As easy (and understandable) as it is to complain about paper straws and the like, the truth is that it’s overall a new positive to not create trash that will outlive multiple generations of humans. However, the bad news is that we all have a long way to go.
The “Anticonsumption” online group shows the environmental effects of producing, moving, and buying too much stuff through memes and insightful posts. Hopefully, these images might be some good food for thought, so get comfortable, be sure to upvote the posts that caught your eye and comment your thoughts below.
#1 My Haven
Image credits: Route2FI
#2 Came Across This On Facebook
Image credits: CharmingBlueberr
#3 Exactly
Image credits: KateTruu
Looking at all the examples here might lead someone to despair, so it’s worth also highlighting that it’s not all doom and gloom. For example, just this week (November of 2024) Australian scientists have developed a method to recycle old textiles into concrete. The fashion industry and fast fashion in particular create mountains of waste, so this is a great step forward.
Remember, many of us purchase cheap clothing that tends to not even last a year, creating monumental water waste for products that end up in landfills at the end of the day. This is a good and sustainable way to turn that junk into a considerably more valuable commodity, construction materials.
#4 "The Heroes We Deserve"
Image credits: yupthtexists
#5 True True True
Image credits: CrazyAssBlindKid
#6 Local Funeral Home Offers This $85 Cardboard Casket. What A Great Way To Not Waste Money And Resources
Image credits: enter_the_bumgeon
Speaking of emissions, researchers from the University of Massachusetts are working on “agrivoltaics,” a method to help farmers utilize even more of their farmland. The crop? Energy, gathered from solar panels placed across the land. Farming does come with its own emissions, but let's face it, we need food, so might as well make it more efficient.
#7 Because Of The Anticonsumption Mindset, I Have So Much More Respect For Someone Driving A Normal-Sized Old Truck Than A Brand New Gigantic One
Image credits: orangecatsocialclub
#8 Blue Shell The 1%
Image credits: False-Answer6064
#9 My Mother's Blender, Still Choochin Just Fine After 4 Decades Of Use, With All The Original Parts
Image credits: evthrowawayverysad
You may have noticed that behind most of these developments are researchers and scientists. It’s easy to get lost in the promises of green entrepreneurs, but at the end of the day, it’s research, both privately funded and publicly funded that is going to end up helping our environment.
#10 Made A New Cat Scratch Pad From Trash
Image credits: But_like_whytho
#11 It’s All Of Our Responsibility, As Inhabitants Of Earth, To Reduce The Impact We Make Upon It! If You Love This Earth, And Want To Make It A Better Place, The First Place To Start Is Living And Shopping More Sustainably! Creating Less Waste Is The First Step In Making Our Earth Healthy Again
Image credits: Sharp-Fill6616
#12 Your Life Has Already Been Designed
Image credits: sweet_jane_13
#13 Yikes
Image credits: seemorelight
#14 A Book From The 70s Based On A Computer Model Based On Just A Few Inputs Roughly Predicted The Next 50 Years, We're At The Brink Of Ecological Breakdown, Billions Live In Dire Poverty And The Rich Own More Than Half Of The World's Wealth. If That's Not An Alarming Bell, I Don't Know What Is
Image credits: BaseballSeveral1107
#15 Should This Be Implemented Throughout The World?
Image credits: Pitiful_Olive4939
#16 This Mother’s Day Ad I Received In The Mail Made Me Sad
Image credits: SunnyHillsSam
#17 As Seen Elsewhere
Image credits: didyouaccountfordust
#18 The Recycling Shop Near Me Has Free Used Paints And Chemicals!?
Image credits: WorldlyRevolution192
#19 Which Would You Rather: Cheap Clothes, Or A Habitable Planet?
Image credits: Alarming-Sandwich-64
#20 We Can Do It Again!
