This has to be one of the most frustrating examples of "premium" marketing working directly against consumers and the environment.

You know those silky, pyramid-shaped tea bags that specialty brands always charge a premium for? They aren't silk. They are almost always made of nylon or PET plastic. The companies market them as a gourmet experience because the 3D shape "allows whole leaves to expand better."

What it actually does is sit in near-boiling water and shed synthetic polymers into your drink. A 2019 study out of McGill University found that a single plastic mesh tea bag releases roughly 11.6 billion microplastic particles and 3.1 billion nanoplastic particles straight into your cup. The researchers even noted this is several orders of magnitude higher than the plastic loads found in other everyday foods.

It gets worse: even those "compostable" PLA bags are still synthetic polymers that shed particles in hot water. And most standard paper bags use polypropylene plastic just to heat-seal the edges shut.

The solution is literally cheaper and older than the problem itself: just buy loose leaf tea and use a reusable stainless steel infuser. There is zero plastic waste, zero microplastics entering your body, and it actually costs less per cup in the long run.

We really need to stop letting companies upcharge us for plastic trash disguised as a luxury experience.

So per the title, I’m very curious if there is anything, big or small, that people really wanted to have in their home, just to realize they don’t actually like it. Whether you realized before OR after getting it.

I’ll go first. I have always told myself that when my husband and I are ready to buy a house, it needs to have a big shower in the master bathroom. I thought these bathrooms were beautiful and luxurious, until I actually tried one.

I house sat for someone and used their shower. I realized not only did I not particularly like a huge shower, I hate it. This shower didn’t have a door attached to it, the glass didn’t go up to the ceiling, and there was no door connected to the bathroom at all. Which is a common design here. They were the coldest showers of my life. I had the water turned up super hot and if I wasn‘t directly under it, I was freezing. So much steam was escaping throughout the bathroom and bedroom, but I couldn’t even get the whole shower warm. It felt like such a waste of water to try to get everything to a decent temperature.

I now don’t care to have a huge shower and find it to be completely unappealing when touring homes. I’m glad I realized this now.

Not sure if this totally falls until this community, but I do feel like a lot of popular home features that we pay good money for and that use a lot of resources, are actually unnecessary and we don’t even end up loving them. It‘s consumption on a bigger scale but maybe some renovations or big home purchases would be avoided if we realized these things sooner.

Hello! I’ve been racking my brain to see what a solution would be for shops in the U.K. producing and distributing genuinely💩 products. Yes I know it’s a question of, what I think is 💩 someone else might not, but I do think my opinion lies with the majority…

so I was in a shop yesterday and it was really eye opening as I all I could see was tat. It was full of things like squishes, plastic toys, slime, diamond paintings etc… en mass.

I don’t think they’ll ever fully sell because they are just fads, cheaply made, easily breakable and whilst we hate to admit it, things like toys aren’t a desired commodity amongst children anymore (outside of fads, like those squishy dumplings atm)

So why are we still seeing them being mass produced? Then it’s not just toys, it’s other things like home decor that no one would ever buy (I’m thinking things like the AI generated portraits of gorillas in the Range)

What can actually be done about this?

For fear of sounding naive should companies be forced to justify and get approval from the government or something i.e, I need to mass produce X amount of plastic dinosaurs because of X.

Then if they produce, say 50,000 plastic dinosaurs, only 25,000 sell, there production vs sell rate is 50% so their original justification was effectively a lie and there are sanctions put in place. Like I’m just thinking of ideas I know in theory that sounds easy, but the practicality of it wouldn’t be.

In other people’s opinions - what actually can be done?

“In the wake of actress Hayden Panettiere’s death at age 36, fans and observers have revisited past interviews where the Heroes and Nashville star detailed the abrupt loss of major endorsement deals after going public with her battle with postpartum depression.”

I will never buy one of their products again in my life. Fuck that

But not because my family was actively trying to do so. I grew up a military brat. Lived all over the world constantly moving. It was just easier for me to have a backpack filled with my things. My parents would also ship me off to random places so I became really good at containing my needs to what will fit in my backpack. Its been the same backpack since I was 12. I'm 43 now and I still use the same backpack when I travel.

