buy nothing new: the challenge, the change
I was the youngest in my family, and I consequently got all the hand me downs, as I grew up I decided In my teeny angst bubble I hated it. but now as I’ve grown older and hopefully more wiser I realised Thrifted clothes aren’t that bad hell it saves you money to buy something second-hand.(especially when you’re an arts student and always, always, get paint or some noxious chemical on you)
when I moved out of house, doing the hard rubbish run ( where you put all your old furniture on the side of the road for pick up and to be chucked in tips) was the norm for furnishing that house. the items people threw out! especially around the glen iris area, I scored an Ikea loft bed, a desk( lost to the perils of housemate drama after.)a hike pack and a bike plus many more items, it was shameful to see perfectly good items being thrown out yes admittedly we had to find screws of the bed ,the hike pack was a tad dusty and the bikes tires where flat and there was no seat and I lost the desk due to housemate dramas, I was mortified. not to mention the t.vs and computers perfectly good being trashed. there was simply not enough space or time to save them from being thrown in that giant mountain gods of trash we give homage to when an item has been outlived, outdated or out loved. (if it gets to a trash yard in our country)
what terrified me the most, these items had been designed to be thrown out when we simply didn’t want them every year, charities all over australia and the world beg for donations of clothes, furniture and toys yet where more content to throw it on the sidewalk. Everytime we throw out and item we get a shiny new replacement and tad da! in 6 months that item is out on the strip, Big businesses thrive of this! and get bigger and bigger every year. due to our gluttony and lust for stuff!
do you know In 2000 Australia reported the export of 16,689 tonnes of waste (all classified as hazardous)? More than half the waste consisted of used lead acid batteries. do you know where it goes New Zealand, Belgium, Great Britain, France and Austria. we dump it on some other country. (here’s a diagram of what I mean)
and it’s not uncommon either have a look at this video from the http://www.storyofstuff.org/
Now my family has always at least tried to be green friendly, and i guess have imparted the thrifting craze on me. At current my family has not changed anything major in the house for 10 + years,(minus a few pets and cars) anything that was wooden and could be burnt was for my nana in her old house (she does not live there anymore so it goes to a family friend), I was a horror for not throwing out old/hole ridden clothes but when we did they were used for rags, if we out grew something or had not worn it in years it was sent to the salvos or the diabetes foundation.
We grew our own vegetables and always had fresh vegetables in that yard. They where happy people with what we tried however, with the onset of new neighbours in a multicultural suburb, they want to move.
“The Plantation” of Spruce plants (suited for a rural house border not a suburban one) has blocked a far amount of sun light from ever reaching the block my parents live on, there are two “Smoking dens” spewing smoke in to the backyard and of course into the back rooms, the “Noise” now my parents have had loud parties so where just as guilty on the loud neighbours however the oldest from one of these families spews (at full-bore mind you) a wonderful array of gangster, xenophobic inspiring, (and of course) bigoted sexist. music from the second floor window cranking it open so it’s directly in there yard. oh before I forget of course “Pets.” I understand when pets run off unexpectedly, I try my hardest to understand different cultures. however, I belive some people should never have the right to own an animal. These neighbours are some of these people, They originally had birds cool, I at the time had buggies, they then bought two kittens ( admittedly found behind their shop) and tried to raise them via leaving them outside all the time, as you can imagine they increased the feral cat population of the area. they got a fox terrier, they had it for 2 years could not be bothered looking after it and training it (it did it business on their percious concrete backyard) so they sent it away.
then they got a hunting dog. now I’m not against hunting animals if there person isn’t stupid, we have feral animals by the truck load. I am however against the shooting of birds or “duck seasons” as it decimates so many species that should NEVER be hunted in australia. they got this dog and lock him in a cage so he howls all day and night. they then ask us how to make sure his got a “soft mouth” for picking up game and suggested wrapping barbed wire around all of the dogs toys.. considerably i’m civil to these people ( after all there my parents neighbours not mine) but would never consider them friendly.
also to add both my parents are shift workers.
they want to move further out and hope that the onset of these people who build huge concrete backyards and build their houses like slums ( granny flats on tiny blocks, owning 7 plus cars and never using a garage to die out, to be honest I can’t fault that.
but it seems to be these people who loved to live this lifestyle of the giant mountain gods of trash.
for all this gluttony there are people out there striving to make a change and a difference.
I found this gem
http://www.buynothingnew.com.au
It inspires people to not buy anything new for a month. but to buy second-hand, to swap or to trade.with a 5,000 dollar reward.
now, I am in this challenge after re organising my working space.
The building manager gave me a desk ( they where going to throw),
I had to get handles for the thing so I was able to get some second-hand ones out of a hardware store.
i got some plastic cutlery tray’s which holds all my pens pencils and small bits and pieces. ( salvo’s for them)
the fact is to me this challenge isn’t hard for myself it has to be life.
there are collections of people wanting to reuse and resource items
- freecycle
http://www.gumtree.com.au/
http://www.gumtree.com.au/
I will be continuing my green recycle page on this blog for as long as I possibly can. if in some small way I as a designer can inspire others to head to the salvos and not do the annual giant mountain gods of trash.
then maybe in some small way I will be designing for the future, and not killing our world
a link to this blog is just here https://greencranes.wordpress.com
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