ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the last century, many of our possessions, such as furniture, rugs, clothes, tools and hardware, would have been produced locally or regionally, or at least within our own country. Many of them may even have been created by our own hands. Products were generally built to last and the idea of ‘disposable’ products was virtually unknown. By contrast, at the beginning of the 21st century few products are made locally. A large proportion are imported, with different components being manufactured in various countries, brought together, assembled and distributed. Furthermore, the number of products we own has increased enormously; many products are now disposable and the useful life of so-called consumer durables is often just a few years. 1
