This TikTok trend is incredibly wasteful.
Financial coach Rachel (@rachel_talksmoney) shared her opinion on a viral TikTok organizing trend.
@rachel_talksmoney Is it me pr is this totally over the top?!
♬ original sound - Rachel | Money & Finance Coach
"Overconsumption has been rebranded as cute in American society, and it is causing you so much unnecessary financial stress," Rachel says.
Rachel is reacting to a TikTok video that shows an expensive restock of a child's fridge. Yes, not even the main fridge — this kid's fridge is filled with over $250 worth of items without counting the plastic-packaged groceries, which are then repackaged into containers in the name of organization.
"Just because we can buy things doesn't mean that we need to or that we should," she says. "All of this s*** is going to be in a landfill before you even know it. Stop solving problems that don't exist."
These types of videos — clothing, grocery, and makeup hauls — are viral displays of overconsumption. Overconsuming entails buying more food than what we can reasonably eat, more clothes than we need to wear, or beyond such as more decor than we have room to fit.
Just how big of a problem is overconsumption? Here are a few facts:
1. 40% of food produced in the United States goes uneaten. This is equivalent to 400 pounds per person each year, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.
2. E-waste, or electronic waste, is the fastest-growing source of waste in the world. Only around 20% of this waste is successfully recycled, per the World Health Organization.
3. Despite buying more clothes than ever, we are using them even less. Over the past 15 years, "the number of times a garment is worn has declined by around 36 percent," Earth.org says.
Overconsumption has drastic implications for our planet, as we are consuming faster than the planet can produce. Earth Overshoot Day did the math and found that if everyone on the planet lived like the average American, we would need five Earths to meet needs and wants.
Start by ditching fast fashion — and explore the rest of our guide to using your purchasing power for good.
Commenters couldn't believe the amount of money, food, and plastic wasted in the video.
"Not to mention the devastation of all that ending up in landfill," one user said.
"So much plastic to put other plastic things in," another user commented.
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