Graffiti on an electrical box reads: ‘Work, buy, consume, die’. The picture adorns the cover of Ana Sofia Poças Ribeiro’s (35) dissertation, who received her PhD this week from Utrecht University. In short, she researched why people buy so much these days and how things can be done in a more environmentally friendly way.
The graffiti text is a caricature, but Ribeiro believes that part of the population can best be regarded as ‘shopping addicts’. Consumers can limit environmental damage by buying less stuff and shopping more sustainably, she writes in her dissertation. But a more important conclusion, she thinks, is: the desire to buy has largely been created, consumers are stuck in the current economic system. Consumption drive is young and not ingrained in people.
What is the last purchase you made yourself?
“Nice new trousers to wear to my graduation ceremony. And some shirts, but they were second-hand.”
I’m asking a bit teasingly, because I think you think that question is nonsensical?
She laughs. “Well, I’ve asked people that question as part of my research. But indeed: that whole personal approach is actually misleading. Because ‘we’ as consumers are a product of the system, which is aimed at consumption and growth. Holding someone personally responsible for purchasing behavior immediately suggests guilt. Partly unjustified. Because just think how difficult it is to only buy environmentally friendly or very little.”
Because of the marketing by companies?
“Companies spend huge budgets to encourage individuals to buy. That wouldn’t happen if it wasn’t a revenue model. Products are advertised as necessary. Insights from psychology are used. If you don’t buy safety products, do you take good care of your children? Or are you presentable without using a hairdryer?”
But consumers are not easy lambs, are they?
“Certainly not. We can partly approach things differently ourselves by sharing more with each other, consuming second-hand and cleaner. We can try to see ourselves more as a ‘citizen’ and less as a consumer. But what is possible with this appears to be limited. Anyone who wants to use little packaging or strives for a small footprint will get frustrated. It’s almost impossible. Almost all the range is aimed at consumption, you have to search for really sustainable products for a long time. Commercials are everywhere: on the internet, on the street, on mobile phones. What is really needed for less environmental impact is system change, in which society no longer focuses on economic growth.”
The UN climate panel does say: everyone can contribute to change as a consumer.
“It is important to condemn excessive consumerism and to point out its major environmental impact. More attention should also be paid to this, because the climate debate often focuses on energy consumption or human travel behaviour. But the message ‘stop shopping’ for the climate is too simple and one-sided. The consumer is an actor within a system with power and influence from companies and media.”
Isn’t consumption just part of human nature?
“I am convinced not. People do need certain things, such as clothing that protects us from the cold. And food, of course. But the idea that the need for things is in man is an incorrect frame. Overconsumption and its normalization is a very young phenomenon, which has been strengthened and normalized in recent decades. Consumption, as Donella Meadows of the Club of Rome pointed out, often satisfies nonmaterial needs for one’s identity or ego. If someone manages to meet those needs differently, many purchases become unnecessary.
“Look back a few decades: in the Netherlands, in my home country Portugal and in many other rich Western countries, people used things much more sparingly, by repairing things and sharing them within a community. That is often good. What makes it unappealing to many is the idea that it is a step backwards because it is related to poverty. You don’t have to, if you want to create a sustainable sharing economy.”
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