🚀 go-pugleaf

Hallo!

The following text was published last year in SZ-Magazin, a weekly
extra in Munich's most reputated newspaper, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
It is about buying, owning and the revolution of consumption. I do not
agree to all points, but I think the text is pretty inspiring and
might trigger a slight shift in your way of thinking (at least I hope
so). I translated it into English myself, so please excuse mistakes I
might have made. If you would like to receive texts like this via
e-mail in the future as well, please let me know:
   christian.bussler@stud.uni-muenchen.de

Best wishes from Munich,

Chris


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        BUYING MAKES YOU HAPPY, POSSESSION FRUSTRATES
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How to produce goods in an ecologically sustainable way? How one
optimize their use? How to get rid of them again? Eight rules which
were set up by Prof. Michael Erlhoff, author of the book "Nutzen 
statt besitzen".


RULE 1: Reduce material and energy consumption!

Designers and producers have to save raw materials and energy already
in the process of production; they should use as few and as simple
materials as any possible. An example: Each year, in the United States
about 500 million toothbrushes are being used and littered. How many
tons of plastic could be saved if they were produced with hollow
grips? That would reduce the plastic consumption per piece by about
70%, without harming the consumers and their teeth. On the other hand,
there is always a trap involved in calculations like this: For
simplifying a product like a toothbrush, the waste of energy and
resources for restructuring the production process could outweigh the
ecological advantages.


RULE 2: Shorten the paths of transport!

Is it necessary that textiles are prepared in Turkey, colored in
Indonesia, processed in Poland and sold in the EU? Certainly not, and
it is likely that the waste of energy and time does not at all justify
the lower price reached by this. An escape from that odyssey of goods
could be regional marketing. A producer of kitchens in North
Rhine-Westphalia states a good example: He sells his furniture only
within one hundred kilometers distance, to shorten ways for transport
and -- more important! -- service. This allows very fast repairs and
is an advantage for the customers. This concept can be successful
because the production facilities can be smaller and the costs lower
than in big industry manufacturing. Higher costs for energy and
transport would be justified and an important incentive for regional
marketing.


RULE 3: Reconsider Recycling!

For long, recycling has been an synonym for environmental protection;
but in the last years, its reputation has decreased. Recycling does
not offer solutions for disposal problems, it just postpones them. Too
many park banks and plant pots from recycled material would not
contribute to the beauty of our gardens, woods and parks. These
products are ennobled, but still indestructible waste. This is not
true for paper and glass, of course, but the more for manufactured
goods made of plastics. Plastics and metal don't gain patina by the
time, they never get antique. All everyday objects made of such
materials are vain of any vividness and never decay; from the
ecological point of view, they are nothing but foreseeable, eternal
rubbish.


RULE 4: Take back your products!

It seems normal yet, but it is an intolerable situation: For many
products, it is more expensive to have it repaired but to buy a new
one. Take hairdryers, battery powered alarm clocks, pocket calculators
or little radios as examples: You don't see a single screw, it's all
weld and pasted together. That means that already a little loose
contact turns the object into waste, because it cannot be opened and
repaired. There are even pocket calculators and watches for which the
exchange of batteries is more expensive than the whole thing. The
reason for this is that the hardware, the product itself, gets cheaper
and cheaper, while the prices for software -- which includes services
such as repairs -- steadily increases. This system is ecologically
absurd and created by a distortion of the market. The distortion lies
in the fact that the cost for producing a good does not include the
cost for its disposal. If one had to pay for this already when buying
something, the price would be more realistic, one would buy with more
consciousness and repairing would be worth while again. That means
that we need a take-back system which enables us to return anything we
bought to the manufacturer after use. Washing machines, TV sets,
magazines, lighters... everything. The manufacturers or dealers would
add the costs for disposal on the prices, and the consumers would be
more choosing. And the producers would offer better goods which are
likely to have a longer life and are easier to dispose -- all this to
save costs and be more competitive themselves.


RULE 5: Buy less, borrow more!

If there was such a consequent take-back system, the consumers would
acquire materials and goods only for a certain time span, that is:
they would rent or borrow them. This would be ecologically reasonable,
because this traditional form of common use would make the people
needing less things without having to abstain from convenience; the
overall number of products would diminish dramatically. Cars, books,
cameras and special clothing are being offered for rent nowadays
already, which reduces the overall number of these goods and is
environmentally friendly. A system which could be extended: According
to an English survey, office facilities are only used 25% of office
hours. This situation could be improved by the Japanese solution of
office-hotels, which you only visit (based on an electronic chip card,
which records the time of use and is base for later billing) when you
really need an office -- for communication and several types of work,
your own apartment or coffee houses are a better location. To use
something without owning it could soon become normal in the car
industries. Instead of buying a car, you buy a set of keys which opens
all cars of a certain type or class, which can be used by you (an
optimal system would include public transport as well).


RULE 6: Use products together with others!

Let's learn from children and youths who have always been swapping
comics, leather jackets, CDs and marbles and made experiences with
objects through that: For example, we could refurnish our apartment by
swapping furniture with somebody else, and this would always provide
us with a new experience of space and identification. The care for the
goods is automatic, because it is necessary to maintain their swapping
value. The keyphrase is: "Use instead of possession". How few times a
day, a week or a month do you use for a certain good, and how many
things are lying around useless and aging all time! Ten households
which share vacuum cleaners, drilling machines, lawn mowers and cars
save money and automatically reduce their use of energy and materials
as well as their output of waste.


RULE 7: Convert goods into services!

To put money into services instead of into unnecessary good does not
only help protecting the environment, but also creates new jobs.
Taking a cab is, at least within cities, more convenient, cheaper and
more environmentally friendly than having an own car; when calculating
costs, many people forget to include initial (buying) costs, parking
fees, taxes, insurance and repairs. Public transport would be another
example. A barber could replace hairdryer and shaver. There are good
bicycle services for transports within a city, and big washing
machines in salons more reasonable than an own one at home (which
still bothers you with noise, space consumption and repairs) because
they have built-in water cleaners and need less washing powder. I
admit: Services like this must be accessible easier. We need washing
salons which are kindergartens, offices, bars and cafes at the same
time, barbers and gardeners who offer competent service and cab
drivers who do not give you the feeling that you have to be steadily
grateful to them. We need a systematically structured, intelligent
service system, which could be the base of life quality and an
environmentally friendly future.


RULE 8: Don't get frustrated by possession!

Despite all reason and insight, this is one of the most destructive
misunderstandings of consumption: Almost everybody likes to buy and
posses things. The reason for this desire is the search for identity,
for harmony and security. In contrast, my thesis is: It is fun to buy
something... but possession frustrates. In furniture shops, it often
happens that people simply do not pick goods they already have paid
for. Indeed, the psychopathology of buying is fundamentally different
from the one of owning: The latter is a satisfaction of anal-erotic
instincts (Dogbert Duck and the bath in gold, which allegedly washes
off feces) while buying is pleasure, communication, decrease of
frustration, relief and ego-boost. When buying, the shopowner becomes
your friend, offers a small talk or even a coffee; but at home, you
wonder frustrated: Do I really need that? There still remains one
light at the end of the tunnel: Let's sell buying as such. This would
be a real ecological, economic and cultural benefit. In English, there
is already a term for that: "shopping", an activity in which buying is
not necessarily involved.

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