Opinion-in-brief: Brands need to sell less stuff to really be more successful
Constantly making more things on a planet of finite resources is, by its very nature, unsustainable. As long as we remain hooked on over-consumption, a search for “sustainability” is simply not practical.
Each year, the fashion industry produces over 92 million tonnes of waste and we throw away 50m tonnes of toxic electronic products. In the UK alone, 20 million plastic lenses are sent to landfill – and with half the world’s population expected to need spectacles by 2050, we need to change.
Large swathes of the retail industry have made bold claims about reducing their footprint, but transparency remains questionable. Most brands choose to overlook the simplest solution – selling less stuff.
Designing timeless products that can be used, repaired, and ultimately recycled or remanufactured needs to become the norm. I’d advocate a data-driven search for lower impact, and greater circularity.