The Hello Kitty queue at McDonalds

I don’t know about you, but I definitely will not spend hours queuing up for some limited edition Hello Kitty merchandise. Yet, Hello Kitty fan or not, we are all not very different. We engage in a practice called consumerism every single day. It is extremely pollutive –  plastics are needed to manufacture the good, energy (the majority of which are still derived from fossil fuels (Thompson, 2010)) is required to transport the raw materials and the finished good… Yet, these may all go to “waste” when the good ends up in a landfill when consumers grow tired of it. Such overproduction and overconsumption place incredible stress on the Earth’s limited carrying capacity for waste (Kolter, 2019).

 What is consumerism? 

In general, consumerism is the consumption of goods and services, particularly for one’s desires (rather than basic needs) encouraged by the socio-economic order (Czarnecka and Schivinski, 2019), and one’s ideology that buying more equates to happiness (Kolter, 2019). Today, it is ever so difficult to avoid engaging in consumerism, especially when opportunities to buy more and more are shoved into our faces. 

Too much is never enough 

Spaces and events – such as shopping malls, online shopping sites, home shopping channels, and the annual Great Singapore Sale – are specially curated to encourage incessantly buying more than what we need. Some companies even deliberately manufacture goods with short product life-cycles so consumers will buy more (a practice which Kem-Lauren (2012) calls “planned obsolescence”). This generates even more unnecessary buying and more unnecessary waste in its production process. 

Advertising

Czarnecka and Schivinski (2019) allude to advertising as a major contributor of consumerism. Companies pour in millions in their advertising campaigns to convince consumers of their products’ supposed benefits so we pay for something we arguably do not need. 

Did you know? Diamonds were once not as prized as the present. But everything changed thanks to the brilliant marketing campaign started in 1969 by DeBeers (Friedman, 2015).

Check out their commercial  (targeted to the Japanese) below!

Today, the shiny diamond magnetizes us. The diamond engagement ring is now a necessary item of proposal to measure one’s undying love to his/her partner (Friedman, 2015). Do I need the ring to survive? No. But do I want it? Yes, of course! 

However, diamond-rich countries (particularly developing ones) now pay the price of such overconsumption in the form of waste and pollution. The mining of valuable minerals (including diamonds) in Libya for example, has contributed to unsafe drinking water for nearby communities. Its arsenic concentration exceeds the WHO and LSW Class I standards for drinking water (Wilson et al., 2017). 

The underlying reason for consumerism is Globalization. 

Globalization increases the mobility and access to markets – producers produce more, and consumers consume more. However, competitiveness creates a rush for companies to sell their goods and services as prices lower than their competitors. Companies employ cheaper, cost-cutting pollutive production techniques instead of more sustainable ones (Chintha and George, n.d.).

In fact, 22% of premature deaths due to air pollution are associated with the production of goods and services in one country (majority of which are developing) for export in another one (Devlin, 2017). 

That’s it!

It’s hard to admit, but consumerism and people are like the North and South poles of two magnets – we can’t seem to stay apart. 

There are obviously more reasons for consumerism, but we hope that you have learnt a thing or two about consumerism today. We shall delve deeper into the pollutive effects of consumerism soon!

 

References:

Czarnecka, B. & Schivinski, B. (2019) Do consumers acculturated to global consumer culture buy more impulsively? The Moderating Role of Attitudes towards and Beliefs about Advertising. Journal of Global Marketing. 32 (4), 219-238. Available from  https://doi.org/10.1080/08911762.2019.1600094 

Cinthia, S.S. & George, B. (n.d.) Globalization, Mobility, Identity, and Consumerism: an Analysis of the Genesis of Unsustainable Consumption. Palermo Business Review. Available from https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Globalization-%2C-Mobility-%2C-Identity-%2C-and-%3A-an-of-Chintha-Almeyda/ee01f69120dd1744b8510a06a0b4e8e0954d2265 

Devlin, H. (2017). Thousands of pollution deaths worldwide linked to western consumers – study. Available from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/29/western-consumers-fuelling-tens-of-thousands-of-air-pollution-related-deaths [Accessed 15 August 2020] 

Kem-Lauren, K. (2012) User experience in the age of sustainability: a practitioner’s blueprint. Amsterdam : Elsevier Science & Technology. Available from https://www-sciencedirect-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/book/9780123877956/user-experience-in-the-age-of-sustainability [Accessed 15 August 2020].

Kolter, P. (2019). The Rise of Anti-Consumerism. Available from https://sarasotainstitute.global/the-rise-of-anti-consumerism/ [Accessed 16 August 2020]

Friedman, U. (2015) How an Ad Campaign Invented the Diamond Engagement Ring. Available from https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/02/how-an-ad-campaign-invented-the-diamond-engagement-ring/385376/ [Accessed 15 August 2020]. 

Thompson, A. (2010) Radical hope for living well in a warmer world. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics. 23 (43), 43-59. Available from https://doi-org.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/10.1007/s10806-009-9185-2 

Wilson, S.T.K., Wang, H., Kabenge, M. & Qi, X. (2017) The mining sector of Liberia: current practices and environmental challenges. Environmental Science and Pollution Research. 24 (23), :18711–18720. Available from https://doi-org.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/10.1007/s11356-017-9647-4

 

Images:

Yahoo. (2019) Singaporeans up early to queue for limited edition Hello Kitty-themed carriers. Available from ttps://sg.news.yahoo.com/singaporeans-early-queue-limited-edition-031312370.html [Accessed 15 August 2020]

The Straits Times. (2015) No need to wait for Great Singapore Sale: Guide to the sales already on at retailers around town. Available from https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/no-need-to-wait-for-great-singapore-sale-guide-to-the-sales-already-on-at-retailers-around  [Accessed 15 August 2020]