To create a truly sustainable society, we must move past the desire for endless growth and things that don’t need to be overconsumed, instead striving for a more balanced and responsible approach to consumption. Only then can we hope to create a sustainable world of happiness and ensure a livable future for the generations to come.
However, with products like Labubus, Mini Brands and viral makeup products, overconsumption is drastically escalating. People are buying everything in sight with no regard to the impact it will have on the environment.
Labubus are collectible plushy monster toys that come in mystery boxes, often used as keychains or just collectibles.
Labubus were created by Kasing Lung for the illustrated book series “The Monsters,” later starring in Maurice Sendak’s children’s classic “Where the Wild Things Are.” Born in Hong Kong, Lung moved to the Netherlands at 7, where he quickly fell in love with Nordic fairy tales — especially those about elves. Inspired by the whimsical folklore, Lung launched “The Monsters” in 2015, featuring a playful tribe of female elves known as Labubus.
People have fallen in love with the mischievous-looking monster and its trademark nine-tooth grin, leading to a line of plushies that have blown up, with some selling for up to $300.
In a CBC News interview, Allie Luk of Ajisen Ramen, a Japanese fast food chain, said she understands the power of Labubus. The Waterloo, Ontario restaurant, for example, runs a Labubu giveaway each month.
“We’ve been getting thousands and thousands of comments and tags online — we have people tagging up to even 20 or 30 friends and families for extra entries to win, ” Luk said.
Every month, more than 300 different Labubus are created to keep up with consumers.
“Pop Mart produces up to 10 million units of Labubus each month to meet consumer demand,” Statista calculated.
This large number is highly driven by social media and celebrity influences. For example, Lisa and Rose, members of the K-pop group Blackpink, both own Labubus and cherish them. Right now, they are as popular to collect as it was to gather Mini Brands last year.
Mini Brands are small, detailed replicas of everyday products. These were and still are a big point of overconsumption, as Labubus are today. While some children view them as toys, you typically buy a lot of them to make a collection.
Overconsumption is also shown in trends such as Sephora kids. Sephora kids are usually 8- to 12-year-old children who venture inside Sephora, try samples and leave them untidy. They are also known for throwing fits because their parents won’t buy them products, namely Drunk Elephant, Bubble or Charlotte Tilbury. Overconsumption is also seen in the normalization of these children’s entire wardrobes of brands such as Lululemon or Alo.
The pressure to constantly consume can lead to mental health issues such as anxiety, depression and low self-esteem. This consumerist mentality drives individuals to compare themselves against unrealistic standards, leading to a cycle of dissatisfaction and unhealthy habits.
Today, our lives are built around convenience and endless want. Mass-producing things that aren’t as essential non-essential things is leading to people buying more than they can consume, creating overfilled landfills.
Globally, we produce about 20.1 billion pounds of municipal solid waste every year, and at least a third of it isn’t handled in an environmentally safe way. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, global material use, which refers to the total amount of natural resources we extract and consume to make everything from buildings to smartphones, has tripled since 1970, rising from 27 billion tons to more than 100 billion tons a year. Waste isn’t just a side effect of overconsumption; it’s also a global equity issue.
Overconsumption and capitalism connect within the economic system. Our economy is designed to foster a culture of endless desire for production and the ease of disposability.
Economic growth is a key indicator of capitalist success. It is driven by increased production and consumption. This creates a dependency on markets that never stops expanding, leading to increased demand. Constantly advertising reinforces this behavior, creating desires that drive the cycle of consumption.
Society often isn’t aware of what’s going on inside of company production, which in turn leads us as a society to not know what we are putting out into the environment every day. As a society, we are getting the consequences of environmental issues through things like polluted air.
Meanwhile, the true environmental and social costs of production are often pushed onto the public, allowing corporations to profit while communities and the planet bear the burden. It’s frustrating to see how the system rewards profit over responsibility. If companies were held accountable for the full impact of what they produce, we might start to see real change – not just in policy, but in how people think about what they buy and throw away.
Capitalism’s relationship with overconsumption is threatening our planet’s future. While technology consistently advances and policies offer some relief, they cannot resolve the problem.
Ultimately, overconsumption is no longer just a problem. It’s becoming a defining feature of our culture. From collectible toys like Labubus to viral beauty products, the push to buy more has created an endless cycle of waste and dissatisfaction. While companies profit, the environmental and social costs continue to rise.
If students and communities begin to recognize the impact of these habits, we can start shifting toward more mindful consumption. The choice to value sustainability over excess may be what determines whether we have a livable future or a landfill of our own making.
