Its pretty apparent that we humans are on a downward spiral, we have been on a self destructive quest for STUFF! for many years now.
Consumerism, waste and debt.
There are many repercussions around our need to keep up with the Jones's or the Smith's. That sea of plastic that is now becoming part of the ocean, killing birds and fish and entering the food chain.
A few months ago I wrote a short diary called: She's dead! Wrapped in Plastic!.
That diary got many comments, the majority were from people who were horrified and disgusted. Many had never heard of the "Eastern Garbage Patch".
Since then, I watch the alternative media for articles.
Crossposted at A Creative Revolution......
Its not like it's being reported in the traditional media very often. From their point of view; why bite the hand that feeds? The World's corporations would so much rather you didn't know what effect all that shopping really does have, you may think more about how you spend your money. You may also think twice about where it came from and where the stuff you are replacing will end up.
Alternet had a good in depth article very recently with an appropriate title about the The Great Plastic Bag Plague.
All those plastic shopping bags not only form parts of the Eastern Garbage patch, they block sewers and storm drains and add to the landfills. They are the biggest nuisance, but are also quickly becoming the most hated symbol of our throw away society.
Many countries have taken action and have banned them outright.
Already a complete or partial ban on the bags has been approved in Australia, South Africa, parts of India, China, Italy, Bangladesh and Taiwan.
Other countries have taken an approach that hits the shoppers pocketbooks:
Ireland imposed a 15-cent tax on bags, which led to a rapid 90 percent reduction in use. Ireland uses the tax to help fund other environmental initiatives. Bags are also taxed in Sweden and Germany,
The City of Paris is banning them outright.
What we can do without actually waiting for our governments in North America to act (we may be waiting a hell of a long time) is to buy or make cloth reusable bags.
Paper is definitely recyclable, but it also has to come from somewhere. It matters not if its from recycled paper. Paper bags still have to be manufactured, they still add to the landfills. They are the lesser of the two evils most definitely, but they are still a disposable commodity.
But thats just part of the problem.
Years ago when I was a kid, (OK not THAT long ago, I was born the same year as the Ford Mustang, and I'm fairly well maintained, although not a collectors item) I remember my parents always choosing carefully what they were going to buy. I remember watching Sesame Street on an old black and white TV with a tiny screen. TV's were like gold, and we were lucky to have one. Period.
If furniture broke, my dad would repair it. I had an Etch a Sketch with wooden knobs my dad made because my brother ripped off the original ones and either A) ate them or B) flushed them down the toilet. (C is something we do not want to contemplate.)
We were not poor, it was just the way they were raised. If something was broken? You really really tried hard to make it work. If all attempts failed? Then you could replace it.
IF it was on sale.
A couple decades forward, (Ok four decades for those sticklers for accuracy), and our society as a whole has a different attitude and a whole bunch of new problems.
We have added so many conveniences and toys to our lives. Microwaves, VCR's (now obsolete), DVD players, Cell phones, ipods, cordless phones, stereo's that are smaller than a breadbox...I can go on here forever. The Computer you are reading this on is a fairly recent development in the grand scheme of the universe.
Its so much fun to go and buy the newest, the best, the most recent technology. To get us to buy these things the corporations make them sexy, sleek and tantalizingly cool. The stores offer us no money down, don't pay for 6 months to a year. They offer us convenient payment plans. (and an interest rate that is higher than the GNP of developing countries)
Buy it now. You will feel good.
Don't think about the 6 months to a year down the road when you have to send us a kidney. Thats SO tomorrow.
There's the other problem though that not many people think about. Sure, we all complain that they don't make it like they used to. ( do you feel like a big idiot, when your kids roll their eyes at you when you say that?)
Planned obsolescence. If that cell phone you purchased lasted say....5 years, how would they sell you another? If that PC was made to last through many changes in software, to handle all the games that you may play for the next 10 years, would you buy another before that?
That ipod toy? Was only made to last for12 months.
