Thursday, May 28, 2009

My personal war against planned obsolescence

I have made a determination that of all the most broken things in the world, the root cause is our crazy consumer culture that thrives on planned obsolescence and the disposable mentality. This is the root of most of our ecological problems, much of the social injustice in the world, and just a lot of waste and misery.

I figure that the first major step is for me to do a major inventory for a month of everything I throw away and recycle. That way I can try to see patterns. I probably ought to keep track of what I buy, too.

So, here is today:
Discarded
1. starbucks coffee cup
2. umbrella [broken]
3. Plastic skin wrapping from frozen pizza
4. Cardboard backing for frozen pizza
5. Plastic skin wrapping from bacon
6. Food contaminated paper bag

Recycled
1. Frozen pizza box
2. Bacon box
3. Shampoo bottle
4. Newspaper circular
5. Receipt x2
6. catalog
7. 30 sheets of paper

Stuff I bought
1. New umbrella
2. thinking of you cards x2
3. 1 package of blank cds