From the National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 1500-207 Natl. Inst. Stand. Technol. Spec. Publ. 1500-207, 55 pages (May 2022). https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.1500-207.pdf

It is estimated that in the U.S. a mere 15% of discarded clothing and textiles are collected for reuse, recycling, or downcycling, while the remainder is sent for landfill and incineration... A circular economy (CE) approach aims to extend the life of textile products through reuse and repair and keep end-of-life (EoL) materials in the economy through recycling... The current textiles recovery system in the U.S. includes collection, sorting, grading, and to some extent, recycling. That said, a majority of the 15 % of textile products collected are exported to low income regions for resale, although there is skepticism regarding the sustainability and benefit of this practice. While several methods of recycling exist, they are at different stages of maturity and face many barriers.

Ethical Off-loading (From Ashlee Piper's No New Things) is an intentional approach to decluttering and donating that passes along items to recipients who will reuse them or to locations where they will be recycled rather than thrown away. When people donate to big box donation centers, many of those items never make their way into the hands of people who could use them. Examples of ethical off-loading:

• Upcycling or reusing the items yourself
• Offering items to family members, friends, or acquaintances who may want them.
• Doing a clothing swap with people you know or attending one in the community
• Offering them in free groups such as Buy Nothing or Freecycle
• Donating items to organizations that have explicitly requested or stated a need for those types of items. This includes things like a non-profit's free closet, mutual aid groups, or coat drives. Do not donate items and overload organizations that do not have the need or space for them.
• Selling them yourself on the secondary market or at a consignment shop (at least then you know somebody wants them rather than plopping them in a drop box)
• Taking broken items that cannot be re-used to a specific recycling program

This data is about textiles (since that is one of the biggest issues) but the framework also applies to other types of items such as household goods.

The job market has sucked before but we're living some crazy times. My mom has stories from the early 90's and '08 was really bad, but hear me out this one is different and worse. Job searching used to be classified ads, signs on businesses, walk-ins, people were involved from the start (oh the humanity). Fast forward to 2010s with the rise of hiring software (ATS, job board sites, LinkedIn).. things started shifting and now we have AI. The hiring process was ALWAYS opaque. Employers sit on all the data about where our application stands, but 'liability' means they'll never tell us. Fine. That's strike one, and we've all lived with it.

Job board sites have now become profit and data extracting machines. These aren't the employer career sites I'm talking about, but "targeted" adverts spreading all over the internet. Back then, jobs were posted on a few sites. No biggie. Now there are thousands of investor-backed job sites all trying to profit off of our job search. And even staffing agencies that get us hired? They work for the employer, not us. It's all sides, folks.

If any business treated its customers this way, ghosting them, wasting their time, profiting off their struggle, it'd be gone pretty quickly. But job seekers were never the customer. So the bad reviews don't matter. If we keep using their tools, they will find more ways to make money off of us while we're vulnerable. So who's responsible here, the employers, big tech, or us for keeping the lights on for them?

I feel like planned obsolescence has become way too normal. Products aren't necessarily built to last anymore. They're built to last just long enough before you’re pushed toward replacing them.

I bought a VU QLED 65" TV around 4-5 years ago and recently had a display issue. The retailer basically told me that 5 years is already a long time for a TV.

That honestly pissed me off. A 65" TV isn't something I expect to replace every few years. It's a long-term purchase. If something expensive fails, it should at least be reasonably repairable. And this isn't just about TVs. Phones, laptops, appliances and even cars increasingly seem to follow the same cycle. Parts are harder to replace, repairs cost almost as much as buying new and software support gets cut off.

I know nothing lasts forever, but there's a difference between a product naturally reaching the end of its life and an industry that increasingly depends on you replacing things.

Whatever happened to making products that you could actually keep for 10-15 years?

Studies show producing plastic bags consumes very little energy (0.6 megajoules), about the amount a kettle uses for 40 seconds. But they aren't reused, and they go to landfills. However, they don't take up much space in landfills (they have very little mass, and estimates are they consume 0.5% of landfill area).

On the other hand, producing a cotton bag, with the need to make the fibers into yarn, weave them into material, prepare, dry, size and dye it, consumes about 1,525 megajoules, or 3,050 times as much energy as a plastic bag. Cotton bags get reused some or even most of the time, but do they get reused 3,050 times? Probably not.

