Conspicuous consumption at home

I have just exhausted a good few minutes looking to photograph examples of conspicuous waste effortlessly. How very exhausting!

Conspicuous waste part 2

Hello again consumers! My little cousin came over today and an obvious topic for this time of year came up. Christmas. He was eager to see our Christmas tree and to compare his one to ours. He looked in both rooms downstairs - the dining room and living room but found no tree. Even before I could ask him what he was looking for, he asked "where is your Christmas tree?" I told him we do not have one. In total disbelief, he shouted "can't you afford one!!!?" The funny thing being, we usually do put up a tree and we have been for years now. No one has got around to putting it up just yet but my cousin's little rant made me think. So, here are my thoughts.

Why do I need a tree? I personally do not celebrate Christmas so why should I put up a tree? Why do I need to join in and waste electricity lighting up fairy lights and find myself or family buying more decorations just to join in with the Christmas spirit? I mean, Christmas is a religious occasion that marks the birth of Jesus. Why are we non-Christians are celebrating Christmas too? Don't get me wrong, I am all for celebrating Christmas. Christians should continue to celebrate joyfully the coming of Christ in all ways possible, but for us non-believers, it really is unnecessary consumption in a big way. Think about all those trees that are cut around this time of year, the amount of paper and card that is used on Christmas cards, all the electricity used to light up trees in homes, all those lamp posts out on the streets, lights and displays in shops and not to forget the huge tree’s that are lit up in town centres. What about the excessive eating and drinking done in the build to Christmas and not to mention all the extra plastic and cardboard that is used in superstores on food and presents.

Thinking about it, I can recall times when growing up as a child, we would go around comparing our tree's too. "Oh, our tree is bigger, our tree has more lights..." and before you know it, they've gone and bought a bigger tree and put it up with extra lights and decorations. I know, I know! – some of these tree's can be reused year after year but what happens when you want a bigger one or one that is more contemporary that comes in black or purple? Since when have tree's been black anyway? Or purple! So much unnecessary consumption! It's not just the Christmas tree but all the other things we do and buy to keep ourselves up to date. Think about all the mobile phones, cars, laptops, clothes etc we buy even though our old ones are still good and working. Isn't it crazy? Why would you not keep what is still working? Instead, we find ourselves queing up at O2 the night before the latest iphone comes out.

I hope I'm not sounding too much like a Scrooge! My point is you’re just simply expected to join in with consumption. If you don't consume what everyone else is consuming be it Christmas or not, you must be "cheap" or "behind in time".

My war on supermarket waste by Ginny Buckley

Quickly go back to to my 'Tesco trip' post, I just came across this interesting article written by Ginny Buckley in the Daily Mail back in October 2007. She echo's my feelings exactly on supermarket packaging and wastage. Its about time supermarkets do more!

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/consumer/caring/article.html?in_article_id=425605&in_page_id=511

Conspicuous waste part 1

Most of us are living luxuriously and as a result of it have become conspicuous consumers. What does it mean to be a  "conspicuous consumer"? A conspicuous consumer is someone who wastes money/ recourses to display a sense of higher living or superiority over others by status. It means spending more money than needed just to portray status or class. For example, my sister and her husband are both doctors in California. They have a one year old son and are very humble people. Given that they are doctors, a lot is expected from them socially. On one hand they both enjoy the simple life and appreciate simple living but giving into pressure from other family members and friends, they have moved into a much larger house that shows their social status and wealth. There are only three of them but they live in a home that can house up to eight people. Can you imagine how much it must cost to keep the house warm in the winter? They both drive automatic Mercedes for work and pleasure.

Do we really need to drive around in a big expensive car when a small well run car serves the same purpose? Do we really need to live in a house that is bigger than our basic needs are in life? Why do we need designer bags when less expensive ones can serve the same purpose? What it comes down to, is society. We all want to be seen and accepted as comfortable and upto date people. I’m not innocent here either considering I drive a car with a sports engine and only buy the best produce be it food or clothes etc, but thinking of conspicious consumption, its certainly making me see everything differently.

All this thinking has bought back a very personal and warm memory of a trip to India I took in the winter of 2008. I belong to a "higher" working class family back in India and we are highly respected and looked up to due to our higher agricultural class. My aunt lives very comfortably compared to many average working class people there and there is something rather special about her. Cars, money, land and space is no issue at all for her and her family. They have a very large modern kitchen with dinning space and the latest mod cons available in India. What shocked me most about her was her humble personality and appreciation of the simple life. Hopefully, this picture fills you up with warmth just like it did for me when I sat and watched her.

Picture from Winter 2008

In India, people really like to make things last and endeavour to waste as little as possible. For some of us, it may seem a little crazy as to why someone who has a large modern kitchen with all the latest mod cons would want to cook the old traditional way that the poor man does. My aunt has this "stove" at the back of her house where she adores to cook whilst watching her neighbour’s children play. Most of what fuels the fire is natural waste. It costs virtually nothing apart from children's play time to cook on it. The children bring dried twigs, pieces of wood, dry hay and leaves to burn the fire. Not only was this fire cooking some of our meals, but it was used to sit out some evenings after cooking to heat our hands and socialize.
I was curious to find out why she still sometimes uses this stove when there is no need to. To my surprise, she explained that it made her appreciate and respect what they used in the past and that it helped bring back memories of her childhood. To look at, you would assume her and her family to be conspicuous consumers seeing their house from the outside but knowing her, showed me that in fact her consumption is lower than what possibly an average person's would be.

