I just received this link from a friend in Ireland. It summaries the story of where our stuff comes from, and then where it goes!? Although I am usually sceptical as to the ulterior motives of such site - they are after all part of a commercial world and have to pay their way as do the rest of us - this is a story well told and although the statistics are largely based on the North American economy, the message is clear and applies to each and every one of us the world over.
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Why put it on my local community forum?
I like to think that we have been attempting to include a degree of sustainability in our lives for many years now, not needing to be told that to be manufacturing stuff at the rate we currently do and then throwing it into landfill will lead to irreparable damage to the planet and a less than healthy future for our children, let alone their children! It’s not impossible to do but can be enormously frustrating especially with two teenagers in the house who watch all their friends getting the latest stuff. So we simply try and educate them to think about the need for making a purchase (do they really need it?) and then the product itself – Where was it made? How long will it last? Can it be repaired or its live span extended. Things that are just a fad are generally frowned upon.
The thought behind our purchasing is reflected in the bags we put out each week for the dustman. As we have two compost bins and we also think about the packaging used to wrap the products we buy, our family of four rarely fills a third of a black bag and often the same for the recycling bag, perhaps a bit more or it isn’t worth putting that one out. Unfortunately the message hasn’t reached our neighbours yet who average a good 5 or 6 black bags and obviously don’t know recycling bags are available!
But where we buy is probably the biggest single factor. You will never find us shopping without a need to buy essentials and rarely will we travel just to shop. So being able to buy the right product locally, preferably locally produced, is important to us.
But it’s not just about what we buy, where, it is also how we live and where. Are we investing in local trade and industry and is that trade and industry looking after the environment in which we live?
I’ve seen a number of similar films and media regarding the corporate/materialistic society we are living in but all seem to be biased towards North America. I appreciate they do have a bigger problem than us and the statistics are frankly staggering, but if anyone has any links to a UK version of this, I would appreciate hearing about it.
David
NOTE: Unfortunately the link above is only visible if you are logged in to the Ledbury Portal website, not something I was aware of (so apologies to the previous 156 readers!) and not much use at all to the casual browers! Please copy and paste the following into your address bar...
storyofstuff.com/international/
...to allow this article to be of any meaning.
Thanks.
Last edited by TGDS (2009-10-17 08:43:50)