Do you buy products to sustainably use them for life? Is environmentalism a core value for you when you look for goods and products? What is more important to you? a biodegradable or a long-lasting product? These are all extremely important questions; in this article, we’d try to shed some light on some of these topics.
In recent years, people's awareness of environmentalism and sustainable development has grown and the amount of materials we recycle has grown by the year. That’s an encouraging thought. Today there are many mechanisms by which quite a lot of materials can be recycled: glass, plastic, paper, different metals, and more. This is definitely a positive trend and we have to adopt every way possible to contribute to this growing phenomenon, but have we ever thought about how our consumption culture in this generation contributes to our planet’s pollution? How much do we really recycle from all the junk we produce, as a society, every day?
Solid wood furniture lasts longer
The consumerism culture we live in today allows us to achieve almost anything we want, quickly and economically, and what happens if something is destroyed or worn out? We'll throw it in the trash and buy a new one. The great availability and desire to regenerate often simply produce more and more garbage in the world, but just a few small changes in our habits could do wonders for the planet we live on.
Take, for example, home furnishings, buying high-quality solid wood furniture would probably cost more at that moment, but you’d probably be able to use these products for decades instead of buying cheap furniture that has to be replaced every 2-3 years. A small, long-term economic solution that saves a lot of trees from logging every year.
The Ocean is full of disposable plastic products
What about plastic? Well, plastic has become one of the biggest enemies for mankind throughout the last decade since it takes hundreds and thousands of years for it to decompose. Should we blame the material or the way we use it?
Below is a partial list of plastic & rubber use-cases that we probably won't be able to avoid in the near future:
- Tires (cars and bicycles)
- Smartphones
- Computers
- TVs
- Cables (chargers, audio, electricity, etc.)
- Water infrastructures
- Toothbrushes
- Writing tools
- Fashion (zippers, buttons, shoe soles, etc.)
- Furniture
- Medicine (tools and packages)
Below is a partial list of disposable plastic products:
- Plastic bottles
- Plastic cups
- Plastic straw
- Packages
- Nylon bags
- Sanitary
- Lighters
Disposable products: Cups, straws, nylon bags, and more.
The products mentioned above are used by us occasionally to fulfill a certain need, but they will stay here way after we’ll be long gone. If the future of the world we live in is important to us, we must change our consumption habits. First of all, we must stop using non-compostable disposable products, and secondly, we need to start buying what we need and not just buy stuff because we can, focusing on durable products that can serve us for many years to come.
Are there any materials that are good for the environment, but also stand the test of time? The answer is yes, materials that come from animals: leather, feathers, ivory, furs, and more.
And what if we do not want to use these materials? Of course, we’ll choose the synthetic option. All we have left to do now is to make sure that the products we purchase will serve us a lifetime or at least a sustainable amount of years.
Our recommendation at The-Whistle is that you think about how long you’re going to use the products you buy, whether it's furniture, fashion, electronics, sports, or anything at all. If you know in advance that this product will probably be dumped in a year's time, it might be a good idea to pay a bit more for a sustainable product that will eventually save you money, health and leave a better place to live in for the future of our children and many generations to come.
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