Reducing your consumption is a great place to start.

What is the problem?

Rapid Depletion of Natural Resources - As China begins to flex its mighty industrial muscle, producing items at low cost and seemingly made to last no longer than the warranty period, we forget about the quantity of natural resources being used to produce these items. The real problem with natural resources such as coal, iron ore, and nickel is that they are non-renewable. That?s right when its gone it will be gone forever and sure this is not a problem in our lifetime, but the next generation may not be so lucky.

Is China really to blame?

Reduce Consumption ? No, China is simply supplying our demands, as consumers in the Western World so if you reduce the demand, the supply will also reduce over time. As the worlds population grows it?s hard to imagine the planet coping with all this strain and resource depletion. We cannot stop progress and we don?t need to live without luxuries we just simply need to learn to reduce consumption.

So how can I help?

Second-Hand is not Second Best - We can make a difference by reducing our consumption of manufactured goods and begin to explore ways to reuse, repair or recycle existing items. We need to embrace the notion that second-hand doesn?t mean second best and as second-hand prices are generally 25%-50% less than the retail price you may even be able to buy something of a better quality than you were willing to pay for previously. Finding something rare or buying a second-hand bargain is exciting and is more rewarding than purchasing something from a retail shop with all those middleman markups.

So choose to embrace second-hand as a real alternative to buying new and inspire others to follow. Reduce the consumption of manufactured goods and help to reduce the depletion of our valuable natural resources for future generations to enjoy.