Do you think more about environmental impact now?

Just curious. We were walking around the mall today and I started getting kind of concerned at the amount of crap that is out there. All of this stuff being manufactured and 90% of it is completely unnecessary. And most of it is made of non-biodegradable materials that are just going to sit in a landfill forever (well actually probably not because of plastic-eating bacteria and whatever nanotechnology we come up with in the future, but still). Not to mention the environmental effects of generating these products.

When you think about it from that perspective, it kind of seems insane that everyone is just going about living their lives and overconsuming, as if this isn't a giant looming problem that's going to affect us all profoundly in the coming decades. It's like a massive cultural myopia, sponsored by corporations.

So, getting back to the beauty industry side of things:

I often wonder what percentage of the makeup industry is fueled by people who overbuy and have massive collections. It seems like there are so many makeup companies out there, and more and more appearing every day. It's pretty amazing how many hundreds of variants are out there for products that, when you get down to it, only have relatively few customization options. But how many of these companies would remain commercially viable if people only bought what they could realistically use up? If the minimalism trend continues, many of these companies may go out of business or have to reduce operations to a smaller scale.

How much do you think about the environment? Has going on a no-buy or low-buy made you more environmentally conscious? How else are you implementing minimalism into your life? How do you think makeup and beauty companies can be more environmentally sustainable, and more financially sustainable, as environmental concerns loom larger in the coming decades?