Buy Now The Shopping Conspiracy is a documentary that is just released on Netflix last week, a week before Black Friday, the day this episode is being published. Right now, you're probably looking for deals, and I don't blame you. It's expensive to buy things out there, and to find deals for getting ready for the holidays, to buy gifts for your loved ones, is really great. It may be some stuff for yourself. You deserve it, you've worked hard. But are
we over-consuming and is it our fault? That's gonna be the subject of today's episode. We're gonna be reviewing the documentary, Buy Now, The Shopping Conspiracy, because it needs to be talked about. We need to talk about our consumption of goods. This is a documentary and it's something that we need to discuss right now on this episode. So let's start the show. Hey everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm
your host, Andrew Lewin. This is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live for a better ocean by taking action. And on today's episode, we're going to be talking about consumption, about buying things. And are we buying too
much? Have we put too much of a focus on having things rather than experiences like spending time with people and has our striving for consumption and buying things for people and receiving so many materialistic things, has it gone too far and is it hurting the environment? That was the question surrounding the Netflix special or the Netflix documentary buy now the shopping conspiracy.
lined up early, early in the morning, sometimes the night before to get to take advantage of all the crazy deals that were happening the day after Thanksgiving. It was a time where people bought gifts for the holidays. It was a time where people trampled over each other just to get the deal they wanted and to make their family members or friends happy. That's a crazy time. Now, things have kind of really gotten out of hand. Maybe not so
much the in-person shopping and the violence. I think that's kind of subsided a little bit because online shopping has really made way to make it easier to get deals. And it's not just one day. It's not just Black Friday. It's not just Cyber Monday. It's all about the week or even two weeks surrounding Black Friday. There are deals that I've been receiving for pretty
much two weeks before Black Friday. Now this episode is gonna be released on Black Friday, so it's really timely to have this documentary discussed on a day where it's probably the biggest shopping day in North America. Let's be honest, it's a huge, huge day. There are a lot of companies who are making quite
a bit of money. So today, what I wanted to do was go over what this consumption's about, how it's impacting our lives, not only from a human perspective, but from an environment perspective, and how we're getting through the holidays, right? The holidays are a time where you're supposed to have experiences with family, with friends, and
spend time with your loved ones. But a lot of the times, when we get to the fall, it's late fall, it's gonna be early winter coming soon, and it can be a very great time for a lot of people. And you wanna make sure that your mind is right. You wanna do whatever you can to make sure that you have a good time during the season. Whether you're buying stuff for family and
friends, whether you're spending time with family and friends. I know not everybody's family and friends situation is the same and is the best, but you wanna make sure that your mind is right. And to be honest, something that I've been doing on and off recently, and really more recently, especially as it gets a little grayer. So I wanna make sure that my mind is right. And so what I've been doing is I've actually been, I've been talking about for the last year called Magic
Mind. It is an elixir that has a lot of healthy things in it. It has ginger, it has a bunch of things that I use. It's a little shot that I take every morning and I basically take the shot, I use it and it basically gives me the ability to start my day off right. It gets my mind right, it gets me focused, it has some caffeine in it, but what I love about this caffeine is it
gives you the caffeine fix throughout the day. It's not just one shot, you feel like you're up here, and then once that caffeine goes away, you crash down like you would with sugary drinks that have caffeine, or coffee that have caffeine. This is just a quick shot, I take it, and I'm focused and awake for the rest of the day. My working day, whether I'm doing a video, whether I'm editing videos, whether I'm doing research, whether I'm interacting with
you, the audience member, it's just a bunch of things. One thing that I love about it is it just, It's not expensive, it's very environmentally friendly, and the company continues to become more and more environmentally friendly where they can. And you can get it, they've actually, and you can get it through my affiliate link and get 20% off. using this affiliate link. So if you go to www.magicmind.com forward
slash Lewin20, that's L-E-W-I-N 20. So it's www.magicmind.com forward slash Lewin, L-E-W-I-N 20. 20 all one word check that out. I'll put that in the show notes so you can click on it You can get 20% off you can get to your holiday season, right? Make sure you're focused get all that work right to keep that job to keep going and trying to protect the ocean I use it and it's fantastic. I think it's I recommend it to anybody. I am NOT a big fan normally of elixirs this
is something that I love. So check out the link in the description below and in the show notes if you're listening to this on audio, and let me know what you think about it. So it's www.magicmind.com forward slash Lewin, L-E-W-I-N 20, that's my last name, Lewin, L-E-W-I-N 20, and let me know what you think. All right, let's get back to the show. I wanna talk about this documentary because something that I feel like this documentary highlights, I wanna talk some of the different highlights, some
of the key highlights that have come out of this documentary. Now, the overall goal of this documentary is to show the consumption and how companies are taking advantage of consumers to make sure that you have the latest and greatest of all the products that are out there. It's all about mass consumption so that they can make a ton of money. That's really what it's about. And so what we're trying to do here is highlight the movie. I highly recommend that you watch the documentary on
Netflix if you have Netflix. But what I want to talk about is what it really looks like. So the film examines how companies like Amazon, Adidas, and Apple use persuasive marketing techniques to encourage consumers to overspend. That's really what it comes down to. It goes over environmental impacts, which I'll
