Samira Shackle presents hoarding behaviour as if it were some kind of sickness situated in the individual (‘You reach a point where you can’t live your life’: what is behind extreme hoarding?, 4 July). I prefer to see hoarding objects that, in the words of the NHS definition, “most people would consider rubbish” – such as cardboard boxes and empty plastic bottles – as a perfectly sane and rational response to living in an extreme throwaway society. A society that is itself incurably sick and destroying the planet by pointlessly wasting resources.
I hoard all sorts: used Jiffy bags, cardboard boxes and tubes, single-use plastic bottles, obsolete consumer electronics, and even the odd second-hand book. I know that if I don’t save these precious objects from the binperson they will either end up buried in landfill or be “recycled”, which in reality means being burned for energy (releasing CO2) or exported and very possibly dumped at sea.
Who is more crazy, the designers and manufacturers who produce disposable products in single-use packaging, or the gentle souls who think it might be a good idea to keep hold of some of it in case it comes in handy one day? I would say most certainly the former.
Stephen Lyons
Black Torrington, Devon
Your article on hoarding focused on those to whom an oversupply of possessions, often of insignificant value, is important. The author cites Jens Jansen’s definition of hoarders as people who have accumulated “an excessive [number] of objects”. But what about the billionaires with their vast oversupplies of wealth? Imagine their affluence as bundles of cash stuffed in every crevice of their dwellings, jammed in the hallways and rammed in the rafters. It’s not the hoarders of boxes or old newspapers we should revile.
Paula Terry-Lancaster
Barrie, Ontario, Canada
