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CLIMATE AWARENESS | WASTE POLLUTION

Our Plastic-Fantastic, Push-Button World is Killing Us Slowly

Current moves away from the synthetic existence we have grown used to simply aren’t enough

Sally Prag

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Image created in Canva Magic Studio.

I’m not really one for shopping. At a young age I discovered the joys of recycling, upcycling, and handcrafting as much as possible from natural materials. With that mindset, watching the fast fashion world grow and flourish around me, I’ve withdrawn more and more from consumerism.

But earlier this week, I found myself thrown right into the world of shopping and noticed just how easy it is to go from “I don’t need anything more in my life” to “I really want (fill in the blank) and all reason not to buy it has vanished.”

It was all due to a trip I took up to London with my 18-year-old daughter. The purpose was for a consultation at a dental implant clinic with the hope that her 10-year-long teeth trauma, since an accident in the school playground at age eight, would be concluded. At least for the time being.

Sadly, the news wasn’t quite what we hoped. And now, here I was with time on my hands due to our aborted dental session, in futuristic-looking Stratford, home of the 2012 Olympic Games, with its giant hell-on-earth shopping mall…

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Sally Prag
Sally Prag

Written by Sally Prag

I write creative nonfiction essays and poetry. Rethinking life through my words. Sometimes too seriously, sometimes not seriously enough.

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