The sham of sustainability is everywhere: we say we’re trying to be more sustainable but we’re barely trying. In this blog post I explore some of the reasons why we are so obsessed with material consumption from advertising to cultural practices around consumption. My intent is to share my experience of awareness and truth. We probably won’t be changing anything major any time soon, but perhaps just a few people will change a few things around the margin of their lives, and that is something worthwhile too. Perhaps you’ll share some new tips with me and I’ll change things – either way some good things may happen from this stream of consciousness on sustainability!
Appreciation for physical goods is engrained in our culture, perhaps in human nature itself
Consumption is so culturally engrained. Material gift-giving has been a part of so many cultures around the world for so long. When Invaders and Explorers and Natives met in various lands around the world, gift-giving was a common way to establish intent for the interaction. For Diwali, Christmas, birthdays, and so many festivals in all cultures, we give and receive physical gifts. As humans we have a fascination with the novel, and increasingly with technologies that defy what we thought was possible. In the olden days that may have been sugar or salt, which were marvels when they first came out, and now it’s stuff like VR headsets or the latest iPhone and how advanced its portrait mode is. Physical gifts are not just celebrated, but sometimes just mandated – try showing up for Christmas with no physical gifts — you’d be a pariah! I’m not necessarily advocating going cold turkey on presents, but more thoughtful gift-giving as I discuss in this post on gift-giving.
I imagine in some faraway society more woke than ours, there may be appreciation for non-physical goods as gifts. Perhaps the gift of doing a favor for someone e.g. an hour of gardening, or perhaps the gift of a massage, or childcare (my favorite gift these days!) or the gift of your focused attention. Imagine that! A weird gift perhaps, but perhaps more powerful than a gadget. The gifts of our attention, time, brainpower are undervalued and hence under-given.
Blame Hollywood — it sets the cultural tone for the world and what poor leadership on the sustainability front so far
Sadly, that scene from Hollywood movie “Baby Mama” is a rarity, and more of a mockery of the character, which brings me to my next point: there is a real lack of thought of sustainability in media. Hollywood movies and TV shows are full of characters walking in and out of Starbucks with coffee in their disposable coffee cups. It seems like it has not occurred to a single director to show a character with a reusable mug or to highlight sustainable behavior in any meaningful way. Self-care is caricatured as going shopping (usually in a mall for new stuff rather than thrifting) or getting a manicure or going on a spa day, never as just lying down with your eyes closed, which in my experience is the deepest form of self-care – but also the least capitalist and consumerist so apparently not very sexy.
Off the screen, celebrities are photographed living unsustainable lives resplendent with material goods and often disposable goods — so many getting some drink or the other from a café and it’s always in a disposable cup. All of this highly conspicuous disposable consumption has normalized unsustainable behaviors in our lives to the point that they are so customary they are not even noticed.
Social media: Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and highly visible consumption
I wonder if anyone has tried to estimate the amount of consumption of fashion done just for Instagram photos i.e. outfits that are pretty much worn once or twice for a photoshoot and then never again. Certainly, there’s tons of shirts like this that are bought for “for the gram”.
“Imagine missing the chance to save humanity from runaway climate change because we couldn’t resist Cardi B-inspired tracksuit pants.”
— Lucy Siegle in “How Instagram Influencers Fuel Our Destructive Addiction To Fast Fashion” in Huffington Post
Fashion is a BIG deal environmentally. In her article on Instagram Influencers and fast fashion (highly recommend!), Siegle notes “Without reform, the fashion industry (of which fast fashion is the dominant player) could be responsible for a quarter of the Earth’s carbon budget by 2050“.
We’ve all seen shirts like this. I did a cute photoshoot but with secondhand oens I got from the Buy Nothing group because there’s so many in the material verse already… 
Ok, what now? This couple apparently are viral on social media for their matching outfits…I guess may be they are excused if this is more art than consumption-promotion? Idk…not my style of art!
I should attribute: @young_emperors
More than just fashion, Instagram also promotes all forms of consumption: interior design, vacations, tools, books. I understand there’s the consumption side to this and the production side: so many people make a living off of selling more, more, more. Understandably people have to live and make money to fund their lives. This underscores to me the need for a Universal Basic Income (UBI) so that we stop relying on consumption of material goods as the primary driver of people’s income and livelihoods. There are so many ways to fund a UBI – technology has generated so much surplus, it’s just wastefully and unequally deployed currently.
Admittedly, I love living a rich luxurious life as much as the next person, but my rich life is based on largely secondhand consumption which is hardly ever mentioned on Instagram which brings me to my next point…
The lack of imagination around secondhand: why are we going to Amazon first rather than thinking about whether what we want is available at Goodwill?
I was watching Abbott Elementary (TV show – really funny btw), and in episode 1 the teacher really wants rugs for the kids to nap on. She keeps asking for budget for these, and in the end they get a bunch of new rugs from someone one of the teachers knows. I was shouting at the screen “Go on the Buy Nothing group!!” because high quality rugs are available so often on that group for FREE.
The fact is there is so much production in the world and people are constantly buying more than they need or even care to appreciate a few days after they bought it, and then it ends up in the secondhand market for heavy discounts or free. Since I discovered the Buy Nothing project (group on Facebook and there’s an app too), I’ve gotten 80% of my stuff from there, and it’s high quality stuff, like a $600 Bumbleride stroller, snoo-like bassinet, baby bath-tub, bouncer, walker, hiking carrier, baby carrier, bottle drying rack…the list is very long. The point is you can live a rich and luxurious life in material goods with very little money and reduced additional environmental impact if you know where to look, and you’ll be doing people a favor by decluttering their homes. It’s a win for the environment, your bank account and in getting to know your neighbors.
For most people when they need something, their first instinct is to look on Amazon, or find the nearest supermarket or store. Over the past two years, I’ve reprogrammed myself to first check the Buy Nothing Groups and Nextdoor, post a request for what I’m looking for and then consider a Thrift store and then if I really have no time/can’t find what I need and there’s some urgency about it, go on Amazon. But just that very act of searching a bit has added more mindfulness to my consumption. Sure, it takes more time, but if you are reading this blog post, I can almost guarantee you are in the privileged demographic where you have the several extra minutes in a day to do this. If you want to delve deeper, see more in my detailed guide to the secondhand life here.