When we look at reducing our consumption, what should we prioritize? It seems like if we're concerned about energy consumption, plastic bags win over cotton.

I'm wondering how all of you think about this.

The most brain bleed thing happened the other day at work. This lady who is a regular at my job comes in with an owala water bottle, orders her food, eats, and leaves. She forgot her owala. She's a regular to the point that we know her number so we call her and tell her she left it. I was expecting "oh I'll come back and get it" or "I'll pick it up next time" nope. "Oh you guys can just throw it out I need a new one anyways"

This thing has tiny scratches and no other damage.

I get that this may be an extreme case but is it? When I talk to people who buy from shein or temu it's this same mentality. This lady has shown up in a few different cars all luxury expensive cars. It just genuinely makes me wonder why do I even care. I can't even get my circle to be more aware of their purchasing, so how could I reach a person like this?

Needless to say I have a practical new bottle and this is how I've found all of my bottles now since 2021. I'll probably give this to someone who is still using plastic. Maybe I'm being dramatic but I've been in a slump since then.

EDIT* I got a buddy in need of a bottle so he shall have it next time i see him.

Saw these at Walmart the other day. They’re about $12 a piece and they’re blind boxes. This is getting out of control.

It's just disheartening... You know? Reading festival 2026.

Edit: Red-ing is a place in UK, this festival is a famous long running annual music festival. I thought it was about the hobby 📖 at first 😅

Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Anticonsumption/s/x4dZZ3oj8r

Lots of ppl, including me, wasnt sure these blindboxes were legit - but Fjällräven.se confirmed they are (photo 3)

I replied with the following:
”These bag charms are sold in so-called blind boxes, do you think this trendy sales concept aligns well with how you market Fjällräven?

The concept of blind boxes primarily attracts a young target group and leads to overconsumption and material and financial waste (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-13/pros-and-cons-of-blind-boxes-for-kids/106938828 and https://swedenherald.com/article/blind-box-trend-raises-concerns-over-consumer-behavior-and-spending). The concept itself is based on a game or lottery and the fact that you have also chosen to include two "rare/unusual" colors reinforces the game element. As a bonus, you can't return the product if you're unhappy with the one you received (for example, a customer might get 3 of the same color and just have to accept the financial blow and somehow get rid of the copies).

All of this seems extremely negative to customers, so why not just sell them without the box and bag so that customers have the option to choose which one they want to spend their money on and don't have to buy multiple items to get the one they want?

You center your marketing around how environmentally conscious Fjällräven is and how much you respect nature and people:

Second sentence under "about us" on your website:"We have the utmost respect for our environment (...)

* Develop timeless, functional and sustainable outdoor equipment

* Act responsibly towards nature, animals and people"

"We do not chase short-term solutions or trends"

Values ​​where the bags are sold: "We are: sustainable. We are not: fast trends, just talk, greenwashing"

It is laughable how mendacious the company appears when you read this at the same time as Fjällräven forces unwanted products on your "respected" customers and contributes to overconsumption and waste of resources.

I was both surprised and disappointed when I saw that Fjällräven sells blind boxes because I do not at all connect the phenomenon with what your brand represents to me, I even had a hard time believing that it was true - hence the email to you.

Having previously had high confidence in Fjällräven, this has made me reconsider my opinion and I will not buy any more of your products. I sincerely hope that you do not expand the range with blind boxes and that you completely stop using this exploitative sales technique that rhymes so incredibly badly with the company's so-called values.”

Got one last reply (photo 4):
”Thank you for getting in touch and for taking the time to explain.

The bag charm is a product that was developed regionally for the Chinese market. We understand your point of view and will take your valuable feedback into our internal work moving forward.

Thank you again for taking the time to write to us.”

So im guessing absolutly nothing will come of it, still very dissapointed, hope to god it will not be sold anywhere else and hopefully stop.

Like why does my spud need a plastic poncho to leave the grocery store when he’s already got his own natural gear? And why has Aldi’s and Trade Joe’s submitted to accepting more plastic packaging? I used to buy these chocolate wafers in a tin can. I’d open the tin can and get the wafer but now I have to bypass a plastic encasing just to get to the wafer - tin, plastic and then wafer.

