“I will try to buy nothing new in 2022”, was a pledge made by a number of people at the recent Aldersbrook eco-festival.

It is an important pledge. A recent survey estimated households spend £9,000 a year on stuff they just don’t use, whether that be clothes, food or subscription to TV channels.

Buying has become so much easier in the world of online shopping. It is so simple to click on a product and have it delivered to the door, let alone go to a shop, although, much unused stuff is also purchased in the shops as well.

It is believed that some people buy as a sort of therapy, to feel better. The whole advertising industry is about persuading people to buy, buy, buy.

There is also the planetary cost of this purchasing binge. All the stuff has to be made, using up valuable resources and contributing to climate and biodiversity destruction in the process.

The consumerist mode of living has been the norm for many decades - almost a religion.

Consumer capitalism is dependent on people using up stuff, then throwing it away, so creating more demand.

The damage that this way of living has caused to the planet has become more and more obvious.

The planet is finite. If humans continue with this destructive consumerist model, then they will destroy the whole ecosystem that we all depend on for life.

It has been this realisation that has led to pledges like to not buy anything new in 2022.

Also, the growing movement to recycle and reuse rather than throwaway and buy new offers a sustainable way of living.

Where it leaves consumer capitalism, with its dependence on the throwaway society, to create more demand is anyone’s guess.

What is for sure is that things cannot continue in that previously wantonly destructive way.

The new movement that rejects ‘stuffocation’ in favour of a simpler, more sustainable way of living really is the only way forward.