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The Environmental Impact of Minimalism: Reducing Waste and Consumption

Introduction

Are you thinking of opting for a minimalist lifestyle? Are you conscious about leaving more footprints in the world and trying to minimize them? This article has all the information about the minimalistic lifestyle and its environmental impact. Keep reading till the end to know more on this topic.

Who doesn’t want to reduce waste and consumption by choosing a minimalist lifestyle? In our busy, hectic daily lifestyle, getting rid of unnecessary things to make a simple living and the environment safe makes it one less thing to weigh on our conscience; who wouldn’t want that? But does it really help in environmental protection? That is the main question.

Rise In Consumption Through The Ages

Consumption has been on the rise since the world wars when the world] saw a boom in population. As people grew, resources started depleting, leading to a rise in prices all around the world for daily necessities. Cheaper alternatives started coming onto the market, such as plastics which were non-biodegradable, and landfill started to overfill with plastics leading to the dumping of wastes in oceans leading to air and land pollution.

Oil was discovered in abundance in nature, leading to a shift towards oil-run vehicles, which were cheap at that time due to excess availability, but soon these natural resources started depleting, and an oil crisis was declared, leading to a shift towards different alternatives for future generations. Which explains the connection between the law of demand and excess demand? As demand for natural resources like oil increased and the supply was limited, a new shift towards sustainable alternatives was chosen. And people’s mindsets started shifting towards a new way of life.

What Is Minimalism?

The term Minimalism refers to avoiding unnecessary things in our life to lead a simple yet elegant lifestyle where we achieve ultimate productivity. Minimalism can help you achieve freedom. Guilt, depression, worry, fear, and the overwhelming need to follow the trends of the time. In a world where consumer culture leads to a country’s GDP rise, shifting to a minimalist lifestyle is tough for people. New exciting products in the market attract customers like honey towards flowers can make this lifestyle not easy to accept. Yet people are opting for this lifestyle to have peace of mind about the environment and their own expenditures.

Minimalism helps us achieve fulfillment, happiness, and freedom from all materialistic needs. In a consumer culture, no amount of buying new things can satisfy your need for wanting something new as new products launch every day, and our surroundings are built in a way that makes us feel invisible and not worthy if we don’t have that thing in our hands or life. Hence life becomes more hectic, and stress level rises.

Minimalism saves our time, which again leads to having time to pursue our passion, discover new missions, eliminate our life’s discontent, and live in the moment. Creating new experiences with our loved ones and growing as an individual. We can focus more on our well-being, especially mental and physical health. A minimalist lifestyle gives us the ultimate happiness which we were searching for in materialist things to satisfy our minds but is unable to. Most importantly, it helps save a lot of money that we would have wasted on useless products.

Environmental Benefits Of Minimalism

  • Minimalism helps in reducing waste which has become a global problem in the world. When we declutter our life by recycling, reusing, and reducing waste, it all leads to saving our environment through waste management. When we need fewer things and recycle more automatically, we start buying less, which in turn reduces the pressure on landfills due to excess waste.
  • Minimalism promotes a circular economy system where resources are used and reused instead of discarded. By choosing not to throw your clothes in the garbage and donating your clothes when you don’t need them, you are helping someone who is in need and also relieving the pressure on the landfills.
  • By choosing a minimalist lifestyle, you are helping preserve natural resources. Not only are you decluttering your life by consuming less, but you are also impacting the environment positively. Natural resources are preserved for the next generation when you choose a minimalist lifestyle as you are using the resources such as water, gas, edible products, etc., sparingly.
  • Pollution, such as air and noise, is reduced when you opt for an electric car instead of an oil-run car. Also, opting to commute in electric buses helps reduce the congestion on roads as well as air pollution. Governments all across the world are trying to shift towards a zero-carbon emission world by giving incentives for the purchase of electric cars instead of diesel-run cars. To increase the demand for electric vehicles among people.
  • Minimalists’ shift towards quality of life instead of quantity-based living was a plus in motivating people to shift towards a minimalist lifestyle.
  • Minimalism can lead to a lower carbon footprint. People started opting for environmentally friendly products leading to lower air and land pollution.
  • Lower consumption leads to saving resources and money, which can be used to buy productive things and passions.
  • Minimalism gives us more time to make our lives productive; hence we can learn new skills to grow ourselves.

Conclusion

Was this article able to change your mind about minimalism? Or did it scare you that you have to give up your monthly shopping sprees to convert to a minimalist lifestyle? Do let us know what your thoughts are on this new way of life people are shifting towards in present times.

Author Bio:

Meet Lauren, a passionate blogger and freelance writer. She writes about a variety of topics, including business, technology and entrepreneurship. She created Money Outlined to share her thoughts and experiences with the world.