Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Climate change by bargain....

It's pre-spring cleaning time here at C in C, and I hate to say it that I've not been particularly frugal nor environmental. As I process all the stuff in my life, what to keep what to toss. Guitar keep, DVD player give away on freecycle(tm), cookware keep, old electronics toss, you get the idea. In addition to things that have gone "obsolete" there are things that have just plain gone bad. In cleaning out my refrigerator and freezer, I'm finding food that is bordering on mutating into a new form of life.

Out it goes. But the question is how did I get here? Where did this stuff come from? And it comes from the faulty logic of a good bargain and buying in bulk or buying on sale. How many times have you been to Costco and picked up so much stuff that you will never get through it. Or worse yet, bought stuff, stored it away, and then bought it again since you forgot you had it in the first place? Or bought something just because it was a good deal. Guilty on all counts. I don't think I'm alone.

Now stuff is good, but stuff for no good reason is bad, and it seems that a lot of our waste is no good reason stuff, and why did we buy it? Because it was a bargain. It's easy to forget that we have to be conscious not only about what we buy but how much we buy. Since that stuff has to be made, moved and disposed of it, it's almost as if the product died in vain.

If you buy stuff that wastes away, it's no bargain no matter what the price.

2 Comments:

At 8:35 AM , Blogger Green Bean said...

Hear, hear! I used to do this all the time though my drug of choice was Target and not Costco. In any event, now that I never go to those places, I find it much easier to refrain from buying stuff that I don't need and will never use.

 
At 12:27 PM , Blogger Allie said...

You don't think of frozen or canned goods as stuff that will go bad, but what the heck do you do when you find four cans of corn that expired three years ago in the back of the pantry? It's so frustrating!

I've stopped buying things like aspirin and cold meds at big warehouse stores too. Everyone always says buying in bulk is eco-friendly, but I really hope I don't get 150 headaches in the next year. And throwing out half a package of cough medicine every year or two isn't a good thing.

 

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