u/topballerina

It's finally happened, trash fashion reached my country.

I'm not talking about skimpy revealing clothing, but about actual trash, that is, clothing that was discarded in other countries and sent to a third world landfill, apparently doing that is cheaper than just destroying it, as developed nations have fines for burning or burying it there.

You might have read about Chile's Desert being used as a dump for synth cloth waste, if not the keywords that worked for me were "Chile Desert clothes dump", now, I don't live there, but "at least" (this sucks so much) that clothing is just... there, polluting the environment, and not being used.

They went one step forward where I live, it's actually being SOLD now, actual trash for sale, it's a predatory business model that takes advantage of the deep and seemingly neverending economic crisis of the country that caused a "basic" product like clothing to straight up become a luxury: and it's not even big international name fashion, plain basic clothes simply cost too much for the average worker, that's where these guys come in.

Their bait is not selling by item but by weight, so 1kg of clothing can go as low as a single shirt elsewhere, the catch is it's trash that was sold mainly by Chinese retailers like Temu, plastic baskets full of rags that go from "seems ok" to ripped or stained. Clearly used and discarded.

I labeled this as "Plastic Waste" because that clothing is basically plastic, synthetic fibres, the kind that feels like touching a plastic bag, and the 100% plastic sports/athleisure shoes, I seriously don't know how can anyone wear that crap, I touched it and it feels itchy.

As for me I kind of always wear the same, it's "locally sourced" as it's made by the local community seamstress, and I don't generate too much (or any, used cloth might be recycled into something else) waste as I always wear the exact same things, well not *literally* the same, I have several items but they're all identical, it's like a uniform, I find it comfortable and I like it, so why not?

Obviously I think this is one more example of the late stage insanity I'm inevitably part of.

Is this a thing elsewhere?

There's of course no good choice, but what's "less worse", letting it pollute the environment or resell it so it will pollute the environment later on?

I stumbled upon this sub browsing the Explore section and realised I might have something in common with others here, but I'm not so sure yet.

^(Not gonna write an essay on my life but for the sake of context I'll say I'm from a rural working class family in a banana republic, we're not wealthy but neither dirt poor.)

I realised I might be anticonsumerist due to the fact I pretty much haven't purchased anything new in about a decade, not because of a hard stance on environmental topics or politics, but because I just found out I don't need anything new, for example in my room, right now, there's not one thing I bought new in the last decade, the furniture "came with the house" as in, it was already here before I was born.

I did purchase things, for example my computer tower, but it was used, however the peripherals were free. The TV and a sick sound system came at no cost, one was a giveaway and the other a skip find, I don't really got into a skip as it was carefully placed on the pavement, but that's how it's called.

Other finds were old floor/table lamps and appliances like a microwave, countertop oven, vacuum/carpet cleaner (no carpets but it's still useful), and ceiling fans: I thought of consumerism because of these, ever seen new ceiling fans? doesn't matter if you know how to install them or how they work, what I mean is they're pretty much disposable, why? the light, it's not user serviceable, it's "energy saving" and "green" but once it goes out people just throw out the entire fan even if it still works and looks new, it's just not useful anymore unless you fancy a dark room and an useless light switch I suppose, and no, electricians or handymen won't really fix them, there's no replacement parts available and it's just cheaper for people to buy and have a new one installed.

That's how I got three ceiling fans, in mint condition, only fault in all was the non-working light, they're useful because climate is hot all year long and power is both obscenely expensive (given our incomes) and scarce/unreliable, tends to go out for days or weeks, and fans are magnitudes of order cheaper to run than air conditioners. I was able to put lights on them and hang them but that's not the important bit, I think it's wasteful, even if I'm not a tree hugging hippie, it's just not sustainable.

>!The fun weird bit is I keep finding space heaters, I've got 21 so far, 15 are random designs of the fan type and the rest a 6-pack of quartz infrared a warehouse just threw out due to minor cosmetic issues, why? no idea, but I do pick them up, the thing is I can't even sell them because there's no winter here, coldest it gets is around 20-22C but with humidity out of the carboniferous period so it still feels hot, no need for heaters.!<

Other thing a lot of people don't talk to me is I don't have a smartphone, I do have a phone but it's a regular one and I haven't swapped it because I literally don't need to, I just make calls and send texts, that's it, and I don't like Google.

My car is from 1980, it pollutes even though it's NGV but I try not to use it that much as I like riding a bike, and there's a gas shortage so I'd rather keep the tank full in case of emergency.

In short, I try and repair things I find that are useful to me instead of buying new, and I avoid overall low quality products because I know they'll be going to a landfill in months.

Is it an anticonsumerist stance or am I just a huge miser? I'd be more of an advocate or activist but I kinda feel no one's going to hear me locally. Mainstream culture is basically "who cares if I dump my trash in the river, the stream takes it away" or "slashing the bus seat because it was late isn't a crime, the government will install a new one later" - that kind of backwards thinking.