Out with the old in with the new

So after watching the Crash Course by Chris Martenson, and going to the cultural event on campus that had Annie Leonard who is behind the Story of Stuff project, I began to think about ways we could cut back on stuff. The bottom line is people are always going to want new stuff. Why settle with the old computer, that doesn't do all the new cool things the new one does? This will always be the case because advances in technology are constantly made and will continue to progress. Annie Leonard's Story of stuff explains how 99% of our old stuff just gets thrown out. It is clear that we are running out of resources so I believe that all stores should adopt a policy that gives consumers more of an incentive to recycle there old stuff. Some sort of reward or discount should be given to the consumer in order to urge them to get rid of there old stuff for the new. This would make them want to recycle that old vacuum cleaner instead of just trashing it. No matter who the manufacturer is there should be a way to get rid of the old(besides just trashing it) while getting the new. For example, my father has an old lawn mower that has been sitting in the garage collecting dust for about 2-3 years since he got a new one. The old lawn mower doesn't work anymore and he doesn't know what to do with it. I think it would be great if he could return that old broken mower in order to get some sort of discount on the next one he buys. He did get plenty of use out of that old lawn mower before it eventually broke on him though. That is something our generation does not do much of any more, that is using things until they break not just until a new better version of it comes out. Out of curiosity I went to take a survey on what is the oldest thing someone owns. After asking a few of my friends and having them all tell me that it is something they got as a child and it is dear to them I decided to just trash the survey altogether. Ironically as I began to put my notebook back in my room I over heard one of my friends talking about getting a new phone. I asked him how old is the one he currently has and he told me it was under a year old. There are about 36 cell phones sold world wide every second! This adds up to be 1.15 billion phones bought every year! In the U.S alone 426,000 cell phones are thrown out each day. I see it as breaking even if we instead of discarding our old stuff traded it in for new stuff. This could maybe level off our consumption. Here is a website that lists a few swap sites that let you trade for free.

http://dealnews.com/features/Swap-sites-that-let-you-trade-for-free/282549.html

this is another website with more chances to swap in old stuff.

http://green.yahoo.com/blog/the_conscious_consumer/12/stores-that-recycle-your-stuff.html

If only all stores could adopt such trade in policies.

Riese N.