What is overconsumption?

Overconsumption is when you use up too many things, faster than they can be replaced.

Imagine you have a big jar full of jellybeans. Every day, you take out 10 jellybeans to eat. But the jar only gets refilled with 5 new jellybeans each week. After some time, the jar will be almost empty, that’s overconsumption!

Think about a cookie jar. If you have one cookie every day, and your friend eats all the cookies in one go, that’s like overconsumption, using up too many things at once.

Sometimes, we use more of something than we get. Like if you take out 10 jellybeans every day but only put back 5, eventually there won’t be any left. That's what happens in real life with things like water, trees, or even toys, if we keep using them up faster than they’re replaced, we might run out someday!