People are awfully wasteful these days. Other people, I mean. Not the likes of you or I. I mean, do you know anyone who has bought a motorised ice-cream cone holder that saves you the bother of rotating your cornetto? Did you put a USB chameleon – one that doesn’t even change colour – into a loved one’s stocking this Christmas? Of course not. But clearly some other people did, as both these products exist, along with many others that were nominated for last year’s Landfill prize, awarded for “the most needless, wasteful uses of our planet’s precious resources that they’ve seen, bought or been given in the past year”.

The prize is the brainchild of John Naish, author of Enough: Breaking free from the world of more. It’s a good idea, but one that risks descending into self-congratulatory righteousness, as those who nominate and take an interest simply smirk at the crass stupidity of modern consumer slaves. But who are these mindless shopaholics? Do you know any? I don’t. I think they exist as figments of our imagination. Their job is to embody the values we despise so we can convince ourselves that we are different, and free from their vices.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/08/ethical-consumer-waste-shopping