A child enjoying a recycled Webbs auction catalogue!
This month I read in an Ecostore tweet that it’s Buy Nothing New Month! It’s a great idea and in a way carshare members are already living the thinking by sharing cars.
What began in Melbourne is becoming a global movement for collective, conscientious consumption. In 2011, Sydney Morning Herald ran a poll asking “is Buy Nothing New Month a good idea?” Over 10,000 voted. 82% said “yes”
Explains the website, “It’s a one month challenge to buy nothing new (with the exception of essentials like food, hygiene and medicines)
Buy Nothing New Month isn’t Buy Nothing New Never. Nor is it about going without. It’s literally about taking one month off to really think, “Do I really need it?” If I do, “can I get it second-hand, borrow it or rent it? What are my alternatives? Can I borrow from a friend? Can I swap with my neighbour?”
It’s about thinking where our stuff comes from (finite resources) and where it goes when we’re done (often landfill) and what are the fantastic alternatives out there to extend the life of our ‘stuff’. ”
Got Affluenza? The site refers to a 2005 paper from the Australia Institute by Clive Hamilton Richard Denniss and David Baker tells us “Aussies have admitted to spending over $10 billion every year on goods we do not use: clothes and shoes we never wear, CDs we never listen to, DVDs we never watch and food we never eat and each year in Australia nearly 20 million tonnes of waste goes to landfill. By way of comparison, this amount exceeds spending by Australian governments on universities and roads.”
Today after encouraging my family to have a big sort out at the weekend I delivered a car load of clothing, sneakers, shirts, even a couple of suits to Edmund Hillary school in Otara (they have a junior, middle and senior school). I also took four boxes of books including a set of children’s encyclopedias. My neighbour had her children go through their shelves too. That is perhaps the best part of Buy Nothing New Month – think about what you don’t need or what you can share.
Enjoy the quotes As Annie Leonard the author of Stuff reminds: “Recycling is what we do when we’re out of options to avoid, repair, or reuse the product first. Firstly: Reduce. Don’t buy what we don’t need. Repair: Fix stuff that still has life in it. Reuse: Share. Then, only when you’ve exhausted those options, recycle.
It’s good for us, will make your wallet heavier and our planet lighter!
“We used to build civilizations. Now we build shopping malls.” BILL BRYSON