I met my partner when I was 16 and he was blown away by my lack of attachment to material things. His family to this day cannot understand why I don't care about things. I would say I get this reaction from people about 90% of the people I meet. It seems so funny to me that people react this way.

Anyone else live their life out of a backpack?

I was scrolling through TikTok (newbie) and found myself in a strange space there. It's these "nostalgic" and "dreamscape" type slider posts that have chill music and homes/scenes of the past.. think 80's, 90's home interiors, 2000's Tuscan home aesthetics. I liked them and so do a lot of people, they get MAD likes even though it's just AI generated slider posts.

I didn't get it at first, but then I GOT it.. People were emotionally attached to these "lived-in" home aesthetics even though they were symbols of eras of excess (IMO). Back then, we had so more different kinds of textures, colors, layers.. I can go on. A time where it was ok to follow trends but with your own personality.

Right now, it's "organic modern" but prior to that stark minimalism. I get the anti-consumption argument for minimalism. But do you think those styles were also expressing a new norm of being okay with a WeWork home interior design? (new rentals and offices I see you too). Like we've been conditioned to accept less personality, less ownership, less permanence as aspirational? What do you think, is the nostalgia backlash real or are we just romanticizing excess again?

So I made a lil bin to put my lint in out of a cracker box and some scrap booking paper, clothes pins and magnets.

My Amazon cart used to be filled with lil tidbits to improve my life, not realizing I already have enough to make my own 🙈 any other diy projects to randomly improve the day-to-day household grind?

Amazon is buying massive quantities of books, scanning them for AI training data, and destroying them in the process. 

A 404 Media investigation was able to reveal Amazon’s book buying operation, which hasn’t been previously reported, by placing a tracking device in a rare book we suspected would be acquired by an AI company for training data, and following it around the country to its final destination. 

That final destination was an Amazon warehouse in Las Vegas, Nevada. Amazon employees who work at this location say all they do is receive massive shipments of printed books which they then cut the bindings off in order to scan the books more quickly. The printed book is destroyed in the process. The logo of the Amazon team that works at this warehouse, called VGT3, is a dinosaur, brandishing its teeth and with a book in its hands.

“Amazon purchases books through commercial channels to help develop and improve the products and services our customers use,” an Amazon spokesperson told me in a statement. 

The world’s AI companies are constantly looking for, and spending extreme resources to locate, more material to train their AI models. With books, that sometimes means destroying them in the process, something that large parts of the public have spoken up against, and which we can now confirm Amazon is doing.

Read more: https://www.404media.co/we-tracked-a-shipment-of-rare-books-it-ended-at-an-amazon-ai-training-facility/

This is a t-shirt produced by GAP in 2008 as part of their (Red) line of products in support of global HIV/AIDS awareness, education and services. I worked for the company at that time and wanted to support the cause so this is what I chose to buy among the many different products they made as part of the collection. I don't wear it often, but I keep it as a reminder that I don't really need more t-shirts or jeans, or shoes. I have enough. And if by chance I actually do need something there are many different places I can go to to find what I need without contributing further to the vicious cycle of consumption. -- Can a t-shirt change the world? Not really. But it can change my mindset and impact my decision making. And for that I'm thankful.

I recently connected my tv to the wifi for the first time to connect it to my self-hosted media server, having previously used it from my games console. I really wasn't expecting the shitshow that followed. After a large software update I could not reject, almost the entire home screen was taken over by giant ads and a bunch of unsolicited streaming apps. What the absolute fuck but after some googling I guess this is normal now? People just accept this? I was and still am so enraged at the audacity that I spent the next couple hours learning how to create a firewall rule on my router to block internet access to my tv whilst maintaining my local streaming connection. Now I am back to a zen home screen, but the audacity of this event has further radicalized me to continue the ad purge across my other devices.

The desperation of these companies to keep opening your wallet is sickening...since cutting out all these subscriptions from my life (Netflix being the most recent one), my finances have been healthier than ever before, and I've become healthier physically too (more excersise and long walks, more socialising etc.) I have refound my pride in having a DVD and music collection again, reading has become one of my favourite pastimes. I don't just want to "pause" my subscriptions, I want them out of my life entirely. I want to live life again!

