Americas Dopamine Fueled Shopping Addiction

Consumerism in the U. S. has reached an alltime high. In 2017, we spent 240 billion on goods such as jewelry, watches, luggage, books, and phonestwice as much as in 2002, even though our population grew by only 13 percent during that time. This is not to mention the 81 pounds of clothes and textiles that each Americanthrows away annually, or the 26 million tons of plastics we collectively dispose of each year. In a new animated video, writer Alana Semuels describes why shopping is so addictive and emphasizes the urgency in finding an encompassing solution to the problem of wasteful consumerism. For more on zero waste households: Zero Waste Home Trash is for Tossers For more on capsule wardrobes: Justine Leconte For more on doing a year of no shopping: Cait Flanders on Break the Twitch For