What Are We Over-Manufacturing?
I wrote in yesterday's blog post about how my husband and I gathered our excess reusable water bottles to donate to a homeless services nonprofit who put out a call for them.
Blog readers chimed in about how reusable bottles designed (supposedly) to minimize excess consumerism have accomplished the opposite. You only have to look back a couple years to the Stanley cup craze to understand this point.
"Whenever I look at the inventory at a thrift store or on Buy Nothing posts, I think to myself that all the water bottles we'll ever need have already been manufactured."
My response to this was "Also every ceramic mug."
I mean, c'mon . . . it's time to stop manufacturing mugs until all the donated/abandoned ones find homes.
Which led to this comment:
"Stuffed animals. I believe every person should be issued one at birth, and be able to receive one more during his/her lifetime. That's all."
I look back to my childhood and I'd guess that I owned maybe six stuffed animals from ages 0-18. My daughter? By age three she already had enough stuffed animals to fill a Pack-N-Play, although you can probably tell that one of them was a definite keeper.
Stuffed animals cram every thrift store shelf that'll even accept them, yet we continue to buy new ones without a second thought.
Mind you, I absolutely understand why people buy them. They're cheap, cute and feed the dopamine cycle of "Ooh . . . something new!"
Pre-2007, I was a normal American consumer and bought almost all our Stuff brand new. I had a decent hourly wage as a nurse and little kids who loved playing with their stuffed animals. Add in a store literally two blocks from the house, selling sold Beanie Babies for five bucks apiece.
This led to a routine where we'd walk to the store, let the kids take their time to pick out their preferred stuffed animal and then bring it home to play all afternoon. It was the perfect solution for potentially bored kids. This unfortunately fed the mentality of "this shiny new toy is better than my old toy" and cluttered rooms. Plus the environmental consequences of overconsumption.
My mind is wondering what other categories of consumer goods are grossly overmanufactured? Clothing, for sure, (especially for women) but also certain kitchenware items such as non-stick pans. They get ruined almost instantly and then thrown away or donated to thrift stores that can't sell them.
The Goodwill bins are full of them, yet I've never seen one in anyone's cart.
I'm curious what unnecessarily manufactured do you see in the world? What am I missing?
Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Shoes. Happy meal toys. Barbie dolls and Barbie-like dolls. Cosmetics. Sports equipment. Really just about everything!
I was a kid growing up in the fifties. I had some dolls and stuffed animals, a dollhouse, a record player, some board games and puzzles. I don't remember much else. Now I see kids with so many toys they can't walk across their rooms or sleep in their beds. How did this happen? How did this get to seem normal?
I have a friend, my age, whose whole house is like this, and she rents three storage units besides. I don't get it.
I feel like it would almost be easier to count the things that aren't overmanufactured.
Toys used to be comparatively expensive, mostly made in the USA. Now they're made cheaply in the Far East, so it's easy and cheap to buy them.
I'd never even think of giving my kid a used stuffed animal. Uck.
For example, Barbie cost $3 when introduced in 1959. Now you can probably buy a new one for less than that even ignoring inflation.
I have issues with all the disposable products … paper dish ware, plastic silverware, plastic tablecloths, paper napkins, etc. Yes, you have to wash and clean these items! And, honestly, there are times when I do use disposable products for large family gatherings, etc. In those cases, I try to get compostable items to help the environment a little bit. We wash and reuse plastic silverware, plastic bags, and foil. I recycle the foil (after several uses) and plastic bags. I can appreciate parchment paper. It certainly has a purpose, but for years we all did just fine greasing our baking dishes and pans. Now, directions on so many recipes call for parchment paper when greasing would do just fine. We have more than likely over manufactured “bring your own shopping bags.”
Our store still sells TY-brand stuffed animals for $4.99, and I understand why kids are attracted to those big eyed stuffies, whether or not they are considered official Beanie Babies. They are adorable. (Even though I agree there are far too many of them!)
