if you've ever seen a shopping hauler
unboxing video you know that America
loves to shop I did some shopping you
know I haven't really uploaded a ha on
this channel in a really long time but
to be honest the shopping never stopped
shopping has never been easier we no
longer have to go to a store during
limited hours stock the aisles looking
for a product and then wait and
check-out lines now with the click of a
button we have the freedom to shop for
anything anywhere and at any time every
day it couldn't miss if you buy yourself
some online products are cheaper than
ever despite having to travel across the
world to get to us which means we often
buy things without a second thought
these are three dollars uno dos tres I
will buy one cuz why the hell not
what's the last thing you bought online
the last thing I bought online was a
milk frother for - espresso coffee
machine I think I bought five pairs of
jeans leggings and sweatpants um which
was freighter juice so you get a
dopamine hit when you buy something
that's kind of this pleasure of oh I'm
buying something that's fun but with
online shopping you get that dopamine
hit when it arrives - and when you open
it so it's kind of this double benefit
and so it's actually more fun in some
ways biologically than buying things in
the store this biological compulsion to
shop is partly due to the way humans are
wired so there is an evolutionary aspect
to this the people that had the most
stuffed were most likely to survive so
you gather a lot of food for the winter
you gather a lot of wood for your
shelter and there's still we still have
that innate desire to kind of get enough
stuff to make sure that we're gonna
survive today despite being surrounded
by abundance Americans are still
collecting evermore stuff in 2017 we
spent 240 billion on goods like jewelry
watches luggage books and phones twice
as much as in 2002 even though our
population only grew by 13% during that
time our spending on personal care items
like lotions and makeup also doubled
over that time so we're spending 20%
more on clothes than we were in 2000 the
average American by 66 garments a year
which is insane and we're even spending
more on electronics which is really
interesting because electronics are
actually cheaper than they used to be so
the dollar amount that we're spending is
going up even though the cost of things
is going down and now that we do a lot
of our shopping online returning things
has become more of a hassle one survey
found that nine out of ten shoppers said
they never or rarely return online
purchases and part of this is because
things are so cheap you think is it
really worth five dollars of my time to
print out the label and go to the post
office and send it back when I'm really
not gonna get that much money back why
not just keep this and maybe I'll use it
eventually
have you ever bought anything you didn't
end up using most things that I buy
online I feel like I don't wind up using
a waffle maker yes for college and I
never use it it's probably selling the
boxes in my basement at home yeah I mean
like lipsticks i buy clothes a lot and a
lot of times I'm too lazy to return them
so where does all this stuff go well a
lot of it just becomes clutter in our
ever-expanding homes the average square
footage of houses in the u.s. rose by 23
percent the last two decades while the
number of storage facilities doubled
it's become very easy to donate our
unwanted goods to thrift stores which
makes us feel better about getting rid
of our stuff but it's estimated that
most of the clothes we donate actually
end up in landfills the average American
throws away an estimated 81 pounds of
clothes and textiles each year nearly
five times more than in 1980 we
collectively threw away twenty six
million tons of plastics in 2015 and
only nine percent got recycled consumers
continue to want cheaper goods
this means that manufacturers have to
cut costs and create lower quality
products so you know you'll buy cheap
clothes from H&M and they'll lose their
shape after a wash or two or you'll even
buy appliances and where they used to
last for 10 years they last for three
years this can't continue
in 20 years the global middle class is
expected to grow by 3 billion people and
we're on track to double the material
resources we use by 2060 we're running
out of places to put all this trash by
the middle of this century the amount of
plastic items in our oceans will be
greater than the number of fish and this
is actually becoming a problem because
China is starting to say we're not gonna
take your junk anymore
so all these landfills across America
are gonna have to figure out what
they're gonna do with all this stuff
that people are throwing away where does
that leave us
the movie wall-e predicted a bleak
future where humans filled their planet
with so much trash that they had to
abandon it for another one some
consumers are trying to reverse this
trend taking part in growing movements
like zero waste households to me living
zero waste means that I don't make any
trash or capsule wardrobes the rule of
thumb is to go down to about 36 items in
your closes or doing a year of no
shopping it was just about not buying
things unless I absolutely needed it or
minimalism some consumers are using
their buying power to encourage
companies to create more sustainable
products I should pay people a fair wage
and support companies that I like but
beyond individual choices we could look
for a more encompassing solution right
now we make use and then trash all of
our materials which can take a thousand
years to biodegrade companies could
design all of our goods for reuse and to
have multiple life cycles before finally
composting back into the earth we could
start with clothing nearly 100 percent
of our fabrics could be recycled into
pulp and turned into new textiles
otherwise if nothing changes
let's hope we can make it to Mars in
time
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