We all throw stuff away. But I would like to ask you: Where is "away"? Most of us don't think about it at all. We throw it in the trash and the garbage man picks it up . Believe me it is not an alternate dimensional universe like in the comic books I read as a child. "Away" is a land fill. What goes in a landfill just decomposes. A portion of it leaches into our ground water and off-gasses into our air. This is becoming quite an issue.
Part of the problem is our buying habits. When we impulse buy we often purchase without looking for quality. It is "cute" and the price is good, or better yet, it is on SALE! So we get it. We don't ask questions or examine the piece for flaws and weaknesses. Then when it doesn't hold up, or it doesn't fit right or it shrinks we throw it away. We do it with everything from clothing to furniture. In the United States, roughly 3 million, 3 hundred thousand sofas end up in a land fill every year. That doesn't count the cabinets, chairs and other stuff that are decomposing right along side! Experts are now saying that our buying practices must and will change. We need to buy the best durable goods that we can afford, that will become classics and be with us over the years. It is a more economical practice and better for our environment.
Holly Barbo
Barbo Furniture
Bellingham, WA
www.barbofurniture.com
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
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Thanks Holly great advice. I apply this to many areas of my purchasing habits. Another related way to buy affordable quality is to buy used or recycled items. This will not work for every item however it works for many. Today I purchased a 1980 vintage Nikon macro lens for my state of the art digital SLR Nikon Camera; new camera, old lens. I found this little gem at Dan Downing's Photoworld Digital in Bellingham's Barkley Village. I saved over $400 dollars and got a lens with higher quality optical glass than I could buy new from Nikon today. Yes there were trade offs. The lens will require that I use a hand held light meter and set my shutter speed and aperture manually. No big deal for me, I did this for over 30 years when I shot film and I am $400 dollars richer or the equal of a round trip ticket to Mexico.
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