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ACCORDING TO LIZ - Now when the holidays are fast fading in our taillights but the litter still shames us is the time to educate ourselves on how to celebrate without the junk that will not ever really satisfy, that can never compete with the joy of just spending time with family and friends.
From Black Friday doorbusters to the excesses of ringing in the new year, overconsumption and garbage is a given.
This is not an accident. It’s deliberate.
The more marketing mavens push products, needed or not, the more companies sell, the more money they make, and the more items that get thrown out, the more stuff is bought to replace them, and… the more money the companies make.
Damn the consequences, let the economy barrel full speed ahead.
Wasn’t that the government’s response to both the 2008 Recession and the economic cratering caused by Covid?
And weren’t the results to such excoriations damned consequential to the planet?
Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Americans generate an additional one million tons of trash each and every week over and above their profligate waste throughout the rest of the year.
Binge buying and the manic pressure from constant selling barrages encourages everyone to over-purchase and overspend. On things. Mostly unneeded, mostly disposable by design or by choice.
Don’t ignore the consequences. Read about them, think about them.
The information is out there for everyone, aided and abetted by writers like me, by organizations such as The Story of Stuff and others of an ecologically-mindset, and by local governments overwhelmed by the task of getting rid of all that waste.
There are also increasing concerns about upstream impacts: the environmental footprint of supply chains, the sourcing of raw materials and product assembly, the energy required including all the documented devastation of fossil fuel extraction and refinement. And then there’s the packaging and shipping, and delivery. Before use and the inevitable exit.
All contributing to global warming and ever-worsening climate punches.
Toxic e-waste landfills around the world, many not safely regulated, overflow with broken or rejected toys, electronics, and other gadgets.
Each and every second, a garbage truck’s worth of clothing is dumped in American landfills or incinerated – outdated outfits and the unwanted fast fashion that replaces them until their shoddy construction or mode-of-the-minute look sends them down the same track.
Recycling stations throughout the country struggle to keep up with consumers focusing on the first of the five Rs instead of becoming serious about others – Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, and Repurpose.
Keep those other Rs in mind.
Can you include leftovers in casseroles to eat later or freeze? Ask if a friend or neighbor might welcome a free ready-made meal. Suss out organizations that accept food donations. Pack everything neatly and separately where possible.
Many people and their guests are too tired or disinterested to sort out the organic effluvia of holiday feasts leading to spikes of global-warming methane burps at the dumps.
Organics include all leftover food including meat and cheese… but please drain all liquids, retrieve all utensils and other plastics. And, unless your local facility specifically advises that their system gets hot enough to handle those supposedly compostable plastic bags (most don’t) – don’t use them.
Instead, use a purpose-made plastic pail you can bring home and wash or, if most material is dry – peels and burnt toast, line your container with a brown-paper fast-food delivery bag, something that really is compostable.
Suggestions to incorporate in your New Year’s resolutions:
Make a plan that is easy for you to follow. Don’t make it too hard – partial success stories are better than none, and you can always develop ways to incorporate more complicated steps later on.
Make it a habit to always sort as much as possible as items enter the garbage train; make a visual reminder, make things easier to transport and offload. Both in cold regions where you don’t want to be outside and handling stuff any longer than absolutely needed, and where it’s warm enough for smells and pests to proliferate.
Check jurisdiction-specific guidelines to comply up-front, simplifying your workflow, and avoiding further waste.
Unless your local recycling center lists them as acceptable – unlikely – glittery, shiny, plastic coated, metallic papers and ribbons are verboten. Ditto foam, plastic film, twist ties, and Styrofoam peanuts.
Some centers do take rigid Styrofoam but stripped of tape, labels, and anything else. Save the bows and ribbons for next year. Break down boxes and, if required, sort the colored/glossy ones away from the plain brown paper and cardboard.
Christmas trees – if they are still shedding needles indoors or planted in a snowbank outside or propped up by the car awaiting disposal – need to go naked to the great woodchipper – no tinsel, no lights, no trimmings.
Think before and how you buy.
