Jul 14, 2024 02:59 AM
We are living amid a problem of unsustainable consumption, and its waste surrounds us, among them rolls of plastic, packaging material, and fashion clothing.
This problem became more apparent during the pandemic when online shopping became the only way to acquire goods. After that, the door to reach consumers at all hours of the day was opened, and packaging – mostly plastics – that will keep the newness or freshness of a product, added to the waste generated by households.
Sustainable consumption is Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No.12, part of the 17 goals which aim to transform our world. In 2015, all the countries in the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The goals are a “call to action to end poverty and inequality, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy health, justice and prosperity.”
Sustainable consumption has become a major concern these days because of consumer behavior in online shopping. In June 2020, global retail e-commerce traffic reached a record 22 billion monthly visits and a staggering $26.7 trillion in sales, Earth.org said. What draws consumers to buy online are: price, speed, and convenience.
“By the end of this year (2023), Asia is set to account for 50 percent of the world’s total online retail sales, most of which take place in China, currently the world’s leading country by retail e-commerce sales. Singles’ Day, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday are just a few examples of the initiatives that push consumers to buy more and more goods,” the Earth.org article published in December 2023, “The Truth About Online Shopping and Its Environmental Impact,” said.
The problems brought by the convenience of online shopping are many. The packaging of products contributes to CO2 emissions from producing plastics, polluting ecosystems and adding large amounts of waste to landfills.
The article cites specifics: “Three billion trees are pulped yearly to produce 241 million tons of shipping cartons, the forest conservation group Canopy found. And of the 86 million tons of plastic packaging produced globally each year, not even 14 percent is recycled.”
One area where unsustainable consumption is generating large amounts of waste is in fashion, specifically textile. A recent report said that in China, the world’s largest textile producer and consumer, “more than 26 million tons of clothes are thrown away each year, according to government statistics. Most of it ends up in landfills.”
The report further said that “textile waste is an urgent global problem, with only 12 percent recycled worldwide, according to fashion sustainability nonprofit Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Only one percent— are recycled into new garments; the majority is used for low-value items like insulation or mattress stuffing.
The problem has been traced to the fast fashion trends and the convenience and speed of online shopping.
In 2019, the UN Environment launched the Sustainable Consumption and Production Hotspots Analysis Tool that allows countries to see “hotspots” of unsustainable practices in consumption and production. The online application analyses the environmental and socio-economic performance of 171 countries over the past 25 years to provide scientific evidence of areas where improvement can be made, the UN agency said.
We need to stem the tide of unsustainable consumption by reshaping the buying habits of consumers who need to be engaged into becoming responsible stewards of the earth’s finite resources.
