lior
03-04-10, 00:23
I actually cried when I watched this:
http://www.storyofstuff.com/
It says something like: Guess how much stuff that's bought in America is still in use after 6 months? 40%? 20%? No... 1%. That's the point at which I cried. Do you know what's happening to all that other stuff? It's going in landfill. It's not being recycled.
We live in a disgustingly wasteful society and it drives me mad. I am desperate to do something about it but I am part of it. I am not a tree hugging hippy. I am not keen on the idea of not buying new clothes ever again. But increasingly I feel bad when I do things which people think of as normal...
Today we bought red peppers which are out of season. That means they will have been flown halfway across the world, and probably used lots of crazy chemicals, so there's a lot of waste and toxic gases released just because we like peppers and out of greed we want them all year round. Should we be doing this just because it's possible? I see it as abuse - abuse to natural resources and abuse of power.
And then we used plastic bags too instead of our normal fold up baskets. That's another ten plastic bags going into landfill. Imagine what we could do with all those plastic bags, if we could find a safe way of sorting through landfill sites.
As it is, in places like Mexico, barefoot children scavenge landfill sites to find things that a careless American has tossed away. This would be a good way of reusing objects, except these places are hotspots for disease, with all the rotting food and toxic waste - old fridges and washing machines can give you cancer - and there are sometimes even syringes lying about. Not a great idea to send your barefoot kid down to a landfill site if you want it to survive. But what choice do they have? They live in such poverty.
I care deeply about these issues but I don't care enough to make myself well informed enough to be able to be respected and heard. I'm not saying anything new. I'm just another student. I'm not even an activist. I'm all talk. And I'm a hypocrite, who points out that the air has been unduly polluted so we can eat these peppers, and then I eat them anyway, without enjoying them. They make me feel guilty.
I'm so young. I don't know enough about anything to do anything important. I'm not in a position to preach and yet I try anyway. I just embarrass myself. It's so much easier to just be shallow and blind myself to realities. Being a dumb blonde is the easiest life you can have. Maybe I should just dye my hair, wear nicer clothes and marry a rich man.
Certainly doesn't sound like a recipe for happiness for me. It's a cliche isn't it? Marrying a rich man who can provide for you? But I don't really care about being provided for - what would that give me? I could buy all I wanted and not be intellectually satisfied - I am the girl who feels guilty about peppers. No, I don't want a million material goods.
If everyone felt guilty about peppers, maybe greed would go out of fashion.
Wealth is such a focus in our society, and as a middle class daughter I haven't suffered. I learnt to worry about money but it's not like we stopped eating meat. Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about. Maybe riches are what we need to be happy. I once went out with a boyfriend who really was very poor. He was constantly worried about money - but I think he was happier than me.
If we didn't want new stuff all the time, then we wouldn't be unhappy without it. We are partly unhappy as a society because we are constantly told by TV ads that what we have is not good enough and we should get the new thing. What happens when we can't afford the new thing? And even when we can, we are on the constant lookout for the next new thing because we are left with the feeling that new is the only way to be - the only way to be happy. Consumerism is how we value ourselves. My friend wears designer clothes so she can feel better about herself next to her co-workers.
If we stopped wanting new stuff, then they would eventually stop making new stuff so quickly. If we started wanting old stuff that has been recycled or vintage objects with a new life, then there would be less waste. But we still need to address the landfill sites as they are. We can't leave them there forever. We can't ignore them. The toxins from them seep into our water supplies over time. We have to sort through them and salvage all we can. We need to find a way of doing it.
Has anyone got any information about this, or knows any good websites that can help me on my quest?
I feel alternatively so sad about it that I can't do anything, and then angry so I can. Today I am mainly sad.
http://www.storyofstuff.com/
It says something like: Guess how much stuff that's bought in America is still in use after 6 months? 40%? 20%? No... 1%. That's the point at which I cried. Do you know what's happening to all that other stuff? It's going in landfill. It's not being recycled.
We live in a disgustingly wasteful society and it drives me mad. I am desperate to do something about it but I am part of it. I am not a tree hugging hippy. I am not keen on the idea of not buying new clothes ever again. But increasingly I feel bad when I do things which people think of as normal...
Today we bought red peppers which are out of season. That means they will have been flown halfway across the world, and probably used lots of crazy chemicals, so there's a lot of waste and toxic gases released just because we like peppers and out of greed we want them all year round. Should we be doing this just because it's possible? I see it as abuse - abuse to natural resources and abuse of power.
And then we used plastic bags too instead of our normal fold up baskets. That's another ten plastic bags going into landfill. Imagine what we could do with all those plastic bags, if we could find a safe way of sorting through landfill sites.
As it is, in places like Mexico, barefoot children scavenge landfill sites to find things that a careless American has tossed away. This would be a good way of reusing objects, except these places are hotspots for disease, with all the rotting food and toxic waste - old fridges and washing machines can give you cancer - and there are sometimes even syringes lying about. Not a great idea to send your barefoot kid down to a landfill site if you want it to survive. But what choice do they have? They live in such poverty.
I care deeply about these issues but I don't care enough to make myself well informed enough to be able to be respected and heard. I'm not saying anything new. I'm just another student. I'm not even an activist. I'm all talk. And I'm a hypocrite, who points out that the air has been unduly polluted so we can eat these peppers, and then I eat them anyway, without enjoying them. They make me feel guilty.
I'm so young. I don't know enough about anything to do anything important. I'm not in a position to preach and yet I try anyway. I just embarrass myself. It's so much easier to just be shallow and blind myself to realities. Being a dumb blonde is the easiest life you can have. Maybe I should just dye my hair, wear nicer clothes and marry a rich man.
Certainly doesn't sound like a recipe for happiness for me. It's a cliche isn't it? Marrying a rich man who can provide for you? But I don't really care about being provided for - what would that give me? I could buy all I wanted and not be intellectually satisfied - I am the girl who feels guilty about peppers. No, I don't want a million material goods.
If everyone felt guilty about peppers, maybe greed would go out of fashion.
Wealth is such a focus in our society, and as a middle class daughter I haven't suffered. I learnt to worry about money but it's not like we stopped eating meat. Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about. Maybe riches are what we need to be happy. I once went out with a boyfriend who really was very poor. He was constantly worried about money - but I think he was happier than me.
If we didn't want new stuff all the time, then we wouldn't be unhappy without it. We are partly unhappy as a society because we are constantly told by TV ads that what we have is not good enough and we should get the new thing. What happens when we can't afford the new thing? And even when we can, we are on the constant lookout for the next new thing because we are left with the feeling that new is the only way to be - the only way to be happy. Consumerism is how we value ourselves. My friend wears designer clothes so she can feel better about herself next to her co-workers.
If we stopped wanting new stuff, then they would eventually stop making new stuff so quickly. If we started wanting old stuff that has been recycled or vintage objects with a new life, then there would be less waste. But we still need to address the landfill sites as they are. We can't leave them there forever. We can't ignore them. The toxins from them seep into our water supplies over time. We have to sort through them and salvage all we can. We need to find a way of doing it.
Has anyone got any information about this, or knows any good websites that can help me on my quest?
I feel alternatively so sad about it that I can't do anything, and then angry so I can. Today I am mainly sad.