Don't waste it!

Americans are wasteful; We weren't always like this. Somewhere between the "Greatest Generation" and this one we have become consumers and gluttons who fill landfills up with the old only to purchase the "stuff of now" to later become the "landfill of tomorrow." We want our lives to look like glossy magazines and a sixty second commercials. Friends of ours recently rented a U-haul and threw away most of their possessions and replaced them with new possessions because they could, meaning they had the financial resources to do this. My friends know of my opinion of this...long ago my friends have labeled me a bleeding heart liberal. One friend who liked the coffee I gave him one evening asked where I got it and I said "Starbucks and it was their fair trade brand"...he smiled at me and shook his head and said "You're funny, Ronda." Another friend owns more cars than they have family members and they are not a car dealer.

While I love them all, my feelings over this...our country's culture of wastefulness seem ready to make me scream! These first mentioned friends could have called any charitable organization and they would have probably picked up these items gladly as they were still fairly new...just not "new to the minute." Sadly, my friends are not alone in their behavior and at times in my live I have shared in this mindset. As I have said earlier in a blog our business is in construction...there is a considerable amount of waste happening on any given construction site everyday. Corporations and individuals buy homes all the time with just the thought of the land beneath them and they have these homes or buildings torn down and these structures become part of a landfill. How wasteful!

If everyone would just stop and ask"Do I really need a new whatever?" or "Could I just have this repaired or repainted?"

And if after that you decide I just have to have this latest and greatest whatever, could you ask yourself "Who could I give this whatever to so that it might stretch the live of this whatever so it doesn't end up in a landfill today?"
Our culture of consumerism is choking the air we breathe, poisoning our water and top soil. Yet, still we buy, buy, buy.

I was in banking for ten years and I learned this from my customers...
The wealthy looking aren't the ones with money and a rich life has nothing to do with money or possessions.

I have found an organization called http://www.freecycle.org/ and it is a non-profit and their mission is about re-using stuff and keeping it out of landfills. You may list items you have to give away or items you are seeking. Check it out over at my favorite links.

Want not? Waste not!