Many women nowadays are competing to be ‘the prettiest lady’ on earth. This ambition has been supported by the massive beauty product advertisements that are popped out every day in their gadget. The big sale promotion from skin care, cosmetics, and fashion products might cause women to consume more. While this might be good news for the economy, the lifestyle can cause an environmental disaster as waste of women’s beauty products in massive number have been discarded to the planet on a daily basis.
FT, a 20 year-old university student, claimed that she spends a lot of money to shop for beauty products and fashion. “I have at least eleven items to buy monthly, for example my micellar water, facial cleansing soap, SPV lotion, moisturizer, cushion, lipstick, powder, perfume, and many more. For fashion products, maybe I shop for the big discount on trending clothes like my friends”. She explained that the reason to consume more products is that it’s a necessity for her as a girl to be beautiful, and to improve her self-confidence to get along in the campus.
But how does she manage the waste?
“Ehm, I just put the waste in the dustbin. For clothes, maybe I just sort them out. If I don’t want to use them, I will donate them”, an answer indicating that she has no clue how to manage the waste.
Such behavior might cause a problem for the environment.
Waste4change released the latest data that indicated in 2021 that the cosmetics products contributed 11,6 million tons of waste. In addition, fast fashion waste contributed to a million tons of waste in Indonesia as stated by Annika Rachmat, co-founder of Our Reworked World.
Let’s have a look at what’s the danger of the waste from cosmetics products and fast fashion to our earth.
Jennifer Okavor in trvst.world mentioned the plastic pollution which is caused by the massive cosmetics containers dump in the ocean has threatened the life’s balance in the ocean. The plastic as a nonbiodegradable material causes the plastic waste to stay longer, about 100 to 500 years. The horrible illustration in the future exists when we can imagine if the woman with ten products each month will successfully collect a hundred and twenty plastic wastes in a year.
In addition, fast fashion regime drives some women to do more ‘check out ’ activity in their shopping platform. The notification of new outfit rings, it’s the right time to pick it up. Sometimes, the woman buys the cloth because ‘it is too cute’. Unfortunately, the cuteness suffers the environment by resulting on disposable unused fabric. Similar to cosmetics, the multiplication of the waste amount will be rocketed.
Do we need to redefine the term “beautiful”?
It is naïve if we force the consumers to buy less at the midst of a crazy marketing agenda to harvesting more profits. I think the campaign to save the earth are already a lot too, but the wastes are also undeniably skyrocketed annually.
It’s a call to think about the definition of the word ‘beautiful’? Sometimes, the term ‘beautiful’ is understood in a volatile manner. Beautiful is often attached to a specific object, either public figure or product. Or it can be highly attached to third’s party point of view.
Perhaps, being beautiful doesn’t necessarily mean consuming plenty of goods. Maybe the earth will get better if a multi-interpretation of the term ‘beautiful’ exists.
For you, what do you understand about ‘beautiful’?
