Consumerism vs. Reducing, Reusing, Recycling

I simply do not understand the fervor to own everything new. Don't get me wrong, there are some things that should never be purchased used (like underwear, mattresses and shoes - yuk!). But there are a lot of really good, viable things that you can get used or lightly used, like many articles of clothing, furniture, cars and so on. And lots of artists reuse and recycle things in their work, from found objects to old frames and such.

Reusing things (or simply just using them up) is better on the environment because energy and resources are not spent on the production of new things. A lot of people get rid of a lot of things that are perfectly good and sound. Right now, everyone claims to be so concerned with environmental stability. But we are still driven by our love for consumerism that encourages us to Buy! Buy! Buy! To what end? What is the real cost? Why buy new jeans if your old ones aren't worn out yet? Why buy a new car if you've only put 50,000 miles on your current one and it runs fine?

Even if they are more eco-friendly, buying a bunch of new products in a frenzy of shopping for things we don't really need just uses resources. We wouldn't use said resources at anywhere near the same rate if people only bought what they need when they need it. (Nor would we have such issues with debt, I imagine.) And, as I pointed out before in relation to art cards, even recycling materials uses resources, so we are not helping as much as we might want to think by recycling perfectly good things and buying recycled products that we don't need.

I am not perfect myself and do love shopping, but I am trying to be more aware of my own habits and their impacts. If we truly care about lessening our impact on the environment, we will need to make some sacrifices for it. And it's not an all-or-nothing thing, we should all do what we will and change those habits that we are willing to change. Every little bit counts, so no one should ever think that they need to give up everything at once or not bother at all.