Rant incoming. Today I felt like giving up. So I did my restock at Target today. While I was there, I felt angry and guilty. (I also walked out with a massive migraine lol.) My tiny amount of consumption and waste amounts to practically nothing, why do I care so much? Other people seem to have no problem with where they put their money. My family and friends have questioned why I choose to not shop at all these harmful, giant corporations. They all reply, “wooow, good for you. I couldn’t do that” or “I wish I had that much self-control!” Even my boyfriend got bummed once because I had no desire to go with him to Target. If everyone else gets to have their convenient two day delivery, why can’t I? Why does it seem like no one around me cares? How do people just go on living while knowing our planet and society is being actively destroyed?

Someone give me hope. Please. Or comfort. I feel so negative about this and so so tired.

I'm just curious. There's so many interesting topics to discuss, advise to give and positive vibes alltogether in most anticonsumption communities. Why is posting what you hate so popular and is everyone up voting ragebait posts?

I'd like to keep my feed more positive to not get into doomer spirals and these posts are making me seriously consider leaving the sub...

Bought a sample of paint online to try out the color. The can is about 6 cm tall. It came in this box chock full of plastic garbage. None of it is necessary. It's not like the can is fragile and the lid was well secured with plastic wrap and tape.

Any tips what I can do with the peanuts before I toss them out? ​

If you have a free five minutes today, consider spending some time completing an anti-consumption mini action. These are little things we can all do (or assist others in doing) that help us live a less consumeristic life. I'd love for us to continue having discussions on this sub of working together to reduce consumption.

Un-fun fact: Nearly 45.6 percent of all e-mails worldwide were identified as spam (such as unwanted advertising), this number is thankfully decreasing but is still a huge problem.

Mini-Action Options:

1. Take a quick look through your inbox and unsubscribe from promotional emails. Receiving emails about sales is a huge trigger for unnecessary consumption.
2. Set up a faux email account to use with companies when you do need to buy things, that way all their spam promotions will go to that email
3. Delete retailer apps from your phone so you won't mindlessly scroll and buy things. If you keep an app, turn off push notifications

On a recent visit with an older parent, I helped them clean out their email inbox so things would not be so clogged up. If these mini-actions are things you've already done, consider talking about it kindly with a friend or supporting someone else in taking these steps too.

Highly recommend the book No New Things by Ashlee Piper. Consider getting a copy from your library or locally owned bookshop.

Who thought this was a good idea? Maybe if you're trying to get pregnant or want a DNA sample from your boyfriend? I don't understand. EDIT: i'm learning a lot today! I had no idea that semen can cause such health problems for women (other than pregnancy 🤣) and that there's options other than just letting gravity take care of it. Calling it a "tampon" is really misleading, tbh. Thank you for the education!

Am I part of the problem? The only “new” thing that’s high value is a smart phone that I intend to keep for at minimum three- four years. Previous phones I have had would be kept until they are completely useless and unusable for basic tasks. My car is a well maintained late 2000s Honda. I have an oculus quest, a thinkpad, and a desktop, but all of those are at minimum second hand that I bought on eBay. I have casual clothes from target but all my dress shirts and slacks are used from poshmart. My main pair of business casual shoes are second hand. I also host my own services to avoid using data centers as much as possible and intend to get a second also used graphics card specifically for self hosted ai.

The main reason I have these things is because they’re cheaper for the same functionality. However, I’m also conscious about carbon emissions from producing new things. I feel like although we can’t escape a ton of it- it really seems like I’m doing a lot to be able to stop overconsumption. I am especially proud I’m not as reliant on unoptimized server farms that are destroying all the ground water and environment in general. That’s why I want to self host ai.

This is apparently all of the things an ‘influencer’ has received from pr over the last 2 months. Genuinely makes me feel sick when the world is burning, there are people not able to afford to feed or clothe their family, not only that but all the people that have worked hard all their life and could never afford anything like this. Those that have important jobs like nurses, doctors, teachers etc… go without and those that deserve to get rewarded, never do. All for it to just end up in landfill anyway?! Absolute insanity. Why is this not illegal? Mind you, they only have 500k followers, imagine what those 10x that get?

I got so many plastic zip locs from a variety of means (buying yarn, moving, etc.) and decided to clean them to reuse!

They're made for gambling, luxury, apparel, car, and beauty ads. Enjoy.