Modern Consumer Culture

Within my community, a large Swedish chain store opened that is responsible for the advertising above. It took over one of the pivotal buildings for contemporary local designers in the last 10 years. Before the change, it house more than 30 businesses for local designers and became a fashion mecca, however in the last year, they were forced to close their doors for the flagship store of mass-produced crap (excuse my language, but this is something I refuse to agree with).

Last year the Rana Plaza building, housing factories making textiles for many large companies, including this one, collapsed, devastating the community. Their unethical practices and the skewed factory conditions have become widely known.

Despite their mass production, the company now claims to be working towards ethical and environmental standards, raising labour costs, and developing low-waste solutions to production. This article however, claims otherwise. It highlights the problems still associated with the big-business.

What we cannot excuse is, the issue Leonard raises in The Story of Stuff: What about the waste post-consumption? That 99% of products that are non-functioning 6 months after purchasing. My friends and I shopped at H&M, when we were overseas a few years ago. We bought basic, “essential items” – T-shirts, socks etc. Within approximately 5 washes they had lost their shape, colour, texture, and therefor style. What is their solution? Buy more! The socks were $3, why wouldn’t you just replace them? Instead of buying a shirt that would last me 5 years, I bought one that would last me 5 weeks that I could replace because it was cheap. This is consumer culture rearing it’s ugly head. And where did the old T-shirt go? In the bin… WASTE.

So what can you do? What are the solutions? DON’T SUPPORT MASS-PRODUCTION. Where possible, where your pocket allows, support local business. Instead of buying a plain white T-shirt from a big business, buy one from a local or ethical designer. It’s more expensive, yes. What if your pocket doesn’t allow for this? Shop at the op-shop. Second hand stores exemplify sustainability. It liberates people less fortunate, but also supports recycling, reusing, and reduces waste. When purchasing, look for quality, rather than price. Look at the material, where it was made, the stitching. Inform yourself and think about your choices and buy smart.

 

References:

Wells, R.  (2013, September 4).Retail giant H&M to open at GPO. The Age. Retrieved from http://www.theage.com.au/

Ali Manik, J. and Yardley, J. (2013, April 24) Building Collapse in Bangladesh Leaves Scores Dead. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/

Siegle, L. (2012, April 8)Is H&M the new home of ethical fashion? The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/

 

Tips for Reducing Waste at School

Sourced from StopWaste.org, here is a list of actions to begin to reduce waste in schools. Being explicit about why we are reducing waste is an important concept for students to understand in order to inform sustainable lifestyle practices and bahaviours, therefore it may be more meaningful if these concepts are explored and discussed or even developed by the students. That said, its a good starting point to get teachers ideas flowing. 

 

Tips for Reducing Waste at School

What teachers and students can do to practice waste reduction in the classroom:

 REDUCE 

• Use an overhead projector or blackboard to reduce the amount of photocopied information distributed in class.
• Encourage parents and students to pack a waste-free lunch for field trips www.wastefreelunches.org
• Buy classroom materials that are durable and if possible, include recycled content.
• Make double-sided copies when possible.
• Use paper towels only as needed, better yet replace them with sponges, old socks or other scrap material.

 REUSE

• Encourage students to write on both sides of a piece of paper before recycling it.
• Designate a scrap material box in the classroom for paper, fabric, and other objects that can be reused for classroom projects.
• Take a trip to the school library to visit a site dedicated to reuse.
• Ask students to bring 3-ring binders to class instead of spiral notebooks. Binders can be reused and paper can be easily removed for recycling.
• At the end of the school year, collect unwanted school supplies such as pencils and notebooks that can be used during the next school year.
• Encourage students to collect supplies for reuse art projects such as egg cartons, film canisters, magazines, milk cartons, paper grocery bags and plastic lids.

RECYCLE

• Establish a recycling bin in your classroom.
• Have students separate materials for recycling.
• Ask students to remove spiral bindings from notebooks before recycling them.
• Plan a lesson about paper recycling and make recycled paper…
• Place recycling and garbage bins in teacher’s lunchroom to collect materials for recycling.
• Visit a local Recycling Facility or Transfer Station to learn more about how recyclables are sorted and processed before remanufacture.
• Collect and sell classroom recyclables as part of a school-wide recycling contest. The funds can be donated to a local charity or used for classroom supplies, pizza party, etc.

ROT (Compost)

• Start composting food waste in the classroom with a worm bin. Ask students to collect fruit and vegetable scraps from school lunches. Place a collection bin in the teacher’s lunchroom for coffee grinds and other food waste. Use the finished compost on schoolyard plantings.
• When installing a school garden, choose plants appropriate for the local conditions. This will reduce the generation of green waste, use of water, fertilizers, and pesticides.

e-waste

So many reusable parts here. All that glass, just to begin with!
However instead of being able to replace small unsustainable parts, planned obsolescence dictates that we replace the whole machine to simulate our economy. But who pays? The environment does with the vast amount of e-waste we produce.

The Bureau of Statistics (2013) estimates that “of the 15.7 million computers that reached their ‘end of life’ in Australia in 2007-08, only 1.5 million were recycled – that’s less the 10%” and that If 75% of the 1.5 million televisions discarded annually were recycled there would be savings of 23,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalents, 520 mega litres of water, 400,000 gigajoules of energy and 160,000 cubic metres of landfill space (para. 1).

Imagine a conveyor belt with products constantly falling off the end: this is our model for consumption. Where does the waste go? How do we get rid of it? Out of sight, out of mind…

Reference:
The Bureau of Statistics (2013) Waste Account, Australia, Experimental Estimates, 2013. Retrieved from http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Products/4602.0.55.005~2013~Main+Features~Electronic+and+Electrical+Waste?OpenDocument