Image credits: Born_Association_974
#21 Pretty Much Sums It Up
Image credits: AlexEneas
#22 My Wife With A $4 Toy Basket
Image credits: Aromatic_Trouble390
#23 ♻️a Drain In Karachi, Pakistan. Hard Work Can Go A Long Way In Cleaning This Earth! Use Less Waste And Work On Picking Up Litter During Your Day! Live And Shop Sustainably ♻️
Image credits: Beautiful-Article406
#24 The Irony Of These Items Is Too Much
Image credits: Lucky-Possession3802
#25 Sushi Place Put My California Rolls In A Tupperware Container I Brought Them!
Image credits: Chippybops
#26 This Is A Great Incentive To Get More People Recycling And Cleaning Our Earth! However, We Must Keep Working To Limit Our Plastic Production And Live Sustainably!
Image credits: Jewel_Scarlett
#27 Pulled From A Local Pet Stores Dumpster
Image credits: hailey199666
#28 "Work, Consume, Die!"
Image credits: WeeklyTill8168
#29 Now There Are "Disposable" Vapes You Can Play Games On
Image credits: translinguistic
#30 This Sculpture Represents The Amount Of Plastic Found On Only 2 Miles Of Coastline In The UK. We Can Do Better! Live And Shop Sustainably
Image credits: LowCommercial4209
#31 Prime Day Be Like
Image credits: Hot-Solution7787
#32 This Smoothie Place I Went To Gives You Mason Jars To-Go, And Fills It Each Time You Bring It Back
Image credits: no_blueforyellow
#33 Surely They Would
Image credits: undo-undo-undo-undo
#34 Shows How Outrageous Pricing Has Gotten, But At Least This Is A Small Step Towards Sustainable Consumerism
Image credits: zifer24
#35 From My Days Working In A College Dining Hall
Image credits: arik_tf
#36 Courtesy Of A Canadian Grocery Chain
Image credits: Virtual_Mall_7031
#37 We're Doomed
Image credits: dr1nni
#38 The Weight Of Different Breeds Of Chicken Over Their Lifespan
Image credits: usernames-are-tricky
#39 But I’m A Creep ?
Image credits: uhhthiswilldo
#40 I Wouldn’t Care If People Vaped If They Weren’t Generating So Much Plastic Waste
Image credits: thewildersea
#41 Five Below Propoganda
Image credits: SoundTight952
#42 What Was The Point Of The Plastic Bag Ban If They're Simply Going To Rebrand Them?
Image credits: The_Escargot_Pudding
#43 No Words
Image credits: realsecretfairy
#44 A Whopping 58% Of Food Is Wasted Or Lost In Canada Every Year. The Pandemic Has Put Extra Strain On An Already Inefficient Food System As We Saw Farmers Forced To Dump Milk And Abandon Crops Due To Plummeting Demand
Image credits: Competitive_Proof369
#45 On To The Next Fad
Image credits: CrazyAssBlindKid
#46 Apple Store Vandalized In Berlin
Image credits: SpaceTurf
#47 2 Billion Dollar Home In Mumbai Built On Orphanage Land Worth 10 M, Sold For 2.5m, Overlooking Slums
Image credits: swan001
#48 Making It Look Like A Bigger Amount Is More Important Than Using Less Plastic
Image credits: Unusual_Car215
#49 Found At The Park And Grabbed Before My Daughter Could. Turns Out It's Disposable. What A Waste Of Material For One Use And Screw People Who Leave These At Parks ?
Image credits: thesocialmediadetox
#50 This Just Completes It
Image credits: _0am_
#51 Neighbors Threw Out Their $5400 Play Set Because It Was “Rotten”. Just Needed Some Paint, Good As New
Image credits: Unfair-Reference-69
#52 But The Shareholder Value
Image credits: Earlobed69
#53 Nice One Channing Lad ?
