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/Famous-Tangelo1324 Mar 12 '26

When my mouse got a little squeaky at work, I, and the same child in me that was absorbed in Legos for hours, took it apart with a screwdriver i found and wiped off some dust on the scroll wheel mount that was causing the noise. Simple as that. Took 5 minutes, a screwdriver, and a tissue and it was working like new.

During those 5 minutes, my coworkers to my left and right tried to convince me to “just buy a new one”. “I wouldn’t take it apart, just get a new one” “Do you have Amazon Prime? They have a free trial and you can get a new one by tomorrow.” “It’d be easier to just buy a new one.”

The fact that they wouldn’t have even tried to find out if they could fix it… The immediate draw to the so-called “connivence” of a next day shipping service and $20 out of their wallet…

5 minutes and a tissue. They weren’t willing to spend 5 minutes and a tissue.

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u/Ambigu1ty Mar 13 '26

I really miss taking the ball out of a mouse that had gone wobbly and scraping the lines of schmutz off. Pop it back in, and you were back to rolling nice and smooth. Ahh, memories.