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When I bought my townhouse I saw that the top of the microwave was broken off. The previous owner decided to scotch tape this part into place which is a fire hazard as it blocks the vent. The issue was that around the screw the plastic cracked. To replace that piece is $250 for the microwave... cheaper to buy a new microwave. I went to home depot and found plastic bonder glue which was $6. This glue claims to withhold 1500 pounds of force. Dapped it where the cracked plastic was and it solidified in 5 min and get to full strength within 24 hours. Standing on a chair holding a piece of plastic in place for 5 min wasn't the best but it fixed my microwave and I didn't need to get a new one.

I repaired a measuring tape (in which a plastic part broke after years of use) with a metallic rod and a bicycle mirror (that broke thanks to me being clumsy with my bike) with some screws. Everything works perfectly so far.

I hope it's ok to post this here - my apologies if it doesn't fit the sub!

I know this is a very small thing, but I still care about the little things in my work towards consuming less energy! I'm mostly posting it to create discussion more than anything!

I limit myself to one coffee per day (made at home in a moka pot, so as low-consumption as can be), and in the afternoons I tend to have a glass of mineral water, which comes in glass bottles and comes from a spa about 150km from where I live. The bottles are returnable or at minimum fully recyclable.

I drink mineral water for the health benefits - all the potassium, magnesium, calcium, etc... I of course drink plenty of tap water, but tap water doesn't contain all the minerals that protect heart health, prevent strokes, keep bones strong, etc...

I like to drink this cold, so I have two options: either I keep the bottles of mineral water in the fridge, which mean the fridge has to work to keep the bottles cold; or I keep the bottles in the cupboard, and freeze ice cubes to cool the water when I pour it.

I am comparing the energy consumption for a fridge to cool 1L glass bottle to about 5 degrees, and the energy needed for a freezer to cool a few ml of water to negative degrees. I suppose the difference might be negligible, and maybe it doesn't really matter, but I was hoping to at least discuss it and consider if there might be a "best" option! So far, from what I've read elsewhere, it sounds like keeping drinks in the fridge is more energy efficient than freezing ice cubes, but I'm still not sure! :)

(and a small disclaimer: if this seems too nit-picky and like I should focus on bigger things, I've kind of already done the bigger things. 😂 I sold my car in 2010 and never looked back, I rarely fly and almost always take the train, I don't really eat beef, etc... so this is where I'm at on my journey and I enjoy it ;))

So, my main questions for discussion are:

1) what are your thoughts on the two, if you have any? :)

2) what other less obvious ways do you work to consume less energy? Any you'd recommend that people mightn't have thought of?

​

Who greenlit this? It's so tone deaf. Esit: Deaf not death lol

Hello all, I'm trying to downsize my clothing a little bit. I'm just finding that I don't often get a chance to wear items even if I like them. I've gotten better about not impulse buying clothes, and rarely buy brand new items anymore. What would the best way to get rid of the items I don't want/need?

Walmart is releasing a bag version of their rotisserie chickens. I wouldn't want to be repping Walmart, I already do not like that it's one of the only places in my town to go to for affordable groceries (but a costco will be opening soon yay!) Idk if I'm being too harsh as a lot of people seem to like it, but I can already picture it being used once or twice and then being thrown out, donated, or tossed into storage.

Things I've done to reduce my consumption significantly:

I have 3 pairs of jeans. One of them was gifted recently. And the other two are 3-4 years old.

I dyed them with environmental friendly color dye to make them alive again.

I use my dad's old mobile phone. Its 6+ years old now. And I manage well all the memory, apps in it so its working pretty fine. My dad keeps asking if I want a new one, and I refuse each time.

I'm 19 now and I still wear the tops, dresses, jeweleries I bought when I was 14-15. None of them are damaged because I keep them really well, and they look just as new honestly.

I always buy quality stuff so that they last longer.

I still have my 7th grade school bag which I now use for college

I love writing, and when I'm writing I always make sure I don't leave any unnecessary spaces. Ive filled 4-5 diaries since 6th grade by writing like this. (Attached image)

This stayed relavent even in my college notes. I divide each page into two and fill them up one by one. Ive not only saved dozens of books but also a lot money. Moreover, this lets you browse thru your notes way better as you now have more info on a single page. (Attached image)

I always avoid any synthetic fabric.

