You may have come across the 3 Rs of sustainability – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – or even the 7 Rs (or even 9 Rs) of sustainability (see our previous blog on this).

We are examining these in a little more detail – here is the third in the pyramid – Reduce.

As we said in the last Eco-Tip, Jason Hickel wrote that everyone on the planet could live good lives with decent living standards using “30% of current global resource and energy”. Most of us in the developed nations consume so much “stuff”, we don’t think about where it comes from or where it ends up, and in between we may only use it once or twice. We replace “stuff” because we are offered a newer version with extra features which we didn’t want in the first place! Or we replace “stuff” because it was designed badly in the first place and designed to break or wear out too quickly. We need to reduce the amount of “stuff” we consume!

Here are a few tips:

  • don’t be lured in by special offers. If there’s a buy-one-get-one-free offer on a product, but you know you’re not really going to use that much food before its best before date, save the resource and money. Similarly, don’t buy things just because they’ve been reduced. Decide whether you definitely have a place for them in your life.
  • do you really need another item of clothing to wear once and then put away in the wardrobe? Why not have a clothes and jewellery swap with friends?
  • use a refillable water bottle and avoid buying single-use plastic water bottles.
  • buy local food. Instead of purchasing food shipped or flown from thousands of miles away, eat seasonally. Buy from your local farmer’s market and you’ll cut down on plastic packaging too.
  • Wash with a natural bar of soap. It takes fewer resources to make than shower gel and doesn’t come in a plastic bottle either.

What do you do to reduce your consumption of “stuff”?

Do add your tips in the comments section!