A photo of a comically enormous pile of souvenirs recently sparked a debate on Reddit about how much is too much to bring home after a vacation.
The picture — a screenshot of images from a Facebook travel group — showed numerous stuffed animals, ceramic dishes, and novelty snacks among hundreds of other items purchased by a family of six on a three-week vacation in Japan.
"3 suitcases and carry on," the original caption cheerfully stated, followed by the grinning face and heart-eyes emojis.
To make matters worse, users in the comments of the Reddit post noticed many of the souvenirs appeared to be cheaply made and wrapped in plastic film or packaging.
Unfortunately, these kinds of souvenirs are typically mass-produced for quick, easy, and cheap tourist consumption, resulting in a long list of negative consequences for people and the environment.
Mass production, whether it be of cheap baubles or fast fashion products, is often criticized for its abuse of factory workers and the amount of waste and pollution it also creates. In the United States, the Congressional Budget Office estimated 12% of polluting gases come from the manufacturing sector, a figure that is predicted to increase by 17% from 2024 and 2050.
Not to mention that many mass-produced products just wind up in landfills. When cheaply made products fail to fulfill their purposes or inevitably break, they end up in landfills, joining the 2.1 billion tons of other waste that also winds up in landfills each year.
With the harmful effects of mass production in mind, Reddit users criticized the family's excessive souvenir consumption.
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"This makes me want to barf," one person wrote.
"Totally agree," another commented. "I can't wrap my head around the idea of hauling all that unnecessary waste."
Another noticed many of the souvenirs weren't even unique to Japan.
"I can get most of this at my local Asian supermarket here in the US or on Amazon, and I bet EVEN ON TEMU," they wrote. "So much mass-produced and so little handcrafted or brands exclusively sold in Japan."
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