California lawmakers recently approved two bills banning grocery and convenience stores statewide from offering customers reusable plastic bags. These bills are the next step in combating plastic waste, but what about the waste from mass consumerism that has come to pervade our lives? Through the past decades, we have been trained to shop, purchase and consume products to solve our problems. While mending old clothing and refurbishing used goods have become things of the past, new products that are ubiquitously promoted are cramming our stores, screens and mailboxes.
Growing up in the digital age, Gen Z is the prime target for this consumerist culture. Their lives are catered toward finding flaws with what they currently own and buying the next best thing. In the process, our world lays waste, proving the disastrous effects of those spending habits.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 1930, the average American woman owned nine outfits.
Today, that figure is 30 — one for every day of the month. Much of this clothing is hoarded. The Daily Mail reports that women in the U.
K. buy half their body weight in clothes each year, storing 22 unworn items on average in their closets. While those who have the luxury to buy in excess live in momentary bliss, young women and children who are exposed to toxic chemicals in factories that manufacture those items pay the price.
We are deeply alarmed by the wicked social problems facing our world, and we need to reawaken Gen .
