I definitely can’t say that I’m a saint when it comes to buying too much stuff. I have too many clothes, cosmetics, and also too many electronics. I’ve sadly fallen into the norm of society and have purchased more things than I need. I am conscience of this though, and have more recently started making steps toward reducing unnecessary purchases.
Almost two years ago I had an unforgettable study abroad on Semester at Sea. For a whole semester I was on a boat that circumnavigated the world. I was immersed in nine amazing countries and learned so much. One of my favorite countries was Ghana. This is a developing country that’s trying to find its’ identity. While there I met inspiring people, but also saw one of the most shocking things I’ve ever seen in my life.
Outside Accra (the capital) there is one of the world’s largest electronic waste sites. Here people who don’t own cell phones and have never used a computer “recycle” electronic waste in search for precious metals. These men, women, and even children salvage whatever they can to make a miniscule amount of money for the cost of their health. Anything they are unable to use is burned. Nobody could see this and not be impacted.
After watching The Story of Stuff, I immediately connected the story to exactly what I saw. These were our wasted products, thrown out, and shipped to Ghana to be “recycled.” I one hundred percent agree with Annie Leonard about some of the actions she discussed that need to be done to end this cycle. Designing products to not last and feeding the idea that consumers need the new and best thing is not sustainable or healthy.
We need to start taking actions immediately to put pressure on law makers and large corporations to be accountable for what they are doing. Products need to be safer, last longer, and not ship our waste for others to suffer from.