go into in just a second. It highlights ecological damage caused by the excessive consumption, such as the disposal of unsold clothing, leading to environmental degradation in countries like Ghana in Africa. and Apple easy as possible. Let's just buy now. So you go over the cart and you say, you know what? I don't want to buy anything in my cart right now. I want to just hold on to that. I'm just going to
buy this product right now so I can get it as fast as possible. So they're making things that are easier to shop and making that impulse buy. That's what it's all about. It's all about the impulse buy. Then there's also they talk about e-waste concerns. So it exposes the grim reality of electronic waste recycling and how it's really just not really out recycling. Showing how discarded electronics are often shipped to developing countries, where workers dismantle them
without proper protection, leading to health hazards. You gotta remember that in North America and Europe and a lot of other places, they have occupational health and safety at warehouses, at work, any type of work should have occupational health and safety. Some countries don't have it and their workers are actually suffering because of it. It's basically a critical examination of the modern consumer culture. and its far-reaching impacts. It is
really enlightening. A lot of the stuff you've probably known for quite some time, but some of the intricacies of how they manipulate the consumers is really interesting. So I want to dive deeper into the type of pollution that they talk about and what it really discusses. So textile waste and pollution. So we're looking at fast fashion here, how it drives overproduction. It talks about you know, like companies like Sheen, how they create millions of new items per year because they just want
to sell as much as possible. And then with unsold or discarded clothing ending up in landfills and being exported to developed countries, for example, massive amounts of textile waste accumulate in places like Ghana's Kantamento market, where the discarded clothes often pollute rivers and harm local ecosystems. Synthetic fabrics release microplastics into waterways during washing, which contributes to marine pollution that ends up in
the food chain. From a fashion perspective, it covers that, which we've, again, we've known, but it really shows how many items are discarded per year. It's an insane amount. You have to watch the documentary to really figure it out, to really understand it. Electronic waste. E-waste from discarded electronics is frequently exported to developing countries. Improper dismantling and disposal release hazardous substances such
as lead, mercury, and cadmium into the soil and water. Informal recycling facilities in countries like Ghana, Nigeria, and India face significant health and environmental challenges due to the lack of proper waste management systems. So again, we're seeing the fact that e-waste can cause hazardous waste for people that have to dispose it or live in around the
area that dispose it. A lot of the times when we're told about recycling, like electronic recycling or other recycling, Unless you're in the right program, it doesn't actually take out all the metals or all the things that need to be taken out to properly recycle. It gets shipped off to other countries where we know the occupational health and safety standards are not as high, and then they have to deal with the repercussions. We
don't deal with the repercussions. We just use electronics as we please. As we say, hey, I need the new and latest, greatest tablet or phone or whatever, even though we don't really need it. But they're built so that we actually need it. It's just a weird situation here. Then we talk about carbon footprint of production and logistics. The production and transportation of goods requires significant amounts
of fossil fuels contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. So for instance, factories powering mass production rely heavily on coal and oil. That's always not good. Shipping goods globally contributes to carbon emissions and air pollution. We know from a fossil fuel and plastics production point of view, which I'll talk about in just a second a little bit more, we know that the fossil fuel companies, a third of their business is done through plastics. Plastics is a petroleum
product. So we know fossil fuels are going to be created for the plastics industry and a lot of plastics end up in our product packaging or even in our product. So that can be really bad. Deforestation and resource depletion. The extraction of raw materials for consumer goods leads to deforestation, loss of biodiversity, and ecosystem disruption. Examples include logging for furniture and packaging, mining for precious metals used in electronics, often
destroying wildlife habitats. There are a lot of regulations in North America, but not other places where mining happens. So a lot of not only environmental impacts happen, but also human rights impacts are not good in a lot of places like Africa, going for some of these diamonds and metals that are used in electronics. Plastic waste and ocean pollution. So excessive packaging always has plastics in it. Much of
it is non-recyclable, exacerbates plastic waste problems. Plastics break down into microplastics, which accumulate in marine environments, harming wildlife and threatening marine ecosystems. Hundreds of thousands of animals die a year in the ocean because of plastics. It's really simple. It is not hard to get that concept. However, if
you look around, everything we do has plastic in it. Even companies who say, hey, we're going to put in our values that we don't want to have plastics in our containers or anything like that down the road, like we're going to work towards using less plastics, they continue to use plastics. It's all greenwashing. It's all for nothing. And it's really frustrating when you look at the harm that plastics do to the ocean, not just in big forms. This is microplastics, like
nanoplastics, that are everywhere. It's like a soup in the ocean. You just sit there, and you just get frustrated. As a biologist, as a conservationist, as someone who wants to protect the ocean, it's a frustrating process. And it's getting worse because of our consumption, our overconsumption of goods and materials. Overexploitation of water resources. So industries like fast fashion electronics consume vast amounts of fresh water. Producing a single pair of jeans can
require up to 10,000 liters of water. Wastewater from dyeing and processing textiles is often discharged untreated, contaminating rivers and groundwater, especially depending on where these products are made. Again, regulations aren't as good in certain countries that are in like European and and North American countries. I only say that because that's what I know, but there's a lot of standards around that. And even then, sometimes they get broken. That's something that we have to look at.
