The “Journal of the National Centre for Sustainability,” a collection of graduate-student papers published by Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, has released a report examining the corollary effects of consumption and the proliferation of self-storage services in Australia. Written by Guy Arundel, “The Costs of Convenience: Unpacking the Self-Storage Industry” concludes that excessive buying by consumers and their inability to dispose of belongings has fueled self-storage growth.
“The relentless consumerism driving the growth in self-storage facilities appears to stem from, and be fueled by, the belief that more possessions leads to greater well-being and happiness,” Arundel wrote. “And when there is no more room to put everything, the rise of the easily accessible self-storage facility results.”
The paper examines self-storage history in the United States and its emergence in Australia as well as consumer behaviors and attitudes that create the need for self-storage. To Arundel, self-storage facilities “are representative of a social malaise we would do well to address” and symbolic of larger environmental issues related to a lack of recycling and reusing of goods.
The paper’s author believes the rate of consumption in Australia is environmentally unsustainable, and with less than 2.5 percent of Australian households using self-storage in 2012, the industry is poised for more growth.
“My findings point towards a seemingly ceaseless increase in demand for these storage services, with the implications including that they will continue to facilitate our propensity to consume, and perhaps inadvertently hoard, with direct and indirect negative environmental and other impacts,” Arundel wrote.
The nine-page PDF report is available for free download from the Australian Policy Online website.
Sources:
- Australian Policy Online: The Costs of Convenience: Unpacking the Self-Storage Industry
