• Skip to main content

COLIN BEAVAN, PhD

  • Who you are
  • Who I am
  • How I help
  • Coming Events
  • Get in touch

Disposability

Making products so valuable that no one wants to throw them away

November 7, 2008 by Colin Beavan

Part of why it is hard for business to really embrace deep-green environmental practice is that making profit has always been associated with high material and energy throughput. If they make products that are meant to last, they sell less, and their profits go down. Reduced material throughput, for them, means reduced income–even if it […]

Filed Under: Consumerism and Materialism, Environment, No Impact Man Tagged With: customer loyalty, customer relations, Disposability, repair, reuse, sustainability

Throwaway science

March 3, 2008 by Colin Beavan

Apropos of our recent discussion on disposability (see here and here), the Guardian, in its green living column no less, trotted out that old tired question about whether a reusable ceramic cup is really better than disposable cups. They use that ancient statistic that says you have to use a thousand polystyrene cups before you equal […]

Filed Under: Consumerism and Materialism, Environment, No Impact Man Tagged With: Disposability, reusable cups

Our problem, you see, is insufficient materialism

February 25, 2008 by Colin Beavan

On Saturday, I had coffee with Boston College Professor Juliet Schor, author of Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture and co-founder of the Center for a New American Dream. We were talking about throwaway products and the disposable culture which fuel our economy and trash our resources (and which I […]

Filed Under: Consumerism and Materialism, Environment, No Impact Man, Spirituality and Personal Growth Tagged With: Disposability, Juliet Schor, Materialism, spirituality, sustainability

  • Who You Are
  • Who I am
  • Email Sign Up
  • Blog
  • How I Help
  • Coming Events
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Books + Films
  • Media

Copyright © 2023 · Infinity Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Join the Good Life Conversation

I'm excited to let you know when I have news that will help you in your quest for a safe, healthy, happy, meaningful life that also helps the world.