Waste & Consumerism: An Introduction
Waste is perhaps, on the surface, one of the easiest problems to picture and understand: images of plastic waste in our water and industrial waste in our skies have become synonymous with communications of environmental degradation. However, whilst these striking visuals may capture our attention, convince us to recycle, or even encourage us to collect the litter we see, our waste problem currently runs far deeper.
The world’s generation of solid waste is expected to increase 70% by 2050, to 3.4 billion tonnes annually: this affects everyone on the planet with both environmental and social consequences. Environmentally, waste is polluting our land, water, air, and even our bodies. Waste related greenhouse gas emissions are anticipated to reach 2.6 billion tonnes by 2050 and even waste which we think we have recycled is increasingly being sent to landfill or is illegally burned. As well as contributing to climate change, this mass production of waste impacts the biodiversity of our planet.
Socially, much of the waste generated in wealthier regions ends up in landfills in poorer areas. Toxic fumes from garbage fires, microplastics in the water, and landslides severely damage the health and livelihoods of the people who spend their lives surrounded by these masses of waste, predominantly already marginalised communities. We continue to see the burden of waste pushed upon individuals, with recycling and not littering depicted the solution to our waste problem. The reality is that a deeper, systemic change is required to cut out the creation of waste in the first place...
Much of our waste is a result of our ‘throwaway culture’, the poor lifespan of products, and ultimately, the sheer amount of ‘stuff’ which we consume on a daily basis. This is due to the phenomenon of Consumerism.
Much of our waste is a result of our ‘throwaway culture’, the poor lifespan of products, and ultimately, the sheer amount of ‘stuff’ which we consume on a daily basis. This is due to the phenomenon of Consumerism.
Consumption accounts for 60% of the global GDP, with the US alone spending $16 trillion annually (WEF). A growing obsession in many societies with consuming products has been found to negatively affect our mental wellbeing. Our posessesions often possess us and worst still, this mass production often relies upon exploitive and even illegal working conditions, including child labour and aggressive mining processes.
Environmentally, this intensive manufacturing contributes to resource scarcity, deforestation, and further loss of biodiversity: in 1990, 8.1 tonnes of natural resources were used to satisfy a person’s need, while in 2015 almost 12 tonnes of resources were extracted per person (WEF). Currently, we are using up the Earth’s resources 1.75 times faster than the planet’s systems can regenerate (Overshoot Day). Together, waste and consumerism are both parts of what is often called our ‘Take, Make, Waste’ society, where we rapidly take our planet’s limited resources, convert them into consumer products, then rapidly discard them.
In this topic we dig deep into our global waste problem, including the intersectionality with health and social justice, and we discuss the systemic changes necessary in order to eliminate waste. We look at how consumerism dictates much of our lives, and how it actively encourages us to create further waste. And of course, we platform the people and organisations out there who are already imagining new ways to tackle the problem, to live waste-free, and who are inspiring us by overcoming the ‘take, make, waste’ trap so many of us are subject to.
