The barest purest consumerism ever

As an introduction to extreme environmental activism and reacquainting myself with the gatherer habits of my ancestors, I went out a few evening in Edinburg to hunt for goods as an anti-consumerist. After having dumpster dived for quality food, now being forced to throw away all those yummy goods in the restaurant where I was working hurt a lot in the beginning. Soon I froze my heart and got over it. I even got over being part of the system that sells water to people in the shape of 33cl plastic Evian bottles for 7€ a piece when there's perfectly good drinking water coming out of the tap just next to the minibar. Ouch. Luxury and ecological thinking don't match up too easily. At least I got to taste the various untouched gourmandises before scraping them off the plates at the plonge and to stretch the limits of my discrimination between what was rubbish and what was food even further. I never crossed the line yet though. Yet.

The amount of food wrap we used for packing up the hotel and everything inside it for the summer would be enough to wrap a smaller planet in and the pile of newspapers I crumpled around cups and jars would be enough to keep all Estonian hobos warm and alive throughout our winter. Can't say I cared too much. By this point I was too easily amused by the sight of how the plastic film in my hands transformed the curtains into big sausages hanging from the ceiling.

Can't always fight the system.

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Living light


Packing for leaving the Val, i found myself cluelessly staring at my huge 65-litre rucksack. It seemed strange that I could, should and would fit all my life into this tiny space in the following three minutes*. I would part ways with my ancient ski trousers that I have only used once for skiing, once for snowboarding and countless times for rollerblading in the cripsy Nordic autumn weather; I would say goodbye to my trusty winter boots that I changed for a newer better (=bigger and waterproofer) model; I would say thank you for the information for the heavy second-hand emergency medicine textbook that I simply can't stuff in; and that's about it - all the rest is more or less essential, stuff that I either cannot or don't want to throw away. Shampoo doesn't count. Leaving behind the soap and shampoo is not that environmentally ethical either but this is the choice I had to make for repacking the pack.

*It seemed even stranger that I could, should and would cut the volume of my possessions down again by another 30 litres a week later even though that time it would be for a mere 9-day trip in Africa which should be easier.