Letter to the Editor – Dec ’24
Dear Editor
A Different Year
Last year I challenged myself to not buy a single new item for the whole year. No clothes, no CD’s no games, no books. Nothing. I allowed myself the exception of the essentials; food, drink, second hand items and also anything required for maintenance of an existing item e.g. WD-40.
This challenge came about as I was concerned about my carbon footprint, my spending behaviour and my general annoyance at the amount of ‘stuff’ that I had accumulated during my 39 years on earth. As a husband, father and working medical doctor, life could be busy. The ability to ‘buy it now’ however meant that all too often I would pull out my phone and click to solve a problem, without thinking of the environmental impact.
The year passed quickly. Books, CD’s and games were all easily acquired by using the library, shopping from charity shops and purchasing online. Clothing was more difficult, but by properly assessing my current stock I had far more options than I thought. Older items do come back into fashion if you don’t mind the retro look. Coats can be easily repaired. My work shoes could be reheeled (new experience for me). My electric drill died – Bosch repaired it by post.
By far the biggest challenge was when my pride and joy (bike) started making funny noises. My bike was my exercise / meditation / personal psychologist and key to coping with stress. When over a six month period two bike mechanics could not fix it, I nearly caved in and replaced it. But no, I resisted. Instead I spent time trying to work out what was wrong myself. I replaced some parts with second hand equivalents from ebay and to my own astonishment and amazement ended up fixing it!
The year taught me to stop and think. Our consumerist culture of replaceable short lived items is a very wasteful and an environmentally expensive way of living. The addiction that is ‘buy it now’ has made it so easy to solve problems, that we have stopped solving problems. This short experiment may have changed my way of living forever, so why don’t you give it a try?
Richard Wardle
Christmas Cheer with Best Wishes
