Clothes tumble out of skyscrapers, pile up in stairwells, and clog pavements and streets. A voice instructs viewers to “visualise 190,000 garments produced each minute”. The cityscape drowning in textiles is just one of the dystopian scenes generated in Netflix’s new documentary Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy, which critiques contemporary retailers for their buy more (waste more) business models.
Most of us know that contemporary consumption patterns are unsustainable. In Scotland – where we authors live – it is estimated that 80% of our carbon emissions come from “things we make, buy, use and ultimately throw away”. And we are throwing away more than ever before. The World Bank estimates that by 2050 global annual waste generation will reach 3.88 billion tonnes, an increase of 73% on 2020 waste levels.