Where my food left overs go

What do you do with your food left overs? Most of mine goes to Tyson! He loves it!

Recycling in Redbridge

I found my way to Tesco's again this evening and learnt my nearest recycle centre is only 0.5 miles from my house. I took along some empty cans, glass and plastic bottles with me. To my surprise, Tesco's has a really good recycle centre. They don't only recycle the obvious but they go further and even recycle shoes and clothes. Although it's -1°C in Redbridge right now, there were a few families doing their recycling. It was pretty awesome to see that people here, do actually take recycling seriously and to see that they are doing their bit for the planet as consumers too.

Here are some pictures of my local recycling centre.

Almost all household waste can be recycled here. If anything that can't be is probably waste of food. I'd like to see a facility where food wastage could be recycled too.

Other than the recycling centre at Tesco's, Redbridge council collects our recylcing boxes every Fridays.

Overall, there are over 70 recycling sites in Redbridge. Redbridge's recycle centre allows the following wastages to be recycled separately;

How impressive!

• Aluminium foil
• Batteries - NEW!
• Bulky items
• Cans (food and drink) 
• Car batteries
• Cardboard (all types)
• Ceramics (e.g toilets, sinks)
• Cooking oil
• Electrical goods (e.g TVs, computers)
• Flourescent light bulbs
• Fridges and freezers
• Furniture
• Garden waste
• Glass bottles and jars
• Hard plastics (e.g garden furniture, kids toys)
• Hardcore and Rubble
• Paint
• Paper
• Plastic bottles (e.g detergents, drinks bottles)
• Printer Cartridges
• Rubble
• Scrap metal
• Shoes
• Soil and Sand
• Televisions and monitors
• Tetrapak cartons (juice cartons)
• Textiles
• Tins
• Tyres
• Used engine oil
• Washing Machines, dryers and dishwashers
• White goods (e.g fridges, freezers)
• Wood and timber
• Yellow pages (now also accepted in the recycling box)
  http://www.redbridge.gov.uk/cms/parking_rubbish_and_streets/rubbish_and_recycling/recycling_reducing_reusing/reuse_and_recycling_centres.aspx

Tesco trip

Hello consumers! I've been down to Tesco’s to pick up some vegetables and milk. Vegetables make me feel so healthy, good and sensible. You can’t beat green veggies and milk when it comes to living healthy but then today, I found myself looking at it from a different view all thanks to Doug! Here’s my problem; I understand that vegetables need to be packaged properly so that they stay fresh but do they really need to be plastered with plastic all over them? It's almost like these supermarkets are charging you for the packaging and not the actual product. I mean, vegetables don’t even need promoting or any special visuals on them. They’re kind of there for people who NEED them. All that packaging is unnecessary.

What do I do with all the packaging that’s left now? I've used the vegetables already and the milk's in the fridge but come two days later, I’ll be left with an empty milk gallon too. Will the gallon be waste? It's a good job my parents do the recycling otherwise I’d be a complete waster! Thanks to Doug, I even noticed something interesting on the carrier bag with this 'waste' game in mind. It says "This bag is biodegradable."  Oh and not to forget to mention, I also noticed a whole area in the Tesco carpark for recycling! But more on that in another post.

Wikianswers says "It means that the substance or object is able to be broken down by a biological agent such as bacteria so that the carbon in the substance can be used in living organisms

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_meaning_of_biodegradable#ixzz16uMouwx0"

If these carrier bags are biodegrabable, they can't be taking up too much space in landfill sites? Food rotting away in landfill sites though is another story. I'm horrified at what I've just read! Check this out guys!

Every day in the UK we throw away:

• 5.1 million whole potatoes
• 4.4 million whole apples
• 2.8 million whole tomatoes
• 7 million whole slices of bread
• 1.2 million sausages
• 0.7 million whole bars of chocolate and unwrapped sweets
• 0.3 million unopened packets of crisps
• And more…..

• Harmful gases (such as carbon dioxide and methane) are produced when this food rots in landfill sites across the UK. 
• The energy used in food production, packaging, transportation and storage all goes to waste when we throw away food. 
• If we stop wasting food it would have the same impact as taking 1 in 5 cars off the road. 

In the UK we spend £10.2 billion every year buying and then throwing away good food. This is:

• £420 every year for the average UK household
• £610 every year for households with children
• Another £1 billion is then spent by local authorities collecting food waste and sending most of it to landfill

http://www.redbridge.gov.uk/cms/parking_rubbish_and_streets/rubbish_and_recycling/recycling_reducing_reusing/love_food_hate_waste.aspx

How disgusting does that sound? This is what wisegeek.com had to say about Americans;

"According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the average American produces about 4.4 pounds (2 kg) of garbage a day, or a total of 29 pounds (13 kg) per week and 1,600 pounds (726 kg) a year. This only takes into consideration the average household member and does not count industrial waste or commercial trash. If this sounds like a staggering number, you would be surprised to know that Americans are not the number one producers of garbage in the world. In Mexico, the average household produces 30 percent more garbage than in America."

2kg a day?! That's astonishing!