Just this afternoon,

I was typing out a particular social media post on sustainable fashion.

For one reason, I found myself searching for images of landfills in Africa that have come up due to dumping of β€œwasted clothes”.

 

Photo credit:Β Earthy Route

 

A question came into my head.

β€œWe can’t breathe anymore. When do we end the endless consumerism”?

 

Photo credit:Β Plastic Collective

 

The people who make all these things we buy, do so simply because we provide an endless stream of market for them.

To add onto that, we are often trapped in the web of advertising whereby we are constantly bombarded with adverts of β€œnew” items for sale, that have just been made to β€œsuit our needs”!

 

Photo credit:Β The Interfaith Centre for Sustainable Development

 

What happens when these items don’t satisfy our needs in that time that we have them?

Shall we not keep buying item after item, looking for this mysterious satisfaction?

Or can we actually stay still in the moment and look around for creative ways we can mold what we already have, into what we can actually use in the present-day?

 

Sam Odaw, owner of Kotokoraba African Market, shows the various authentic products and produce he stocks in his store, Tuesday, June 6, 2023, in Spring. The store is one of four African restaurants and grocery stores along Sawdust and Rayford Roads, who serve the growing African population in southern Montgomery County and North Houston.

 

We never use many of these items we buy.

Where do they end up?

In landfills, in very remote areas of the world.

 

Photo credit:Β FoodPrint

 

Do you honestly think we can breathe anymore?

The piles just keep getting bigger and our consuming doesn’t seem to be stopping, either!

Do we just get used to the consumerism available today?

What do we do then?