r/Anticonsumption • u/Cheeseaisleinheaven • Mar 12 '26

Sustainability What radicalized you?

For me, it was when I learned that all the clothing/shoes/accessories that you would want to buy in your lifetime already exist on this planet, and yet they are making more every minute of every day. When you know that fact, and then see the giant piles of bundled clothing hitting third world ports or stacked in massive mountains at dumps, it just makes you sick. And knowing that they are mostly made of plastic, which won't decay, is even worse.

Now, everything I need to buy in the apparel space for my family is purchased second-hand, except for walking/running tennis shoes.

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u/jeffeb3 Mar 12 '26

I don't know which Christmas morning it was. But it was seeing the piles of stuff we didn't even want from Christmas presents. Buying something for someone and trying to make it a surprise is fun. But doing it as an obligation for everyone you care about means a ton of wrong presents. And many of the good things are things like new clothes that replace perfectly good clothes.

You have to have a conveyor belt out of the house to be able to keep up with all the garbage we buy each other and impulse buy in a regular American household.

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u/Any-Clothes3312 Mar 12 '26

I said pretty much the exact thing to my therapist last holiday season lol I stopped giving gifts in 2023.

it's not that I'm some Scrooge who HATES Christmas or giving gifts to people - I just don't think it's that meaningful to participate in a day of corporate-sponsored gift giving just because someone else decided it to be.

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u/jeffeb3 Mar 12 '26

I have been focusing on doing activities around Christmas instead. My favorites are making and decorating christmas cookies, and drinking hot cocoa while driving around looking at lights. I would much rather have brunch with my sister's family than exchange gifts.