USE & Re-USE!

BEFORE

 When we go shopping or just purchase some stuffs like foods or items, we always come to find ourselves with the choice of using either paper bags or plastic bags.  Many of us find ourselves with that kind question and wonder what is the responsible choice for the environment.

        To give a more clearing to this, I will begin to explain the difference between Papers and Plastics. Some advantages of Paper Bags is that they are easier to carry than plastic bags, holds more items than plastic bags = fewer bags to handle and more importantly it is environmentally preferred. But most people use plastic bags because plastics are made from a renewable natural resource and can be reused again and again.

NOW

       To help minimize our waste each day, I have come to a decision that instead of arguing on using whether plastic or paper bags I will instead use a more efficient way of minimizing waste by the use of “Reusable Bags”. By using reusable bags, I can go on several shopping without having to use or waste plastics or papers. I have come to think that if every shopper starts to take the importance of reusable bags then the much will be achieved.  Plastic waste, carbon footprint will be reduced and more importantly the earth will achieve more sustainability.

 I have reflected after learning this, I am definitely going to take reusable bags instead of plastics or papers to the stores even when I go shopping for clothes and other things besides food. Even if I forget to take my reusable bag, I will put what I have purchased that can fit to my bag. I will also encourage some of my relatives, family members and friends and also to you fellow readers to adopt this kind of habit.

State of the World 2010: Transforming Cultures

"State of the World 2010: Transforming Cultures is breaking new ground. We are paying a high price for ignoring the issues of consumption and consumerism for so long. What a wonderful book this is to guide us into the years ahead."

“State of the World 2010: Transforming Cultures: From Consumerism to Sustainability” is a book by Worldwatch Institute, published by W. W. Norton & Company and examines the institutions that the goal is to shape culture. There are 26 articles from 60 experts on the topic of consumerism, sustainability and cultural change. The book provides information on how we can make develop change from consumerism to sustainability. Sustainability is defined as the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the potential for long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions.

In State of the World, it has shown not only how people could make a change but also shows the ways to transform consumerism into a culture that is based on sustainability. All in all, there are six Chapters which include education, business, the media, government, traditions and social movements that present possible solutions to global environmental problems, which focus on institutions that are the principal engineers of culture, such as governments, the media, and religious organizations.

State of the World 2010 explains that while the human population has grown, consumption has grown even more and is almost three times more. A quote coming from the book: “Consumption has grown dramatically over the past five decades, up 28 percent from the $23.9 trillion spent in 1996 and up sixfold from the $4.9 trillion spend in 1960,” written by Erik Assadourian, a Senior Researcher and Project Director of State of the World 2010. . If we continue to not stop and still adopt this kind of living, the Earth would soon dramatically decrease in only sustain people. While people focus consuming, cultural orientation on the other hand plays a bigger role for society and the planet. Finally, I observed that the book it is written clearly, it provides new ideas and opinions regarding the state of the world. It presents a clearer view of our fast changing world that we, and more importantly the leaders, cannot afford to ignore. 

The Story of Stuff

Story of stuff is written and narrated by Annie Leonard. It tackles about critical review of consumerism and its effect on the planet. It offers ideas and delivers information regarding the process of making goods and how our obsession with stuff is trashing the planet. Story of Stuff describes the process in which resources are gathered and removed from the planet in several amounts and. It goes on to explain how the government is behind the manufacturing and production. Finally, it discusses how the most important and influential part of the process, consumerism, leads to the destruction of our environment.

Story of stuff states that people create more than 5 pounds of trash per day and will be equal to almost 5 billion pounds of harmful chemicals released per year in order to produce the goods that we consume.  The scenario led me to think about how much we are affected by those chemicals that we produce and led me to think how the environmental exposure and human diseases are related to each other. Both the environment and the global economy are affected by this widespread consumerism. Due to this, pollution and hazardous waste materials continue to rise, while our natural resources continue to decline.

If consumerism still continue and does not slow down, the natural resources will eventually run out, leaving planet earth and mankind to destruction. Consumerism has come to the result of our natural forests being destroyed. Hundreds of trees will disappear from forest due to people’s greed. Therefore, actions must be done to make differences we need the most and as citizens of this planet, we cannot afford to wait more until it’s too late.

I thought that most of the sights and information in the video was interesting. It was my first time to see it for me I was very shocked to see the current situation that we are facing right now regarding consumerism.  The story of stuff made me stop and think of the future and what will happen and what action are we going to do for our environment and for the people that live. We should always care and start doing appropriate and necessary actions and just because we don’t realize they are suffering doesn't mean that we should not care. I believe that it is my priority to take actions in the future and I will do it helping the environment through activities. Recycling our water bottles, throwing trash in its proper disposal or recycling the paper would help.