A New Ethics of Consumption

Written on 07/27 at 06:06 PM by Andy Posner 0 comments

Filed under: Huffington Post

I wrote this article for the Huffington Post. Click here to see it in its original context.

Last week I visited Rhode Island’s central landfill to do some research on recycling and composting. As I sat in an office overlooking the dump, I couldn’t help but marvel at the endless stream of trucks filling the valley with what I like to call the by-products of bad design and carelessness. Bad design because almost nothing we buy is designed to be re-used at the end of its life, and carelessness because so much of what we discard could be re-used or recycled if only the items were placed in the proper bin. All this got me thinking about the ethics of consumption, and what it would mean to eliminate the concept of waste.

Being Less Bad is No Good
Under the current model of consumption it is very difficult to be an ethical consumer. One can essentially choose between “bad” and “less bad” products; organic and free trade labels help, but greenwashing has become an insidious problem, making it difficult to distinguish truly green advances from baseless claims. But even more importantly, for the conscious consumer consumption is a necessary evil at best, and a scourge on the Earth at worst. What we forget is that all living things consume, the only difference is that humans are the only life forms that actually deplete, destroy and pollute natural resources. That doesn’t have to be the case. It’s possible to manufacture products that are healthy for ecosystems, human society and the corporate bottom line.

Next entry: Throwing Out "Reduce. Reuse. Recycle."

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