With the emphasis on ‘Buy More Stuff!’ Commercial development feeds Consumption, generates waste, and causes traffic congestion and increases greenhouse gas emissions. Malls are usually populated with stores selling stuff that we do not need. For some shopping is a leisure activity, retail therapy, to the rest of us it is a necessary evil. We only go shopping when we need something, and endure the mall experience only when there is no alternative.
Historically malls and hypermarkets bring together all the products and produce under one roof and are situated out of town and away from public infrastructure with the effect of killing off trade in the town centre, effectively rendering them ghost towns with high streets populated with abandoned retail units and charity shops. All the while perpetuating the need to drive where previously everything was local and within easy reach. The result being increased traffic congestion on the roads, increased greenhouse gas emissions and the global problem of climate change linked to pollution.
Historically centres of production have shifted from established industrial towns and cities to where the labour is cheapest, meaning that industrial exploitation is undertaken on a global scale, it is cheaper to ship in our everyday products from south east Asia than it is to manufacture it locally, and the waste? That is somebody else’s problem. What do we care if there are toxic lakes in China because they have no way of dealing with the waste products from our electronic gadgets?
All of this also means that energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions take place in somebody else’s country, but the earth does not discriminate, the emissions go into the atmosphere and are distributed globally in acid rain, floods and extreme climatic events.
The greatest consequence of globalised retail is the packaging, we buy products that have been transported from half way around the world, meaning that is packed in plastic because at the moment it is that cheapest way of producing it, to prevent it being damaged in transit, when we make a purchase it is usually presented to us in a plastic bag that invariably has only one use then it is discarded along with the packaging, when we throw something away, there is not really an away, it has to go somewhere.
In some nations, the waste is recycled, or incinerated to recover energy through the combustion process, although there are greenhouse gases that have to be managed. In most cases it is sent to land fill site or simply dumped where it is though that nobody will see it, at the side of the road, on a patch or undeveloped land wherever they see fit, meaning that when it rains it gets washed into the streams, rivers and ends up in the sea, to create great garbage patches in the oceans, that kill off marine life, pollute our beaches the problem being that it gets broken down into small fragments, but does not biodegrade, so it is very difficult to clean up, gets consumed by marine life, and finds its way into the food chain.
All of this from being asked to plan a new shopping mall? Well, yes, each time we follow the same brief to meet perceived demand, we are adding to the same problem but what is the answer?
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