Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow them to disperse because we’ ve been ignorant of their value.
– R. Buckminster Fuller
effective way to curb the effects of waste delivered to the consumer. Additionally, shifting the industry mind set away from engineering solutions of planned obsolescence could certainly reduce our demand for premature replacement products. As consumers we also need to look at our own purchasing behaviors and eliminate waste, where possible, at the point of purchase. We are seeing more bulk item bins in grocery stores, and if we bring in our own containers and pre-weigh them, we can reuse them for grains and other bulk items again and again. We should also reward manufacturers who implement ecofriendly packaging through our own individual purchase decisions. What we bring home ultimately reduces the volume of items we put into our own personal waste stream.
Reuse is the second tenant to be embraced. Education is at the heart of this initiative. For any number of reasons— whether people are moving, downsizing, dealing with the death of a loved one— products may reach the end of their useful purpose, but not the end of their useful life. Too often people are unaware of their reuse options. We often times think of Goodwill as our only option, when in fact there are many more reuse options available, with more becoming available each day. Waste management and recycling business opportunities can and will provide large sector growth opportunities in the years to come. We just need to change our collective mindset. We need to make it easier to find these alternatives and encourage folks use the more environmentally friendly alternatives.
Craigslist. com and eBay. com have both taken the garage sale model online and made it so much easier to liquidate almost anything with simple tools to far reaching audiences with a simple click of the mouse. But not everyone has the time or inclination to list, sell and ship products, let alone invite strangers into their homes. There are plenty of service providers now operating in the market who will provide such a service for a fee or a percentage of the sale.
In addition, there are creative entrepreneurs and nonprofits popping up everywhere that are not only making recycling options available, but they are also making it both educational and fun. One of my favorites is tinkertopia. com. They operate an alternative art supply and creative reuse center in Tacoma, Washington. Their goal is“ to provide a destination for teachers, students, artists, crafters, inventors, makers, hackers and tinkerers( of any age) in search of unusual materials for any creative venture.” Not only are they offering a destination for reuse of usable items, they help educate young and old alike as to the creative possibilities reuse can offer.
A similar kind of operation can be found at repurposeproject. org, a nonprofit community-based effort to divert useful resources from landfills, redirect these items to the public for art and education to inspire creativity and help us all rethink what we throw away.
Another upsurge in reuse is upcycling. Wikipedia defines upcycling, also known as creative reuse, as“ the process of transforming by-products, waste materials, useless, or unwanted products into new materials or products of better quality or for better environmental value. Upcycling is the opposite of downcycling, which is the other half of the recycling process. Downcycling involves converting materials and products into new materials of lesser quality. Most recycling involves converting or extracting useful materials from a product and creating a different product or material.” If you go to upcyclethat. com, you will find examples of the breadth and range of these types of possibilities, only limited to what the mind can conceive.
Lastly, there is a growing trend and demand for“ funky furniture.” Funky furniture is where old furniture pieces are repaired and painted in fun and interesting ways. As many of us have learned, they don’ t make furniture they way the used to. Too much of what is on the market today is laminated fiberboard with a limited useful life span. Today there is a movement to restore old furniture and give it a fresh look. The creative options are endless and quite fun. A simple web search for funky furniture images will impress and amaze you; the furniture is being produced both commercially as well as for fun.
Now this is all well and good for fun and glamorous ways to recycle arts and crafts. However this is just a smattering of what is possible and also a fraction of what ends up in the landfill each day. What can be done about that old mattress, sleeper sofa, barbeque
30 IMAGINE l FALL 2016