Image credits: goldenw0lves
#54 Some Billboards In The Netherlands Have Been Taking Commercial Breaks A Few Seconds Every Minute
Image credits: biggestoof1
#55 This Is A Disposable Video Display Used As An Advertisement
Image credits: Zorg_Employee
#56 Nothing Better Than A Car Dependent, Environmentally Unsustainable Lifestyle
Image credits: excitingaffair39
#57 This Is It. This Is Peak Consumerism
Image credits: Lucifers_Lantern
#58 I Got A Wet Stone And Am Sharpening Everything
Image credits: Electricmothman
#59 Does This Count As "Repaired"? Fabric Shaver At Work
Image credits: gerlindee
#60 I Can't Afford/ Don't Want To Buy New Jeans So Patched It Instead. This Is My 1st Time Patching Clothes So I Hope It Holds
Image credits: JaxZeus
#61 Get In Losers, Disposable Tables Just Dropped
Image credits: sloopitsteady
#62 All This Plastic For 6 Chocolates
Image credits: rustystach
#63 “But You Absolutely Need Our New And Latest Phone For $1,000!”
Image credits: K-man_100
#64 Unfixable Laptops
Image credits: lizardsandcaves
#65 That's Too Damn Bad Bloomberg
Image credits: SoundTight952
#66 Anyone Else Really Annoyed By The Jeep Ducks And Other Copy Cats?
Image credits: roosoh
#67 The Most Unnecessary Product I Have Ever Seen
Image credits: stellateranto
#68 Forcing You To Tip
Image credits: Mbprogrammer
#69 Advertise For Them, For The Low Price Of $5 Each
Image credits: TPandPT
#70 Very Confused By This Advertisement
Image credits: Peachesornot
#71 Mercedes Locks Faster Acceleration Behind A $1,200 Annual Paywall
Image credits: 40orangeglazecake
#72 :(
Image credits: elephanttape
#73 For Something Never Worn Again
Image credits: Organic_Physics_6881
#74 This Is So Dystopian, Company Makes A Bench Turn Your Bare Legs Into Ads
Image credits: hideandsee
#75 Who Tf Needs All Of This For Just A Cup You Drink Water From?
Image credits: Classic_Feeling5928
#76 Why
Image credits: Zestyclose_Guide1735
#77 This Kind Of Stuff Makes Me Irrationally Angry
Image credits: honey_sofie
#78 Amazon Prime Day Is Such A Scam
Image credits: Routine-Soil7
#79 Ironic
Image credits: RutabagaConscious723
#80 I Always Disliked Spotify But Now I Actually Hate It
Image credits: Arman11511
#81 A Rare W For Apple Consumers
Image credits: TheJoshuaAlone
#82 Nike Tops Their Own High Tops With This Dumb Idea
Image credits: Swimming-Most-6756
#83 But You Already Have A Less Cute Version Of All Of This Stuff
Image credits: WonderfulAgent6
#84 So Proud Of This Joke In My Hinge Profile
Image credits: PretentiouslyHip
#85 Plastic-Free Wipes…in Plastic Packaging
Image credits: Crimson__Fox
#86 I Assumed This Was R/Anticonsumption
Image credits: gloomspell
#87 I’ve Seen It All Folks
Image credits: lodged-object
#88 This 280000$ Crystal Disney Castle
Image credits: ultraplusstretch
#89 Boston Throw Away Your Mattress Day Was Today
Image credits: Hwarang-MK
#90 Using Temu? Stop Bro
Image credits: Ranch_In_My_Bong
#91 Yeah, What's Wrong With The Internet?
Image credits: josemf
#92 I’ve Used The Same 50 Cent Razor For Over 1.5 Years And It Still Works Totally Fine
Image credits: Dewnami
#93 Found This On R/Shittytattoos. Humanity Has Fallen ?
Image credits: grumpybobaspy
#94 I Just Went To Milan And It Is A Huge Consumer Market. Ads Are Everywhere, They Even Put A LED Panel On Their Cathedral
Image credits: imgettingthere_
