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Are We Really a Throwaway Culture?
I hear often that ours is a throwaway culture. If we’re done with an item, we toss it in the garbage. Although our household produces several full garbage bags each week for the dump, I can think of a number of ways our communities “re-use, re-purpose, and re-cycle” useful items that pre-date that popular phrase by decades.
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Garage Sales — Get rid of old stuff by selling it on your driveway. People will flock to your house and haul it off happy, and you’ll end up with some extra cash. Win-win.
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Thrift Stores — Many of us routinely donate outdated stuff we don’t know what to do with to thrift stores. The organizations use it as merchandise for their establishment to fund their charitable work; the public gets a discount store offering a huge, eclectic collection where there’s something for everyone. Again, we all get a good deal out of it.
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The Informal Maternity/Infant Network — Maybe you’ve never encountered this just because you didn’t have occasion to, but since women aren’t pregnant forever (well, I know a few who seemed to be) and babies fortunately don’t stay eighteen inches long, there are enough secondhand maternity and baby duds to clothe a nation. These clothe our nation when moms pass them around until they get to someone who needs them.
When I was expecting our first daughter, a friend of mine who was firmly plugged in to the network (as she would go on to have a dozen children) handed me at least two large white trash bags of baby apparel. I sorted through them, took what I wanted, and passed the rest on. Many moms’ nurseries were cleaned out, while another baby got enough adorable outfits to last her into toddlerhood.
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Craigslist, eBay, Freecycle — How many Golden Books, aging chairs, or collectible spoons would have gone to the dump without these services?
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Our Individual Saving Habits — I save plastic bags for various purposes. If a paper plate or paper towel is still clean, I’ll tuck it under the sink. Used paper towels help the septic by wiping out greasy leftovers on dishes and pans. Paper plates are good ways to test eggs or stir food that will be cooked without dirtying up more dishes. I save containers so I can give away food without the recipient worrying about getting the dish back to me. Most of us re-use in one way or another.
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Give-Aways — I’ve often been on the receiving end when friends or family don’t need something and just want to give it to me. I’ve got a beautiful deacon’s bench in the living room from a friend. It used to be a good portion of our furniture that was given to us.
Can you think of further examples that belie the “throwaway culture” label?
Image Credit: Flickr user J.
Published in General
There’s a great story, perhaps apocryphal, about a guy in a university dorm who saw one of his fellow students had placed a computer monitor in the hall with a “free” sign taped to it.
He took the monitor and put it outside his door with a “$5” sign on it. It sold almost immediately.
Supposedly.
Ain’t that the truth? I actually did that the last time.
I try very hard to do whatever is economically smartest. This leads to quite different behavior based on how highly I need to value my time at that moment.
I am a huge believer in throwing things away. Rationally I know this is the smart thing to do quite a lot of the time.
The problem is that I am cheap. So I feel guilty if I do not eat food that I do not need to eat (and should NOT eat), but would otherwise be thrown away.
I used to do this. But now that the replacement compatible cartridges are $12 apiece…
I use cloth diapers. Most of them I bought used and for my newborn I’m renting. I’m not sure how much this counts, tho, because they are significantly more work and require the “throwing away” of wash water.
I confess I don’t really use them for economics or idealism but almost solely because they are cute.
Hmmm… Are you really renting your newborn???
Seriously, there was a comparison made between cloth and disposable diapers to determine which was more environmentally friendly. When everything related to the production and distribution of the cloth diapers, the hot water, soap, time, energy source for the washer (they even took into consideration air drying them instead of a dryer) were factored in vs. everything related to the manufacture, distribution, and disposal of the others, it came out about the same. A diaper service tipped the scales in favor of the disposable diapers because of the transportation to and from each home, plus the energy consumed in the drying of them
Except, of course, that time is our most precious and non-renewable resource.