The Consequence of Practical Bag Shopping: Sustainability

You like this bag, don’t you? – the master looked at me as I paid the 35 euro bill. They will replace the zippers on my smaller backpack. I bought the bag for twenty euros two and a half years ago in Cyprus.

July 9, 2024, Tuesday
I’m explaining myself afterwards, but I don’t regret the decision; I didn’t want to buy a new one, for several reasons: firstly, it’s a small and practical bag; secondly, I see that smaller worn-out bags are simply left alone, they are less frequently stolen.
Not entirely relevant, but ever since I covered my scooter with all sorts of colorful duct tapes, it’s been left alone, and in the parking lot, I find it exactly where I left it. By the way, I’m taking the scooter to the service tomorrow, the wheel is so punctured that I can hear the air coming out of it.
So, if I buy a new bag, I would initially produce twenty grams of waste by disposing of the old one – which will need to be dealt with somewhere, obviously not for free. Then the new purchase will cost forty or rather fifty euros. Out of those fifty euros, fifty euros would likely have ended up in China. It’s also possible that it would be assembled by underpaid child workers somewhere in the Far East, then transported here in containers. Out of the thirty-five euros I paid today, thirty-five euros will stay here, in the community where I live; I provided a job for a dedicated professional, built connections – in person, locally.
This is how I imagine sustainability.