I have that pang of guilt when I buy food in plastic, like crackers or pasta. I should be making stuff myself at home, plastic free and healthy for me and the planet. But the reality is that convenience rocks. Because the stuff we need is there, in big box stores at ridiculous low prices. Which is really odd if you think about it, considering all the emissions, extraction, exploitation and damage to the environment and the social fabric in faraway places. Yes, we could wean ourselves off the consumption, a lot of initiatives can help us with that.
But alas, when our favourite hummus, beloved luncheon or best nut milk for our homemade lattes is not there but instead glaring gaps in the supermarket shelves, we go berserk on the socials complaining about the supplier that let us down.
It is easy to blame consumers - the faceless masses. A few years back supermarkets in Aotearoa New Zealand introduced a 5 cent charge per plastic bag. That didn’t last long because apparently the backlash was huge. What sort of backlash wasn’t specified. But nonetheless the (loud & obnoxious) consumer voices won and the charge was dropped pretty swiftly.
There is the idea (or hope?!) that consumers slowing down their own consuming which will then slow down production. But then there’s Jevons paradox, the more energy available the more gets consumed. Green Growth?
So what about reverse engineering “the market”? Beginning the transition to slowing down production. The result will be less consumption.
And for that a whole lot needs to happen first. So many things that could have started with proper planning and collaboration 20 years ago. We would now be at the the end of the transition, already in the regenerative phase. But alas again, foresight went only to the big numbers of profit to be made without the cost of cleaning up.
And that makes the urgency even worse. But a lot can be done in the next 7 or so years, with many pledges to make change by 2030. Let’s keep reminding ourselves often that a lot of the technology that we hope to help us with that pledge are pipe dreams at this stage. Mainly, let’s recognise that there is always less to buy and more kindness to share. Let’s understand that stuff will not be available - and that’s ok. Didn’t France’s Prime Minister say: “It’s the end of abundance”? Let’s start living it.