect

If people watched Years and Years they might start to rethink their behaviour

Have you never been to your local tip early in the new year? They're always full of xmas decorations

That is awful - especially not donating any of it 😞 Makes me angry and sad at the same time, the fake grass in particular and I detest the stuff. It stays in our environment forever in the soils and water and is not recyclable.

Can you not drop hints if you’re chatting to them next time?

I’m the complete opposite- I keep my cars forever and have had the same home appliances for donkey’s years. My fridge freezer is about 22 years old now I think! I try to only have wooden and metal furniture that I pick up secondhand. Clothes from Vinted/charity shops - same with homeware items such as curtains and cushions.

If fast fashion goes, then would do you propose takes it place?
I shop at Primark because it is cheap. I don't give a fuck about fashion and the latest looks. I just want my body to be covered up, and I feel happy with how it looks and feels.

I have xmas and Halloween decorations and they used to get brought out every year. I would buy new ones if they caught my eye.

@Langdale3it was this one: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JWTyMCdK1zo

@EasternStandardI don’t think most people would take higher prices tbh. I think the usual “standard of living” expectations nowadays include loads of stuff that makes people feel adequate. I suppose anyone reading this and agreeing that yes we do all have too much crap would agree to having less and paying more for ethical greener stuff, but there’ll be loads of people in the YOLO camp who just live for today and take our chances on tomorrow. I think we need labelling on everything - all clothes should say natural fibre/human made vs synthetic fibres/machine made so at least we can know what we’re buying. The guy from Sewing Bee is on board with non plastic clothes but he’s the first celeb I’ve seen to talk about it.

How about using up some of the 120 or so years' worth of unwamted clothing we already have?

I mean fucking hell fast fashion has only been around for the blink of an eye. We coped without it for tens of thousands of years. I am 50 and my mum used to make my clothes when I was a kid.

@Frozenpeace because many local "tips" are called "recycling centres" these days I wonder if some people think that sending stuff off in a skip (or taking it there themselves) means it's going to actually be recycled rather than put in landfill.
They might think they are doing the correct thing.

I can't make clothing. I have tried.
I could splash out on clothing that lasts, but I would be wearing it every day until it falls apart. And that gets looked down on too.
With cheap clothing, I can have some variety.

A lot of posts about swapping polyester for cotton, but standard cotton is in many ways just as bad. Recycled cotton and organic linen are supposed to be ok though. I like Tencel a lot which is a more sustainable and safer version of viscose.

This is a good page:

cfda.com/resources/materials

I took some worn out clothes and towels to the local "recycling centre" because their website claimed that they recycle textiles/rag. When I got there I couldn't find a bin for it, so I asked someone. He said, 'Oh, you can put it in there' while pointing to the black bag bin, aka the straight-to-landfill bin.

Come on. How did people manage in the ten thousand or so years of human civilisation before fast fashion happened?

They wore animal skins? That seems to be pretty frowned upon now.

In the 80s and 90s? You sure?

There are enough clothes on the planet for everyone for 120 years. We don't need to be adding to the pile.

You said "ten thousand or so years"... nothing about the 80s and 90s.

Second hand is often much better quality. My friend has recently cleared her parents house after they died. Their G plan furniture that was at least 45 years old was good as new.
Looking in my lounge now I have a coffee table I bought new 5 years ago and sofas bought new 20 years ago. Everything else is second hand- book shelves, TV cabinet etc. The problem is though it’s not fashionable. Many would shudder at the sight of it all. So we are never going to stop consumerism whilst fashion and trends are so important to people.