American consumption and waste

The Egyptians built breathtaking pyramids, the Roman Empire made its mark by constructing the historic Coliseum and Americans—we erected the Mall of America.

While shop-until-you-drop mentalities may support a capitalist economy, Americans' excessive consumption negatively affects the environment. The more you consume, the more you have to produce. Seems simple, right?

According to the Clean Air Council's website, the average person in the United States creates 4.39 pounds of trash daily, which when added together, is enough to fill 63,000 garbage trucks every day. What is more, Annie Leonard's "The Story of Stuff Project" indicates the average American spends 3-4 times as many hours shopping as their European counterpart.

The United States currently constitutes five percent of the World's population, but consumes over 30 percent of the resources, according to the World Bank Development Indicators.

The long-term environmental impact of consuming at these high levels is largely unpredictable, but many consider the massive amounts of waste accumulating at increasing rates to be virtually unsustainable.

What is more, the number of possessions each individual America needs and wants has increased dramatically in the past 100 years. As emerging world powers like India and China continue industrializing, their material desires will start to look very similar to ours here in the United States. Still seem simple?

Well, yeah, it is simple. America's consumption habits are excessive, impulsive and often unjustified. Societal change is needed to combat and reverse the environmental consequences resulting from hyper-clothing consumption. As Juliet Schor suggests, downshift!

Scale-back your consumption and briefly remove yourself from the situation when you feel compelled to purchase new. Better yet, remove yourself from the situation, log in to Swashion and save some money while reducing your carbon footprint.

Not convinced? Here is a video lecture from consumption critic Chris Jordan. Jordan puts American consumption into perspective with startling statistics and creative photography. Be disturbed and enjoy.

What steps have you taken to reduce your consumption? Can you think of a time when consumerism has negatively affected you? We want to know. Swashion is not just a community closet; rather, it is a community resource educating Madison, Wis. about consumerism in order to drive change that will help save our planet.