Holiday Consumerism

As holiday season approaches and American spending surges, so does the waste. Consumerism is a worldwide issue, but its notable peaks are between Thanksgiving to New Years Eve, when customers spend on gifts, decorations, and seasonal products at heightened levels. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, Americans increase the amount of waste to 25 million tons, or about one million extra tons per week. Largely attributed to gift packaging and short-lived cheap gifts.

Holidays also bring in floods of seasonal targeted advertisements and promotional deals, giving teens more pressure to spend impulsively. A teen herself, senior Melissa Chen, says shopping for others is costly.” Giving gifts feels like a chore.” Another senior, Siri Baldrica, describes similar patterns.” I go like 11 months of the year spending very little and then every single cent goes into spending money on gifts. I try to make sure everyone gets a gift without spending all of the money I have, it’s like a type of social maze.” With rising spending trends many experts warn that the spike in discard of holiday products will greatly impact your wallets and the environment.

Baldrica explains that most of the things gifted to her are items with little sentimental value, like pajama pants or socks, and they “don’t fully resonate with me and essentially become useless.” Cheap, low-demand items are among the most likely to be thrown aside after holidays, contributing to a growing landfill of short-lived products. A similar issue can be seen with aggressive holiday advertisements and social media telling teens that spending more will bring more happiness. Chen admits to not trying to let trends affect her spending habits but acknowledges their impact. “If I really like something trending I get influenced. It gives me ideas and craves those certain things.”

As a result of generic gifts or influences from momentary trends many teens accumulate clutter they never use, while more meaningful and practical gifts are overshadowed by rushed holiday shopping. Holiday shopping directly influences a “throwaway culture”, a society built on cheap, single use objects and the need to move onto the next shiny thing. Instead, many environmental organizations push for people to shift their focus from quantity to quality and create thoughtful gifts that create less waste.