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“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed”. Isn’t that true? Our earth had enough of resources and suitable living conditions that would meet the needs of human beings and all other living organism. But with over exploitation of natural resources at unsustainable rate, resources have become scarce. So it is high time that we start working towards sustainable living. What can be done to achieve sustainability?

Minimalism is one of the ways to achieve sustainability. Minimalism is a way of living by identifying the essential needs and requirements and eliminating the rest. It is being selective about buying/consuming things or products in accordance with the person’s needs. It has the concept of “less is more”. A minimalist looks for products that have long lasting ability and fulfil his/her needs efficiently. This would lead to less quantity of products to trash.

Today most of us have started living life lavishly that we buy products or things that aren’t of need to us. Due to commercialization, many people try new products in market and if they aren’t satisfied, those products are thrown in trash. Many of us also have the habit of buying a new one instead of repairing the old one. All these practices have negative impact on our environment.

Manufacturing a product requires enormous amount of energy and resources. If a product without proper usage is thrown into trash, then the huge energy that was spent on its production doesn’t get utilised efficiently. Besides, energy spent on transporting and processing of wastes are also enormous. Therefore by minimising buying of products and using it until its lifecycle completes; we would be saving energy, fuel and resources associated with its processing.

So it is wise to list out products that are of need to us and buy. Buying products of high quality should be encouraged, since life of low quality products will be less and will be producing more of wastes and pollution. When people are conscious and selective about what they are buying, they would end buying less. Also it is better to switch to ecofriendly products and avoid using of plastics.

By incorporating the 3R’s of Reduce, Reuse and Recycling in our lives, we would be able to achieve sustainable living. A minimalist follows these 3R’s. Reducing unessential products and plastics, reusing of products, it exhausts and recycling of products that have lost its value in the present form, should be encouraged and practiced.

Natural resources have become scarce and if we continue using them at this unsustainable rate, we would end up running out of resources for our future generation. So let us understand our present situation and start living with minimalism and change buying and usage patterns. Minimalism would be the pathway for sustainability.