The Use and Throw Culture

‘ Reduce, reuse and recycle ‘ is a phrase we  have often heard it said. Yep, most of us have only heard it and never really applied it in our day to day life.

Most of us prefer to buy new clothes every now and then rather than wearing old ones. I don’t really understand the logic behind this . No, seriously given a choice I would rather just spent my whole day wearing my pyjama and T-Shirt.

When we go shopping most of us are just think about buying a good dress and  ignore just everything going  on in behind the scenes. We don’t care about(or are unaware ) how much water or energy has been used to make that dress available to us. While doing a little research on the internet I found out that textile production produces 1.2 billion tones of greenhouse gas every year. It can take 2,700 liters of water to produce the cotton needed to make a single shirt. That’s enough water  for a person to drink for two and a half years.  In most of the cases wastewater containing toxic substance is directly dumped into rivers causing water pollution.  Most of the clothes are made using  heavy chemicals which causes diseases and premature deaths among the farmers  and lots more.

Now a days most cities have a market where clothes and other fashion items are sold at cheap prices.  Be it Sarojini Nagar in Delhi or Tulsi Bhag in Pune .This might seem like a blessing to many shoppers , however , it comes with a cost. Making available clothes  (and other products) at cheap prices has promoted the culture of ‘ use and throw’.  According to a survey the consumption of clothes in 2014 was 60% more than that  in the year 2000 and it is continuously increasing. Only 15% percent of the clothes are recycled or donated.  So what happens to the rest? they are dumped in the landfill further polluting the land because 60% of the clothes are made from synthetic fiber which is non-biodegradable.  Opting for this ‘ use and throw ‘ culture is very convenient for us but we will have to pay the price for this in the long run.

I was thinking  about the reasons  behind this whole concept of  buying new products  instead of using the old(in fact not that old  ). One reason is that we want to look cool and of course ‘Ameeri toh dekhaani hai na’. I will narrate a personal experience. This Diwali like always we went to purchase new clothes but this time my parents didn’t accompany us. My sister and I were given the money to spent on clothing and other accessories. So we went around from one shop to another looking for clothes. In the process I realized that I already have occasion wear that I had purchased for my cousin’s wedding . I decided to wear that instead of spending money on an  expensive outfit that I would hardly  ever wear. Now this came as a shock to my family. Their first question was ‘ what will people say when they see you in the same outfit that you just wore  for the wedding’. I don’t know about others but what I want to say is that IT IS OKAY TO WEAR THE SAME CLOTHES.  Most of us buy new clothes or bags or whatever else you buy just to look cool around our peers. 

The second reason why we like to  adopt the culture of ‘use and throw’ is that we are just lazy. Given an option between cooking our own meal or ordering packaged food, duh we would go for packaged food. I mean who will take the effort to cook the meal and later wash the dishes. It is just so much easier to eat packaged or ordered most. I used to do that a lot and now whenever my mother is not around I make my sister cook for me. Poor her.

I have listed down the problems with this mentality of buying more and more ….are there any solutions .

Well first of all buy less and  DON’T BE ASHAMED OF REPEATING YOUR CLOTHES. To tell you the truth no one  really cares , they might be too busy thinking about  what impression you will have of them. And even if people comment on your clothing this should not be bothering you.

Secondly buy products offering better quality which will last for a long time. Don’t give in to these fashion trends because they are always changing.

When you get bored of your clothes, donate them instead of throwing.

Buy clothes which are made from biodegradable dyes…there are many if you look for them.

Don’t be shy to wear the handed down clothes. Most Indians often joke about having  clothes handed down to them by their siblings but that’s a good habbit and we should keep that alive.

So whenever you decide to shop the next time please ask yourself if you really need that product and also think about the long term effects of it. Only the consumers can put an end to this stupid culture.   

And about the Diwali dress…no one notice ; )  ….or did they ……