Use it Well
Use it Well. Whenever we got gifts from our elders, this is what they would tell us. These three simple words are what our entire parents’ generation has lived by. My parents’ generation have a knack for utilizingeverything they own to the maximum possible. The joke of our t-shirt turning eventually into a pocha (mop) is in fact a ubiquitous fact. Or that of squeezing out every drop of toothpaste from the tube. They didn’t want more until what they had already was well utilized.
Gifting anything to my mom is always a challenge. If I were to ever ask her what she wanted from any trip or vacation, her answer is always, “I have so much of everything beta. Let me use that first.” I would never understand this. Didn’t we all, as children, walk with awe through those malls wanting to own those amazing goods someday? Now that I can actually buy them, why doesn’t she want them? As a matter of fact, I tease her about not being able to enjoy luxury.
But I understand their wisdom now. And admire it immensely. The thought of owning only things that we need and using them properly till their lifecycle is so simple, yet we are unable to accept it. We constantly feel the need to shop for new things, new clothes, new décor materials, new jewelry, new crockery. Latest fashions, influencers telling us the latest trends of the season, ensemble look and we march out to the bright and shiny malls. Or sit at home and scroll shop.
Possessing new and shiny things is becoming the curse of this century. We love having hundreds of choices. No matter that we don’t have the time or energy to consider or use all of them.
Why not use things we buy until we get our money’s worth? But I am not talking about just money here. I am talking here about using something until we get the cost of their making’s worth out of that item. Cost is no longer just the money we pay. We are forgetting the carbon cost. The amount of Carbon Dioxide that was put into the atmosphere for producing each of these items. Also, the amount of water and land used to produce it.
The fashion industry is responsible for 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions i.e. 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon and could go up to 26% by 2050 [1]. Every pair of denim jeans produced care released by the fashion industry every year. Every pair of denim jeans produced contributes 33.4 kg of CO2 into the atmosphere, consumes 3781 Litres of water, and occupies 12 m2 of land to support its production [2]. The textile industry costs us between 1.22 and 2.93 billion tonnes of CO2 every year. The life-cycle of textiles (including laundering) accounts for 6.7% of all global greenhouse gas emissions [3]. Our fancy gadgets account for 3.7% of the total global greenhouse emissions [4].
As we can see, we are destroying our planet with our very own hands for no other reason but our vanity and need for one-upping amongst others. But do we really need to do this? Is buying those clothes and getting those likes on Instagram really making us happy? This shallow appreciation will always be short lasting and just adds to anxiety and depression.
Just by following the simple lifestyle our elders followed, we can reduce and limit so much damage. We need to find ways to repair and utilise things as long as possible. India is lagging behind when it comes to second hand clothing. I wish more entrepreneurs take up this challenge and create businesses that deal in sale of second hand clothes and recycling fabric.
As regards my mom, I have decided to gift her experiences instead of clothes, a much better utilisation of money coming with a life time of memories. She can’t say no to that now, can she?
1. https://carbonliteracy.com/fast-fashions-carbon-footprint/
2. Asmi, F., Zhang, Q., Anwar, M.A. et al. Ecological footprint of your denim jeans: production knowledge and green consumerism. Sustain Sci 17, 1781–1798 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-022-01131-0
3. https://ejfoundation.org/news-media/clothes-and-climate-is-cotton-best
4. https://theshiftproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Lean-ICT-Report_The-Shift-Project_2019.pdf