My stuff and consumption habits

This week’s blog post is on “My stuff and consumption habits” and a reading of the sermon by William Mcdonough titled “The design, ecology ethics and the making of things”. After reading the sermon by William Mcdonough it showed me that when many products are manufactured they do not necessarily reflect sustainability. This is why companies have to start looking at and taking the quote “cradle to cradle” in to mind so that the materials and energy that is taken from the earth to produce their products is then returned in one form or another, so that anything that is taken from the earth can be given back or put back without any harm to the environment. If companies can stick to this, then it would help eliminate potential problems such as creating extra sewage or emitting green house gases.

Every day, every hour, every second companies come out with new and improved products that influence society today. I am not going to lie, I am pretty influenced by new technologies and product as I am very good with using these new technologies and they interest me. When a new product comes out, I am never the one that is there first to buy it, I usually wait for a year so that all the bugs and errors can be fixed and the price drops and then I usually buy the product after I do research and really want it. The thing wrong with this is big box stores such as Wal-Mart’s, Superstores, and Costco’s produce the cheapest product and prices to the buyer to buy and everything works all fine and dandy for the first while but usually breaks after a year. Then it just has to be thrown away and people go right back to that big box stores and purchase the same thing over and over. This creates massive amounts of unneeded garbage going to the landfills, and is a never ending cycle. This is especially true with electronics as there has not yet been much of a recycling program set up for these products so our landfills just keep piling up. I have realized that after moving out to Victoria B.C and living on my own as a student big box stores like this appeal to me a lot more because as a student I am on a very tight budget and therefore usually go to the Wal-marts and superstores to save my money. If I wasn’t going to school and had a steady good income I would probably care a little bit more of what I am buying and do extra research on it to see what I am getting out of the product I am purchasing. I know that I am just one person in a world of many people, but for the most part the people I talk to do exactly the same thing. After class today, it opened my eyes; I had no idea of all the things that go on behind closed doors. I am defiantly going to start checking into and researching products a lot more before I make purchases so I can help in the process of helping with sustainability. I know this is just a small step in making a big change but I will do what I must. If we want a big change to our environment we need a huge shift to happen, which is not very likely, unless we do it a community at a time and influence others to do the same. In the time of a recession, I don’t see this happening very quickly as everyone is always looking for the best bang for their buck.

ReferenceMcDonough, William. (1993). A Centennial Sermon: Design, Ecology, Ethics and the Making of Things.