Stuff: it is so pervasive.

I recently found this video on The Green Workplace. Watching it really opened my eyes to how much stuff I have and how much I seem to think I need. Consumerism has run rampant in America. We can never have enough stuff. And in our blinding pursuit of stuff, we are killing the planet. Yeah, everyone knows “save the environment”, “go green”, etc. But what is amazing is it is the consumer that drives demand for more stuff, more THROW AWAY stuff. We are all guilty of it. We all buy new items and get rid of them in 6 months.  We must demand quality goods. Goods that will last for a long time, more goods that are worth fixing rather than chucking and buying a new one.

Annie Leonard makes a good point. Someone pays for each thing we buy. True we may get a great deal on something, but that doesn’t mean it was cheap to make. All those workers without health-care, without good wages. THEY are paying for our cheap goods.

So if we reuse and recycle and generally buy less stuff, what happens to all those workers who were manufacturing all that stuff? Well, maybe they learn the trade of repairing that stuff we already own. That keeps jobs in the community and the earth under our feet.

Which brings up another point in my rambling post. Community, local produce and jobs seems to be the new “green”. Organic is out, sort of, local is in. So maybe the global village isn’t such a good thing. Maybe the world needs to be big, and not small. Maybe globalization wasn’t such a productive idea. But I don’t that we should revert to the “old ways”. Progress is good, Responsibility is better. We must realize that we are making excuses. “Our neighbor will go green, so I don’t have to.” It is like a situation where a person is hurt and needs to go to the hospital. 40 people see this hurt person and no one calls 911 because everyone assumes someone else will do it. EVERYONE must take responsibility. Don’t assume that someone else will handle it.

So that is my recycled, sustainable soapbox which I will re-purpose as a window box for my herbs.