What I absolutely don't get is this squishy fad. The kids are nuts about squishies that cost $5.95 or more and the stupid things don't do a darned thing. They have no useful purpose at all. The kids want them because their classmates have them and they constantly call our store asking if they're in stock We've sold out several times. I just don't get it: why would anyone want one of those stupid things? (Peer pressure and parents who won't say no....)
Another thing I never understood was why do little girls need 8 or 10 Barbie dolls? I had a Barbie and later a Midge (Barbie's same-sized friend who could wear her clothes) and a Skipper (Barbie's flat-chested kid sister who couldn't), but that was it. Now I see kids with dozens of Barbies that all look alike. What's with that?
Lisa, your Barbie and friends memories just jarred loose some of mine. My first BFF--my next-door neighbor who was exactly 12 days younger than I was--used to pool our Barbies, Kens, Midges, and Skippers (she and I had one of each) into hours of fun. I recall with special fondness our using all these, plus assorted smaller dolls (including a Native American doll--hey, we didn't discriminate!) in our own doll version of The Sound of Music. I doubt whether the Barbie collectors of today are doing anything this creative. (And I'm very happy to report that this BFF tracked me down on the Internet several years ago, and we've kept in touch ever since.)
We had similar communities of dolls we referred to as "Barbies", but they went far beyond just the Mattel version, with all sorts of named- and nameless- large and small peoples.
I read something once about Barbie that I should have realized long before. Barbie was an adult (ignoring her figure), and playing with Barbie was practicing being a grown-up. That meant a lot of creative play for my sisters and I.
Yeah, I played with the same couple Barbie and friends. Now I go into thrift stores and see these bags of naked Barbies. I once read something like if you put all the world’s Barbies head to toe they would circle the world once or twice. I often have a weird fantasy of buying a bag of them, cleaning them up and making clothes for them. Maybe they could be reused. I know, a supposedly sexist toy, but I don’t think I was damaged too badly…
Cheesy word art. “Live Love Laugh”. (Gag!)
Fleece blankets.
Tote bags.
Throw pillows.
Holiday decor.
Gift bags.
Mini dash waffle/pancake/sandwich makers.
Pillowcases.
Tote bags.
Costume jewelry is way out of hand. The thrift store at my church is overflowing with it. Someone buys a piece or pieces of inexpensive jewelry to go with a certain outfit and when the outfit is out of style or doesn't fit anymore, where does all that (mostly plastic) jewelry go? Glutting up our jewelry cases, to a donation center or worse...to a landfill.
Baby clothes - they outgrow them so fast, that if everyone just passed them around we'd never need to manufacture them again.
Wedding dresses and veils! The thought of having a dress for the ceremony, one for the reception, and one to jump into the lake during the post-reception stuns me.
Although I completely agree about over-production, I do think more and more attention is being paid to the issue. But my attention might be selective.
I rarely see commercials for children's fast-food now, but I get the impression that Happy Meal Toys are less of a big deal, (going along with making the food healthier).
Less useless swag, (key chains), at conventions and businesses.
Fewer "this event gives you a cheap t-shirt" events.
Remember the giant chunks of styrofoam that used to line every package? Or even packing peanuts?
France is working on legislation to ban or limit fast fashion websites like Temu. It is tangled up with EU commerce requirements.
I would add, though, the related planned obsolescence of items, (like my laptop that couldn't make the leap to Windows 11), as a great waste. Again, legislation is variously proposed to make things repairable, make parts available, etc., though that is a slow battle.
Love the baby in the stuffed animals photo!
I agree with everyone's comments. I was just thinking the other day I wish they would quit making ink pens. It's like the ink pens at work and home have babies while I am sleeping. Which then got me thinking about all the give away advertising garbage that gets handed out at conferences, events, and sent in the mail...like more ink pens, refrigerator magnets, key chains. Just so much stuff that's not needed.
Christmas clothes AND Christmas pajamas. Ugh.