Sustainable Shopping

Submitted by patrick on Mon, 25/01/2010 - 9:50am.

The 3 R's of Sustainable Living.
My take on these R's is not quite the conventional one.

  1. 1. Refuse (normally the word Reduce is used here)
  2. 2. Reuse
  3. 3. Recycle


I take a slightly different view of number 1 in that when one is faced with a purchase I am more easily reminded of Refusing to make that purchase rather than reducing my purchases.
It all comes down to the same thing in the end, but it is just easier for me to rember that and try to act on it.
My partner Janine and some others are often trying to induce me to buy a new vehicle. True it is a very old vehicle and has now 425,000 km on the clock. On the other hand it is still going well and to junk it now would almost certainly confine it to land fill or at best scrap sent to China.
Both of these options involve laying waste to a considerabe investment in the embodied energy contained in that vehicle when it was manufactured.  Undoubtedly, there are now much more fuel efficient vehicles around now, but in my mind to simply write off that embodied energy would be too high a price to pay.
As readers of my blog will know, I am a passionate bicycle rider. There are few areas of life where the pressure to upgrade and buy new is keener. Yet, that is the challenge we all face with so many of our purchases. Do we really need it and do we really need to buy a brand new one?
Another aspect of shopping ethically came up at a recent BCCAN meeting. The committe had purchased a gazebo so that we can present our materials to the public at events such as the coming Australia Day festivities at Peace Park.
The decision was made to purchase an inexpensive version of the item (less tha $100) where the original quote was for more than $400. How many times do we get presented with this paradox. Buying new hand tools, tents, food and IT equipment.
At times it seems plain crazy to spend $400 on an item when the same (or apparently so) item can be purchased for less than $100.
It seems to me thare are two points to consider in any purchase like this:

  • Is the item repairable in the event of failure
  • Can the item be sourced locally


Dealing with the first item, repairability is a huge issue when one looks around and sees how many items in our lives are made deliberately NOT to be repaired and if they can be, the cost is likely to deter all but the most ardent sustainable livers.
If an item is not easy to repair or costly, then it can be a false economy to purchase that item if one has to throw it out after a limited life. One may say, I can buy 4 new gazebos (toasters, saws, portable hard drives) before I meet the cost of my original purchase. One would be a fool to ignore this straight forward piece of economic wisdom.
The other side of this decision of course is that one is putting all that material and embodied energy into landfill and under present economic orthodoxy, that cost is conveniently overlooked.
Many in our movement towards a sustainable future, face a similar constraint when making food purchases.  Many will feel they should be buying locally produced and, where possible buying organic. Yet faced with the price difference, many balk at that hurdle.
Again, the  hidden costs are significant - support for our local growers who we will need in likely future food crisese, and loss of valuable soil resources for food grown unsustainably.
The second item in the above list is related in a way, in connection with supporting local suppliers both food producers and in general.
Part of sustainabiity priniciples is that it embodies both people and the economy as well as the environment. 
Shopping on the web is one of many influences which may cause local people to make their purchases elsewhere than in their local community. In many cases this may be unavoidable.  However, every such purchase which can be made locally helps to maintain that business in our community, helps to employ local people ( perhaps even our sons and daughters) and keeps money circulating here for the benefit of all in the community.
Books, plants, bikes, IT equipment are just some of many making appealing tugs at our wallets to buy elsewhere, but to my mind such short term thinking falls into the category of - Smart but Not Wise.