negative presents

One important thing you can do "to save the planet" is to stop throwing away stuff that can be reused. If you try this at home you will soon be overwhelmed with items and no place to store them. The reason for it is quite simple: you buy too much stuff. Too much stuff that you really don't need and have no use for. The remedy is very simple: buy less stuff.

It has been said that Americans throw away 90% of what they buy within six months after purchase. If true, this is clearly an unsustainable situation. No economy can survive for an extended period of time like that. 

One thing is for sure, nearly half of what we buy is packaging and wrapping material. Not only do most items come wrapped or packaged, everyone seems to feel a need to add more material or bags. I frankly do not understand why people buy bread that is shrink-wrapped, stuffed in a plastic bag, and then feel the need to request another bag to carry it to their cars. Wait a minute! They don't carry it to their car. They simply roll the cart with all the triple and quadruple-wrapped items to their car.

One important area of unwanted goods are all the do-dads designed to "solve" infrequent and unimportant problems. Many of these can be found in the kitchen. Garlic presses, stirring tools, hard boiled egg slicers, yolk separators, juicing machines, blenders, stirrers, and what have you. The type of things that look good at first but soon become a hassle to use and wash and keep track of. 

These are also the type of items that become impulse buys. They look useful, are easy to pick up and don't cost all that much money. They are stored near the cash register or in other places where you linger and may as well pick something up that you don't need. They are also sold in fancy-looking stores filled with ingenious and unneeded gadgets or via TV shows and infomercials. The best way to avoid "collecting" such items is to not go shopping idly or to turn off your TV unless you are really watching it.

Other things we OD on are toys for our kids. Most children have so many toys they don't know what to do with them. Their rooms are filled to the brim with toys that are never looked at. These toys are there to signal how much we love our kids. But what they signal most clearly is how disposable our "love" really is. Because what we need to do, instead of working so hard to "get ahead" is spend more time with our kids.

The reality is that we are too busy to do that. So we feel guilty and buy toys instead. So here is an idea for your child's next birthday party: "give negative presents," i.e. take away presents instead of adding more. Yes you heard that right. Take away some junk and give it to charity instead of adding yet another boring item to the every growing pile of trash that is your kid's playroom. Another fancy item that your kids will spend three days looking at before adding it to the rest of the pile. Been there, done that.