Some people assume that a company’s main goal to just to achieve the highest profit, often regardless of cost to other areas. It’s hard for sustainable consumption to be a goal for a firm, as they would want to sell as much of their good as possible. But could this change?
My inspiration to write a blog on overconsumption was sparked when I was sitting on a bus and a group of girls came in with multiple large bags of shopping each. This group struggled to find space on the cramped bus, as there was already another group of people with all their shopping too. I couldn’t help but wonder whether they actually needed it or how often they would actually use any of it. A large part of the overconsumption is that consumers are simply buying far too much than they need which occurs in all aspects of consumption. According to a report by Consulting firm Value Chain Management International, food waste costs Canada approximately $31 billion every year, which is a 15% increase from the estimated $27 billion four years ago. If society changed its view on consumption and tried to reduce its waste, perhaps these statistics would be lower, or at least decreasing instead of increasing. What’s more concerning is that we are running out of these resources but consumption and waste continues to increase.
Image One
However, it appears that as consumers become more aware of how much they are wasting and make better choices about the products they buy; the producers react and adjust to the demand. Like the trend increased demand for Fairtrade products is growing as people are becoming more aware of the production of the goods they purchase, hopefully the idea of decreasing will become increasing popular too. The change needed seems to be in the control of the consumer and therefore the responsibility of consumers.
Sources:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/food-waste-costs-canada-31b-a-year-report-says-1.2869708
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/14/us-global-food-water-idUSKBN0N522Y20150414
Image One: http://www.mavericksynfuels.com/feedstock/solid-waste/