My Stuff and Other Sources of Consumption

Watch this video and tell me if you feel guilty or not? I did. It made me feel dumb for thinking that as soon as something wasn’t up to my “standards” (and I’m starting to realize where I got these standards from in the first place), I throw it away. Sometimes, if I felt as though I should do something good, I donated it or recycled it if I knew how to recycle it. Otherwise, it went right into the trash.

One thing that really struck me in the video is that things aren’t made as well as they used to be. I’ve noticed this with my cell phones. The first phone I ever bought, I had for three years, and it was still in good working condition when I decided to get a new one. I only got rid of it because flip phones had come on the market and I wanted one of those. I noticed after a few years of having my second phone that I needed to replace it because it wasn’t lasting. This didn’t make sense because I paid more for my second phone than my first phone, and my first phone was still in working condition. However, it makes sense when I consider the market. If I were a business owner, I would soon realize that if I made a product extremely well, I would only ever see each customer once. This is not good for business. So if I were a scheming business owner, I would sabotage the integrity of my product so that I could guarantee I would see a customer again and again, should they continue to buy from me. How awful. I don’t really see any way this can be changed, which makes me feel defeated. The only thing I can do is really consider what I am buying and where I am buying my products.

After watching this video, I really started to consider the things that I buy and the packaging they come in. For example, I needed a yoga mat, but only for a weekend, so I decided to borrow it from someone who I knew wouldn’t be using it. This saves resources and now I don’t have a yoga mat sitting in my closet that I probably won’t use again.

I also started to consider the places that I support. When I give my money to someone, it’s easy to forget that I’m supporting them and the choices they made about the resources, manufacture, and distribution of their product. Now I prefer to go to local stores that I won’t find in every other city in North America.

There was one more thing that got me thinking. What am I eating, and from where? I cringed at the thought that I had recently ate at McDonald’s because it dawned on me that the cook behind the counter wasn’t making fresh recipes from scratch that had been in her family for generations. Too often to we take what is available at our fingertips without considering where the product came from exactly and how it got to our hands.

I am now considering learning how to sew, knit, can and preserve food, and garden. I’m lucky that these skills are still in my family and can be passed down to me. I’m not sure why I don’t have these skills because I don’t think they are very difficult to master. Something tells me that it was “uncool” to sew when I could go to a store and buy an overpriced pair of jeans for $150.

To achieve a level of sustainability, our society must deeply consider changing our habits to reduce our consumption of stuff. This includes re-using and reducing, then recycling. We must also learn skills to make ourselves sustainable, so that if one day we are left without products that are available at or fingertips, we will be able to survive. I know I can do it!