What you can do about the problem of consumption

Consumption is a com­pli­cat­ed thing. So often, we reduce our wants and needs into what­ev­er feels most com­fort­able. The com­plex­i­ties of neces­si­ty, indul­gence, stress, con­ve­nience becomes a com­pli­cat­ed rela­tion­ship. I will admit this is some­thing I have strug­gled with myself.

Whether you call it treat cul­ture, trend, “afford­able” lux­u­ry or some­thing else, essen­tial­ly the com­mod­i­fi­ca­tion of joy has been so whol­ly inte­grat­ed into our cul­ture that it can be hard to assess. Between what makes one feel whole, what brings com­fort, and what is essen­tial lies a whole series of ques­tions like  “Can I real­ly afford this?” and “What is the impact of this choice on others?”

Who is impact­ed by the work required to deliv­er things quick­ly and afford­ably? It sure is hard to nav­i­gate options and deter­mine how to make wise pur­chas­es when so much is avail­able with a sim­ple click and ship. As a mil­len­ni­al, I’ve watched fran­chise and brand after fran­chise and brand dom­i­nate so much of my com­pan­ions’ con­scious­ness with such lit­tle thought to the glob­al impact. Each pur­chase can lead to guilt pulling like a rip­tide once one becomes aware of the con­se­quences of instant grat­i­fi­ca­tion. So how do we com­bat this reality?

According to our once-staffed EPA in 2024;
“The aver­age American cre­ates about 4.9 pounds of trash per day, which adds up to over 1,788 pounds per per­son annually”

I think this is a fact we all need to sit with, even if it is uncom­fort­able. Trash does not mag­i­cal­ly go away. It ends up in our water and our soil, and leaves a last­ing impact on our whole plan­et. American con­sumers cre­ate more waste than any oth­er coun­try. Even sub­tract­ing the entire­ty of our nation’s cor­po­rate and com­mer­cial waste, we still hold an enor­mous amount of blame for glob­al pollution.

The major cat­e­gories where we hold the most respon­si­bil­i­ty include fast fash­ion, pack­ag­ing, food waste, and sin­gle use plas­tics. Our desire for aes­thet­ics and con­ve­nience out­ranks our inter­est in envi­ron­men­tal preser­va­tion and ener­gy con­ser­va­tion.  Plenty of folks wor­ry about first impres­sions, look­ing the part, hav­ing the right sta­tus sym­bols to sig­ni­fy our inter­ests. We attach com­mod­i­fied goods to our­selves and our char­ac­ter. Often things that fall with­in the cat­e­gories above are attached to this notion of mak­ing a good impres­sion. Personally, I rarely remem­ber what some­one is wear­ing, but I do remem­ber how they iden­ti­fy and what good they put out into the world.

I want to chal­lenge you to write down a list of things you find true about your­self that reject attach­ment to a con­sumerist iden­ti­ty. This is an exer­cise I’ve done with groups before and it real­ly can help you to detach from your pur­chas­es, redefin­ing your sense of self.

For exam­ple, I am not a “Gryffindor,” but I am a brave per­son. I do not need a cheap back­pack embroi­dered with a lion emblem sewn hasti­ly in an unsafe fac­to­ry to know that I am brave and bold. Is it worth the exploita­tion of a fel­low work­er for me to use a bag made of syn­thet­ic fab­ric for a sea­son then toss it out once the poor­ly craft­ed plas­tic pieces give out? No. Nevermind the poten­tial social con­se­quences of sup­port­ing a mil­lion­aire who has the capac­i­ty to weaponize their wealth polit­i­cal­ly. Bottom line, eth­i­cal con­sump­tion is dif­fi­cult to nav­i­gate so start with small wins in your deprogramming.

The consumption pyramid

This is a sim­ple chart that I find myself more and more reliant upon as our dol­lars seem to hold less and less val­ue. You can fight waste, infla­tion, and con­sumerism by using as many of these alter­na­tives as you can, as often as you can.

Going from bot­tom to top, you can keep more of your hard earned mon­ey while also sup­port­ing oth­ers in your com­mu­ni­ty. Use what you have before going out to buy a brand new thing. Immediately I think of water bot­tles. Repeat after me: I do not need a new Stanley cup.

Borrowing can also help us to meet neigh­bors and devel­op tool shar­ing groups. Up until about the 1950s most peo­ple in the US shared most equip­ment most of the time. Swapping can apply to all sorts of areas of your life. Clothing swaps can help elim­i­nate fast fash­ion. Trading goods and ser­vices, aka the barter sys­tem helps us step away from mak­ing friv­o­lous pur­chas­es that more often pay for executive’s yachts than decent jobs. 

Thrifting has its spe­cial moments, and mak­ing your own stuff can bring great joy, espe­cial­ly when mak­ing things out of items you’ve swapped for or thrift­ed. A sim­ple change like paint­ing your cab­i­nets or dying a stained shirt can change your entire mood. There is great sat­is­fac­tion to be found in fix­ing up your own things.

Buying new should be the last choice and when you do buy, buy local. Support farm­ers, mak­ers, arti­sans, and repair­men with­in our com­mu­ni­ty. Use the pyra­mid to save mon­ey for big pur­chas­es. Sometimes you just have to buy a new appli­ance when the old one is beyond repair. Holding a buy-last men­tal­i­ty can help you to save up mon­ey for emer­gen­cies or treats on a spe­cial occasion.

What’s the solution?

Sitting with all of the real­i­ties of waste can be exhaust­ing. Fortunately, these are easy steps you can take to reassess your rate of con­sump­tion and how much waste you gen­er­ate. Take it day by day and see what ways you can change your habits to suc­cess­ful­ly tran­si­tion away from Temu addic­tion and quick con­sump­tion. Replace retail ther­a­py with real invest­ment in your well­be­ing. Take pride in your blos­som­ing resilience in this moment when things are so expensive.

There is no per­fect solu­tion, but I do remem­ber when peo­ple made their own Halloween cos­tumes. Kids in my neigh­bor­hood took pride in craft­ing endear­ing yet rough repli­cas of Thor’s ham­mer or Batman’s mask. There was a time before that when peo­ple wore hal­loween cos­tumes of pirates, fairies, foods, ani­mals, even the spir­its of the old gods.

My sib­lings and I often trad­ed parts of old cos­tumes to build out new char­ac­ters. Neighbors would trade hol­i­day dec­o­ra­tions, recipes, left­over sup­plies, and parts. If it’s eas­i­er to do online, do it in your local Facebook groups. Winchester already has mul­ti­ple yard sale and free stuff groups where you can meet peo­ple who may have sim­i­lar hob­bies that live just a few hous­es down the road. Just last week I gave a woman left­over liq­uid eggs and a few days lat­er took home a free ellip­ti­cal machine.

I share this mes­sage not to leave you feel­ing guilty about past pur­chas­es but to encour­age you to chal­lenge how you spend. We vote with our dol­lar so when you can, put those pen­nies towards a bet­ter future for our community.