Sustainable Living -- Becoming an Unconsumer

A new buzzword has surfaced thanks to the recession: unconsumption.

Unconsumption describes the now savvy and respectable trend of reducing, reusing, and recycling. It's a conscious consumerist mentality. In other words, it's the opposite of the buy-now-throw-away-tomorrow culture that permeated most of the 90s.

Just how much are Americans unconsuming these days? Sales at Goodwill stores grew 7.1 percent in the first three months of 2009. Craigslist saw 100 percent increase in bartering. And companies began to launch campaigns to appeal to the frugal consumer, like the Babies 'R' Us trade-in where customers brought in old car seats for discounts on new goods.

In one of my favorite talks at SXSW, Dr. Nita Rollins, Futurist at Resource International, walked through her research and insights on how values have been reset by the American super-consumer. Unlike consumption, the word used to describe the acquisition of things in exchange for money, unconsumption encompasses all actions after the act of acquisition.

Frugality has changed the internet and the internet has changed frugality. Digital forces have helped transform consumption, connecting consumers to ideas, transparency, and products. For instance, sites like Etsy--where material culture meets counter culture-- disintermediate the middleman to allow artists to sell directly to consumers.

Unconsumption has sprouted from simultaneous developments: the recession and the green movement. While US consumption overall has slowed, a third of consumers are willing to pay more for 'green' products, especially food and large appliances, according to a BCG study in January. Rollins commented, "Environmental green and greed are not enemies."

Learn more:
View Rollins' presentation from SXSW
Check out the Unconsumption Wiki
Read Rob Walker's New York Times column, Consumed

 

Follow Halle Tecco on Twitter: www.twitter.com/halletecco

Comments

[edejan]

11:49 PM on 04/04/2010

As part of the ZPG initiative, I am in my 60s and have no children. It didn't seem to really make much of an impact. 99% of the rest of the world kept reproducing at astronomical rates. And I have no children or grandchldren. Just sayin'.

[unconsumption]

07:51 PM on 04/02/2010

If you're interested in this subject, please also check out the Unconsumption Tumblr:
htttp://unconsumption.tumblr.com

[lauracarroll]

05:12 PM on 04/01/2010

Jeez--Laura here again--typo there...I meant to say that the biggest "ungreen" thing a person can do is to have kids...apology there! The more people, the more consumption no way around it.....
~L http//:lauracarroll.com

[lauracarroll]

05:03 PM on 04/01/2010

The most "ungreen" thing a person can do is not to have kids, or if s/he already has, do not have any more...see this great piece on grist.org: http://www.grist.org/article/2010-03-30-gink-manifesto-say-it-loud-im-childfree-and-im-proud/

As the author of Families of Two, I find more and more today that younger folks--20 somethings get this point much more than generations before them, and they are making the choice not to reproduce for this reason. Concern about population existed over 30-40 years ago with the ZPG (zero population growth) movement--there was even a National Association for NonParents that did outreach on educating people that parenthood is an Option in life, not a given. We need to return to this. At our current ferility rates and including immigration rates (and related fertility rates) in the US, in the next decade our popluation in this country alone will be 1 billion. The more people, the more consumption, no way around it. The more people choose not to have children, the more we'll be able to move toward real unconsumption. ~L

[temp2290]

12:52 PM on 04/05/2010

Also think about this: if you live in America, your child is likely to become a bigger drain on resources than if he/she was born in, say, India.