Although it’s a message no-one wants to hear, the economic downturn of the consumer spending and local and national reduction of consumer spending and property accretion is working toward environmental goals, not against them.
What would be ideal would be if the positive aspects to environmentally friendly reducible consumption could be brought habitually low in any economy. If controlled expenditure could keep consumption levels flat, all would benefit.
Freeways full of tanker trucks are not eco-friendly. Top gear container traffic speeds up due to one thing: demand. But systematic reduction in fast food, for example, can slow down the frequency of a fleet of big rigs nationwide. If one city normally spends $100 per person a year on fast food, which is mostly made from prefabricated and precooked foodstuffs, then delivery trucks for that one city and connecting highway can be reduced from one truck delivery every two days to one truck delivery every three to four days. Multiply that volume reduced nationwide.
Certain systems of consumption goods delivery tax consumers in ways they don’t know about. Costly harbor expansions and noise and water and air pollution can catch their breath in this economic downturn. The ongoing reduction in unnecessary, non-sustainable purchases can ultimately slow down tanker traffic and port clogging, allowing feasible roadway congestion decreases. Our consumer economy works with central distribution systems of delivery that are executable functions of time and money, not greenly sustainable practices.
If five thousand teenagers this winter don’t have money for snowmobile fuel, and turn to snowboarding instead, that’s a sizeable amount of off-road fuel exhausts that won’t be hitting the atmosphere. If ten thousand recreational motorcycle drivers don’t have the pocket money for weekend gas, that’s another reduction in carbon emissions. If one million home owners purchase solar powered battery chargers and change their bathing habits and heating settings to reduce wintertime fuel and energy consumption, the environmental feel-good impacts could be sizeable.
The shift in environmentally sensitive consumer practices cannot be doubted. People everywhere are looking for ways to actively reduce spending, halve consumer waste, recycle available resources and re-use whatever they can. Most people in Western countries have more amusement than they can use, more distractions, games, and entertainment than five families their size can consume. So why not eat in, heat up some leftovers, grab something nonpackaged from the produce section and skip the dish washing and the trash cleanup.
Relaxation at home used to be something done in small amounts in response to extended periods of had work, school, housework, or charitable or church endeavors. Shifting the focus of family time from consuming entertainment resources and materials, to activities based on production, reclaiming, recycling or maintenance of value or resources is a critical commitment every eco-friendly home and sustainable family must make.
The education curve of sustainable living can be time absorptive but wholly praiseworthy. Finding out which kinds of materials are better to be introduced into the mainstream, and another group which can be sourced, is a roadmap to using more recycling and re-use policies daily. Where possible, test any spending or consumer activity against possible re-use of already obtained or potentially dormant current resources. Adduce spending to responsible amounts of consumer spending.
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