Climate change impacts. We kind of talked about it a little briefly with fossil fuel industry, but increased consumptions accelerates resource use, energy demands, and pollution, contributing to rising temperatures, ocean acidification, and more frequent weather, extreme weather events. The impacts underscore the urgent need for sustainable consumption practices, better
waste management systems, and more transparent corporate accountability. Now, one of the things that I want to gather And I put this in chat, GPT, because I wanted to find out what people think. Obviously, this is really harmful. But I feel as though the movie was talking to consumers. It was trying to make consumers aware of some of these practices that You know, these companies will play to manipulate us. So there's that awareness. Oh, we're being manipulated. This is not about consumption.
It's almost like you want to keep up with the Joneses, right? You want to keep up with your neighbor to say, hey, they have this or your friends and say, hey, they have this. I want to have this. I see this a lot in in my kids, in teenagers where there's a peer pressure based on not necessarily like I have this, you don't. Sometimes that happens, but it's more of Oh, this person has this, this person, I need to have
three or four pairs of shoes, I need to have this, I need to have that, I need to have that. These are young children who have been taught about environmental sustainability since they were young, in class, and they were taught and they want to protect the ocean, they want to protect the planet, they want to be environmentally friendly, but they fall into these peer pressure tactics and marketing tactics that they don't have any control over because their minds just fall into the trap. And
as adults, we do the same thing. I mean, you look at influencers on any kind of app, on any kind of social media platform, and they're talking about their Amazon haul or their Shein haul or just a variety of different companies and like what they got from there. And in the movie, they really go to the extreme where they're showing influencers talking about, I bought, you know, a hundred iPhones and I bought, look at my Amazon haul
and all this kind of stuff. Let's go with what I bought. We still have people like friends of mine, like Erica Hernandez, who talks about, hey, look at my thrift haul because she went thrift shopping because it's more sustainable. And so there are influencers out there who are sending out the message that, hey, you know what? Going thrift shopping and being sustainable is actually better than buying new. And you can still look great. You can still feel great. You
can still go to professional conferences or go to an office. with thrifting, like through thrifting, like buying clothes, like used clothing is what it is, but you kind of make it cool and kind of make it nice to be there. So there are influencers like that, but a lot, most of the people still
fall into the trap of buying you, I have to buy you, right? Even to the point, like I was having discussions today at work, I was having, at lunch, I was having discussion, we were talking about the movie, and we're discussing how, you know, we try and up everybody, we try and even like, you know, there's no repairing anymore, they even talk about this in the movie, You know, there's no repairing of clothes. There's no like, I remember when I was a kid, if I had like a
hole in my pants, my parents would sew a patch onto it. Like you had patches on your pants all the time. You didn't just go out and buy new clothes. You actually got your parents sewed a patch on it, or they taught you to sew a patch on. You fix things. If something broke, you would fix it. If something was too old, you would take it apart and you would put it back together. You would maybe make something new out of it because it wasn't working as its primary
function. So we're talking a lot about that at lunch, and we just don't have that anymore. When you're trying, like a friend of mine was trying to fix his vacuum cleaner and looking for a part. The part was so expensive, it was almost the same price as buying a new vacuum. So why fix something that's broken when you can get something brand new? We get warranties where it's like, hey, you know what? If you do a warranty, we'll just send you something brand
new if it breaks. Companies don't even care if it breaks or not. They may have a program where they sell refurbished, but a lot of times you don't really see that. You see mostly new stuff. Appliances, kitchen appliances and appliances for the home, they're not built like they used to be. They're built to break down earlier so you'll buy another thing. It used to be, and sometimes it still happens, where appliances that
were built in the 70s, 60s and 70s, are still working today. They're still being used today, but now you get like a dishwasher or something, it lasts for maybe three to five years. They used to last for like 10 to 20. And so it's just like these companies that keep making these products that are not as good, just so that you'll buy new ones. And this movie kind of gives that light where it's like, hey, you know what? This
is your fault. It's consumers. Like we kind of get that hint where it's like you got to stop buying. And in a way we have to stop buying. We have to stop thinking about how much can I buy and start thinking about what can I get out of this product that's a value for a long time. right? Get away from that impulse buy. Think about your purchases. Think about our purchases. And I fall within this as well, right? I am not good. I
like impulse buy all the time. I see something like I want it. I have the money. I'm going to get it. Not everybody's like that because times are tough. So we're starting to like, you know, penny pinch a little bit more. But it's really easy to buy when you don't have to worry about giving up cash. You don't have to see your cash leaving your hand. You're on an app and all you have to do is just press one button and it comes to your door within a couple of days, sometimes within
the same day, depending on where you live. It is crazy to think that we as consumers can just buy all this stuff, but we also have the power not to buy all this. But on the other hand, we're kind of stuck because things are really expensive. If I can buy something for cheap, I will buy it for cheaper, especially if
I can buy it online and I don't have to go in person. There are places like Amazon, Walmart, all these big box stores and these online stores that have a lot of purchasing power that can buy things for cheaper and therefore sell things for cheaper compared to like your local supermarket or your local store variety store where if you go in and buy it, it's going to be more expensive because they don't have the purchasing power of these huge franchises.