Steve Jobs came out recently and pretty much admitted that the iPod should be thought of as a disposable product. It is a slick, sleek thing, and you would never consider that it comes from a fundamentally dirty industry. In fact, the amount of toxins that go into an iPod is enormous. There are more than 68 million of these things out there, and they are full of cadmium, beryllium and lead. And Apple has deliberately created them so they only last a year. The company has a voluntary take-back program, but how many people use it? They won't say. I am hugely personally disappointed in Steve Jobs. He turned into Darth Vader.
In 2009, the US will switch off all analog TV signals. On air TV broadcasts. The push to digital and HI-DEF from the companies supplying the TV's and the services have won the day!
Television enjoys a 95 per cent market penetration in the United States, which would mean that, conservatively, there are about 300 million of them out there in living rooms and dens and basements. And they are about to be chucked. The sheer amount of toxic lead that is about to enter the waste stream is simply going to overwhelm it -- there are not enough container ships to send these obsolete televisions off to Asia where they can be broken up safely. This is a massive biohazard that is about to enter America's groundwater. And it is going to happen because electronic manufacturers lobbied the FCC to mandate digital TV. The problem for them was, there is not enough obsolescence in the television market; they are built to last five to seven years. That was too long.
In the next two years, people who have old Cathode ray TV's will probably be considering the purchase of a shiny new flat screen, HI-Def, LCD, or Plasma monstrosity. They will be throwing the old TV out or purchasing a digital receiver. But why spend $200 on that box, when you could just as well get a whole new TV for just a little more?
Recap: Thats estimated at 300 million TV's Coming to your landfill very soon.
Canada follows in 2011. Woo hoo.
Ever wonder why the refill cartridges on an inkjet printer cost so much? (I know, I buy generic or have filled them myself too) But that's not the average consumer. Its cheaper to buy another printer sometimes, than to refill all the colours. I have been to the dump, and let me tell you its sick and scary what people will toss now. One day I found 5 printers all fairly new. No one else wants them as its too expensive to refill, so why not buy a new one too?
Here in Canada where I live, we have an interesting dilemma with cell phones. You have similar issues, but not to the same extent.
You cannot use a phone from one company on another
companies network. If you want to change providers, you need to replace a perfectly good phone. Where does that phone go? How many people take them back to the place they bought them and demand they are recycled or thrown away responsibly? And even if you did, does that mean that's what happened to that phone?
A cell phone is designed to last for about a year now as well. If it doesn't break? You are enticed to purchase a new one with the LATEST features. ( It takes pictures, sends a text message to everyone you know that you have taken said picture, places you on a GPS, and googles the directions to the best restaurant in the area, while keeping track of all the friends you have that never call to talk anymore. They are too busy with their own cellphones)
I don't have a cellphone. I have no problem admitting that. When I turn off this PC and leave the house, I am unplugged from the matrix.
Windows Vista. Now that is the ULTIMATE in Planned obsolescence. It requires a computer capable of running a huge massive Operating system. You need a dual processor, or you will be waiting a long time or just sitting and watching a black screen. Microsoft does this every few years. They make a new OS, and since MS is pretty much the industry standard, we all have to go there.
If not, there's no support or new software that you can run. Windows 98 is now orphaned, and the old computers that cannot manage XP and Vista are being tossed by the thousands. No one wants them anymore.
If you got this far? Thank you for reading. There are many people far more knowledgeable than I, who know this is only the tip of the Iceberg.
I could go into far more; all the things that we ship from far away countries, using fossil fuels to get them here. Those same products made so cheaply, with substandard or downright dangerous materials?
How many recalls will we need? How many belovedpets have died?
What will it take to wake us up as a society, to the fact that no one is watching out for us. They really don't give a shit about you. As long as they have our money, through purchases and consumer debt, they have no plans to change. (THEY are the corporations, and often enough our compliant Governments)
We have to stop shopping. We need to make things last. We need to demand that things last longer.
We are planning our own obsolescence.
How willingly will we go to the dump to reside with all of the plastic, lead, mercury and appliances that outgrew their usefulness?
P.S. All my clothes come from the thrift store too.
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