PLASTIC FREE JULY: DAY 15

Day Fifteen:

Are you a slave to consumerism?

In this day and age we are brainwashed into believing we need the latest, up to date gadgets and household items. We live in a consumer society, if it's broken, we don't fix it, we buy a new one. If it's last year's model, it's not good enough. But what happens to all the trashed items that get thrown in a skip and forgotten about? Fortunately, a lot of it gets sorted through and recycled where possible but there is still a large amount landing up in landfill. A lot of perfectly good working items being chucked out too.

Next time you need to buy a new item or replace a non-fixable one, why not look at second-hand items first. Websites like gumtree or ebay as well as many facebook pages such as "buy, sell and swap in Adelaide & surrounding areas", ( or a similar page in your town) have many new & used items advertised every minute of the day. Purchasing items that have been used or are new & unwanted massively reduces the demand on production of new products. If we all made more effort to utilise what is already out there we can hugely reduce the impact of waste that gets sent to landfill.

Fix; Recycle; Upcycle; Sell; Give Away! Try everything before sending to landfill.

Re-think your thinking...