I was just talking to somebody about a company that's local to us. It's local to the area. It's like a deli meat company. And it's great. It has great food, sausages, food. It's like a supermarket, but a smaller supermarket, a little bit more expensive. But there was a box store that moved in almost right beside it. And it probably sells things for cheaper, very
similar, maybe not as good quality what we're used to. But we have to make that choice now, where do we want to just go to a place that's going to sell it for cheaper? Or do we want to go and go to a place that's that's more local to us, right? That's not very like it's not in many cities, it's maybe in like two or three cities around the area. It's family owned, it's smaller, and it sells a
great product. But right now they're struggling because there's other big box stores that are coming in and undercutting them. So are we going to see the demise of a family-owned business that's local that will spend money locally, like within the area? Or are we going to see the success of another big box store that makes a lot of money, the money goes to the headquarters and goes to some billionaire or somebody who's soon going to be a billionaire, and we never see the money
back in our community? It's a very difficult position to be in because we're, as consumers, we're balancing what we can afford, and especially these days, it's not very much, and what we want to support, you know, from a value perspective in our local community. So I think that the difficulty thing, and many viewers, although they appreciate the in-depth exploration, they're kind of like, hold on a second here, is this our fault? Like,
is this really our fault? It would be great to see more systematic solutions to the problem, not just put it on us. They do the same thing with climate change, if you've noticed. It's all about us, all about the individual consumer. When I speak up about climate change, some people are like, well, do you do this? Do you do this? Do you not take this? Or you like that phone? We've heard senators
say that. uh... in in in your congressman say that in in the u s you know at an actual committee means that what you're talking about how to we have to reduce uh... clinton's but that phone was made through fossil fuels and through plastics and things like that's because yes his assistant made it that way there's no other alternative that we can buy that's more sustainable right? Hopefully that's coming down the road, but we don't see that because there's no incentive to do that. So it shouldn't
be on the consumer who has no choice. You have to get in with technology. You have to get in with, um, what's happening, right? You just can't, you can't just rebel even though if you want, if you want to be successful, if you want to have a good life in this world, There has to be a systematic solution to help control some of these products that are coming out. It's very easy to pick a product that's not sustainable or not environmentally friendly. Those
are all around. Everybody that I've talked to on this podcast and talked to off this podcast about building a business that's more sustainable, the amount of difficulty they have creating a product that is sustainable. But other times, you kind of have to. So it's a really difficult situation. The best way to do it is you can have a solution with your wallet by not paying for those products and going more sustainable. If
you have the money, spend a little bit more for the sustainable product. Or what you can do is talk to your businesses, talk to your government, and hopefully they will help with that. It's a very difficult situation. A good, solid, from what I know, documentary that's on Netflix, I highly recommend that you watch it on Netflix. But I want to go through with you and talk to you about it because I think it's something that we really need
to talk about. We need to talk about this consumption at the best time when we're talking about probably the most intense consumption time of the year. We're buying so many products. So I would love to hear what you think. Hit me up on Instagram at how to protect the ocean, or you can hit me up on various platforms. People have hit me up on LinkedIn recently. People have hit me up on YouTube in the comments or Spotify in the comments. I respond to
as many as possible as soon as I can. So please feel free to drop a comment in the YouTube comment section, or if you want to comment on Spotify, Or if you want to just hit me up on Instagram, please do so at HowToProtectTheOcean. That's at HowToProtectTheOcean. I want to thank you again for listening to me. I would love to hear again your thoughts on the movie. But thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the HowToProtectTheOcean podcast. I'm