I do not eat any junk from outside except very occasionally. Esp junks like chips, and cookies because not only are they unhealthy, but the plastic wrapping just annoys me

I always use the products I buy mindfully, and try not to waste any of them.

I collect the waste water from my water purifier for things like mopping, cleaning etc.

I will soon be making myself a blanket with the existing fabric I have at home. Ive already made a pillow cover with my old tops. My mom has made me some pants, tops at home which I love wearing.

I sell my old books/textbooks. And give my used notebooks for recycle.

I do not use any sort of ai which could replace my brain activity, I only do when I'm left with no other option. I use brave browser and have turned off the ai overview too.

Ive been doing these things since I was a teen honestly. I realise its importance more and more with each passing day.

PS, I come from a well to do family. Ive just been doing this because I care.

I'm honestly getting really annoyed with the constant consumption with birthdays. For kids, I get it a bit more; however, we get invited to birthday parties a lot for my kids friends. I always buy the gift and I always let them go, but it's A LOT yearly. Most of the gifts run $30 or so per kid, and my kids also usually come home with a bag of junk. I also see parents setting up and then throwing away a ton of decor, balloons, paper plates/plastic utensils, streamers, etc. I know, it's for kids, so it's a bit more acceptable, although we usually prefer to do an activity as a family instead of gifts/decor. I probably spend $300+ on kids' birthday gifts per year.

But I also see adults going really hard for birthdays too. I have a friend who has a "birthday week" where she takes off of work the entire week and she has a schedule of activities and dinners she wants people to attend. I don't live local to her, but she often includes a "birthday trip" several hours away from her home that weekend, and she has asked me to fly in for that before.

I have another friend who has a birthday dinner at an expensive place each year, and everyone gives her a gift she opens at the table in front of everyone, and those gifts are often expensive, so you feel it if you have a "cheaper" gift. I gave her homemade jam and salsa one year from my garden, as well as a bouquet of lavender I grew, and I felt a little bad because she got a Kate Spade purse right before.

In order to not compound and promote consumerism, I don't plan any birthday activities or accept gifts for myself for my birthday. I let my kids pick an outing or activity for theirs, and we do that. We do invite their friends sometimes too.

How are you mitigating the consumerism around birthdays? Are you more likely to spend money on kids birthdays versus adult birthdays? How do you celebrate your own or your kids' birthdays?

I know that I’m not saying anything new when I rant about how ridiculous it is that the cost of existing subscriptions are increasing. But the fact that services are all going up at the same time just feels like insult on top of injury. This weekend I went on a spree and cancelled everything I could think of, my Claude, PlayStation, streaming, etc. Thinking about switching my mobile service from Verizon to another provider next. I’m anticipating it might be tough for a few weeks but I cleansed all my social media accounts (except Reddit, obviously) a few years ago and I eventually forgot about them over time. So I figure theses transitions will feel the same eventually.

Let me know if anyone else out there has been cancelling their subscriptions too and how you’re experience has been.

I haven't laid eyes on one for close to a decade. I mean I'm glad there's employment but why the waste when almost everyone has a directory in their hands?

I'm trying to find a cute candle warmer lamp to use on my candles whose wicks are too small to light. I can't find a SINGLE option that's not Amazon, Target, or Walmart OR drop-shipped from said stores. All the "10 best," "5 top," etc listicles are all Amazon links with the keyboard smash brands.

I feel bad for whoever came up with it because they are not getting any money from how wildly popular the concept is.

EDIT: I checked about 20 different department stores across three continents and the reverse searched the suggested products. Options are few and far between, but I did find one! However, as I stated in a comment response, this search was the proverbial straw, and I am generally frustrated by the overabundance of Amazon et al results when searching for specific items. I wish I could permanently (or easily) exclude them from my search results.

Got this expensive weekender as a gift a few years ago and wore out the "vegan leather" (read: plastic bullshit pleather) to where it was peeling like crazy and leaving debris everywhere. The construction of the bag is still really sturdy so I reupholstered it with some denim from a pair of pants my husband wore out and some ribbons that came on gift bags I'd received.

Used a combination of gluing and sewing to attach the denim & ribbon any place there was pleather and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. Can't wait to get many more years out of this bag! Not bad for someone with next to zero sewing skills :)

This is the kind of idea I love seeing

Researchers created a material that grabs tiny plastic particles from water and can then be pulled out with a magnet.