Who Likes Being a ‘Consumer’?
Very few of us might like to be called a ‘consumer’.

But it is true that we all buy things in life. We use things and throw things away. So, we are consumers and we practice ‘consumerism’. And maybe if we just keep consuming and consuming, there will soon be nothing left. Or maybe the world would just create more and more at the same speed as our consumption? Who knows?

What we do know is this: if we kept giving back the same amount or even more every time we received something, there would be no end to the resources.

Recycling to Circulating
When we get the giving going, it’s not ‘consumerism’ any more, it’s ‘circulation-ism’.
Even if we recycle everything (like we try to do these days), it’s still not a circulation. It’s a way to reduce the speed of consumption not the total circulation. We are here to circulate the same or greater amounts to keep creating more abundance.

Recycling can also use a lot of energy resources and can create significant environmental impacts. So we can’t be totally relieved by the fact that we recycle. It is, though, one great way to slow down the speed at which we take things from the world. So for now, consider recycling simply as a method of ‘speed reduction’.

‘Circulation-ism’ is different. Here’s why.
Any natural circulation of life happens automatically in nature. And it just happens to keep creating more and more abundance. If there are no seasons, certain species can’t live. Even if there are no well-defined seasons in certain countries, there are still sunny and rainy days, high tides and low tides, day and night and so on. Even our natural body cycles would stop if the planets stopped circulating.

'Thank you' Every Time

When we buy and read a book, how much of a tree did we consume? How much ink and energy did we consume? To offset the impact, we may need to only plant a tenth of one tree (this is just an example because the real facts vary). For example, if a business chose to give around 30 cents from the sale of a book toward planting a tree, it already offsets the use of paper. Because there are people planting trees for us as charitable activities. How wonderful!

Some businesses may choose to take it even further. We can then recycle, re-use and re-create things to even more effectively circulate everything. But we don’t have to rely on the ‘speed reduction’ method to sustain the world. Looked at in this way, recycling is an additional benefit to the most effective circulation system (let’s call it the ‘Thank You System’) we can joyfully create together.

We can become more and more creative with our imagination to recreate more resources than the resources we use. Or we can give away something to someone else to give a gift forward as a part of our circulation life - saying “Thank you” at every opportunity we can possibly find.