Close to 400,000 tons of single-use plastics are produced in the United States each year, half of that for single-use purposes. As well as containers you use and those you bring foods home in, think of all the flimsies still in use for small-piece hardware and produce purchases.
Purported recycling for these flexible plastics – the bastard stepchild of the oil industry, promoted by a trade association focused on protecting, promoting, and growing the plastics industry – continues to be a desperate attempt to preserve profits with associated costs for this greenwashing as a public relations stunt to make the American consumer feel less guilty.
Reject buying overpackaged products and call the manufacturer and tell them so. Start bringing your own washable gauze bags for produce as well as net or canvas bags to cart your purchases home.
Refuse giftings of any kind, even and especially freebies, that you know you won’t use. Just say no. Stop the endless demand for swag that drives cheap Chinese tchotchkes; Yiwu, China's International Trade City is a wholesale market for “A Sea of Commodities, a Paradise for Purchasers” that go right into American dumpsters.
Reduce. Do you really need everything you buy? The argument that you are helping the economy is fallacious. You are only helping increase the wealth of a few billionaires. And encouraging that ever-expanding flow of things to be thrown out.
Reuse, repurpose... or repair – another valuable R.
Pants with holes in the knees can be patched or cut down to shorts. Find new homes for old clothes, as hand-me-downs especially in children’s clothing and footwear.
Finally lost those few pounds or resculpted your body with a successful exercise program or fitness trainer? A little bit of stitch witchery – yours or a professional’s – can bring favorite outfits back to life.
Fancy outfits and fabric pieces can be made into custom clothes for dolls. Worn out towels and terry robes can be torn into rags, replacing paper towels and single use dishcloths.
Outgrown and gathering-dust sports gear can provide others with thrills through swaps. If there are none near you, organize your own, or take them to outlets such as Play It Again Sports.
Goodwill, the Salvation Army and local charities also welcome furniture, kitchen and office items and more, as well as giving work to those who desperately need it.
As you make room for the avalanche of the newest holiday swag, remember repurposing can keep stuff out of the landfill. One person’s trash can be another's treasure. Items you no longer use, including clothing, household items, working computers, phones, and headphones, can be a real gift for those without.
Californians throw away 1.2 million tons of textiles a year. That’s 3% of what goes into its landfills.
In 2024, the state passed a first-of-its-kind clothing recycling law will require every textile and apparel company to participate in a Producer Responsibility Organization by July 1, 2026, to create collection sites, drop-off locations and mail-back programs for post-consumer items for recycling or to prepare goods for reuse.
Under the new law consumers themselves aren’t required to recycle their clothing and fabric articles but are encouraged to do so.
Elsewhere, local organizations like the veteran-owned Apparel Impact operates with non-profits and industries in New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York to provide clothing, shoes and other much-needed items to local families and the homeless. Articles too damaged or worn are recycled into wiping clothes, furniture stuffing, insulation, underlayment for the automotive industry, tires and athletic fields.
Plus, there’s always the tax write off.
But the time to worry about excessive garbage is not when the Black Friday sales roll around next November or when you and your tax consultant are scrambling for more deductions, but now.
Now when there is all the leftover stuff from this past year’s season of over-consumption to address.
Now when there’s time to re-evaluate your shopping habits and convert to more thoughtful and sustainable purchasing in the months to come.
Now when we can work together to force corporations to curb their manufacturing and marketing excesses.
Now when we can educate other consumers about the perils of over-consumption and a profligate corporatocracy with its leaden foot on the accelerator of excess production and packaging.
Now when we can educate ourselves and our children, our friends and relatives on how to celebrate without the junk that will not, cannot, ever really satisfy. And replace things with the joy of sharing time with family and friends.
Saving ourselves hundreds and thousands of dollars and giving the planet a New Year’s gift beyond compare. One that will last.
(Liz Amsden is a former Angeleno now living in Vermont and a regular CityWatch contributor. She writes on issues she’s passionate about, including social justice, government accountability, and community empowerment. Liz brings a sharp, activist voice to her commentary and continues to engage with Los Angeles civic affairs from afar. She can be reached at [email protected].)
