I stopped buying disposable items: this is what changed
by Clarisse :)
A personal observation
Until a few months ago, I was buying without really thinking. Like many students, I lived on a limited budget, but also with easy access to cheap products, pretty, and available everywhere in one click or around the aisle of a supermarket. A viral trend here, a visual crush there, and I succumbed. No questions asked. I was mainly compulsive shopping, dictated by the moment, low prices, and a form of habit: I could no longer enter a shop without leaving with a purchase. I come from the French countryside, I grew up in an environment where nature had a real place, and where we transmitted certain values of attention, sobriety, sustainability. But somewhere along the way, I get lost. The university, social medias and constant temptations have taken over. It was during my first year of Master in International Trade that something changed. I have integrated a tutored project called Ma Petite Planète (My Little Planet), green challenges as a team, concrete actions to achieve and above all, visible results. That’s when everything changed for me.
The trigger does not always come from a great speech
I am not sensitive to long moralizing speeches. What has caused a real awareness in me, is an intervention of the association Surfrider in my school at the beginning of the school year. A quick simple presentation and not a moralising speech but above all an invitation to reflect with a quiz containing numerical data. That’s where I learned, among other things, that some tea bags contain microplastics and that our harmless habits often hide an invisible, daily, pollution. I realized how much I had underestimated my own impact and especially how much my small choices weighed on my health but also on the environment.
Back to basics
Since that day, my consumption has evolved. I don’t pretend to be perfect. Sometimes I take the plane instead of the train to do long distance or use tea bags. However, I pay much more attention to what I buy. I no longer seek to have more, but to have better. I prefer to invest in a durable, useful product, designed with care, rather than accumulate objects that I will use only once or even follow the trends. I now look at the provenance, quality and philosophy of the object. I have learned to appreciate things that last, that age well, that have a soul and prefer second-hand shopping places.
Dirty Roots: a choice of heart and logic
It was this new approach to consumption that naturally led me to choose Dirty Roots Berlin for my internship of first year of master’s degree. I was looking for a company that matches what I was becoming: more aligned with my values, more grounded, more conscious. Dirty Roots does not do in the disposable. Here, we value craftsmanship, slowness, raw material. Each sphere is hand-crafted with imperfections that make it unique. We’re not talking about a trend, but presence. These are objects that do not try to make too much, but know how to cross time, and let the plant breathe.
An imperfect but sincere approach
I’m still on the road. Sometimes I crack, sometimes I make mistakes, like everyone else. But I stopped buying “to buy”. I understand that each object can either clutter or enrich. And the less you own, the more you refocus on what really matters. Today, my space is quieter, simpler, more alive. And I feel freer. If this blog can sow a little seed in someone, it will already be.