Unsustainable Consumerism

The political culture that governs decision making in our country revolves around economic growth, which really means stimulating unsustainable consumerism.

 

The planet's natural resources are running out and every year there's a three month deficit as we consume in 9 months what it takes 12 months to produce. And then we waste millions of tonnes every year.

 

UK households still waste 23 million tonnes every year and we still put 8.5 million tonnes into landfill. (1)

 

The last survey of commercial and industrial waste showed that businesses created just under 48 million tonnes of waste with about half going to landfill. (2)

 

It is also estimated that the construction industry sends 27 million tonnes of waste to landfill a year. (3)

 

So last year we can estimate that nearly 60 million tonnes of waste was buried in the ground and a further 40 million tonnes was recycled. 100 million tonnes of stuff we didn’t need or want.

 

Whilst the figures above show an improvement compared to 10 years ago it is evident that we still waste too much, which must mean we are also consuming too much. Other indicators of over consumption might be the amount of credit owed by individuals, which last year reached a record high (4), and the rise on obesity, which surely must be linked to eating as well as lack of physical activity? (5)

 

I'm interested in understanding what drives this unsustainable behaviour. Is it that we trust our politicians and assume they are legislating accordingly? Is it that we trust businesses and assume they are doing the right thing? Is it that we don't know where to go for information?

 

I think opinion polls have shown that we don’t trust politicians, which would suggest that we either don’t care, don’t know where to go for information or we trust the businesses that we buy from.

 

I’m going to give my fellow species the benefit of the doubt and assume they are putting their trust in businesses to act in an environmentally sustainable way.

 

As an experiment I’m going to spend up to 1 hour researching a number of businesses that I buy from, or whose brands I buy, and see what information they tell me about themselves regarding their ethical and sustainable business practice compared to what others might say about them. I can’t imagine consumers spending more than 1 hour researching so that’s what I will stick to and I’ll see what it throws up.

 

 

References.

 

(1) https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/255610/Statistics_Notice1.pdf

 

(2) https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/85947/ci-statistics-release.pdf

 

(3) https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/142006/CDE-generation-estimates.xls

 

(4) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25152556

 

(5) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25576400