When I was working at a thrift shop in 2022 in a poor neighborhood in NYC, donations came daily. The quality of which ranged from perfectly usable to complete trash. What struck me was not the quality of these donations, but the sheer quantity. Every day, we had to sort through a literal roomful of incoming donations stacked from floor to ceiling.
The experience was an eye-opening view into consumer culture. It's an addiction, to shop provides instant gratification regardless of how rich we are or how much we spend, but that piece of happiness quickly disappears once we possess it. So we keep repeating the process to chase the high. You only need look at the piles of consumer debt, each heavy bag of donations to the thrift shops, and the ever growing landfills. In the war to preserve Mother Earth, we are losing bad. I could just turn away from recycling to make the production process quicker and easier. However, I can't and won't unsee what I saw.