Take the power back: Less waste more gifts
Another school year has come and gone.
Once again students are tossing all their perfectly
useful possessions on the corner to be hauled
away to dumpsites where they will poison water
supplies and the earth for decades to come. As
usual when September comes these same students
all go back to school shopping for the
same things they are tossing to the curb right
now. Take a walk through any student neighbourhood
and you will see the utter banality of
the consumer culture that drives this economy.
But you might also see opportunity. Several businesses in East London send teams to dig through the mountains of student waste to find things they can re-sell. There is also a growing cultural phenomenon named “freeganism” whereby people live off the excess and so-called “waste” of consumer culture in order to avoid contributing to it directly. Why bother working in order to pay for things when you can just find them for free?
But simply going around picking through trash is not enough to stop the drastic amounts of waste created by this consumer culture. We can only recuperate so much on our own, and many useful things are left to rot because professional waste recyclers don't deem them profitable or sellable. If you've ever worked at a thrift store like Value Village you will see that they throw away more of the stuff that's donated than they attempt to re-sell. And they re-sell items at an absurdly expensive price that is unaffordable for many low-income people. They also press criminal charges against people who attempt to dig through their trash to save useful items or shoplift the overpriced goods from their capitalist big-box stores.
Forget about donating your things to these greedy enterprises, and start giving things away directly to people who will make use of them. That's the only guarantee that they will actually get into the hands of people who will use them. People are already building a culture of gift-giving online through websites like freecycle, kijiji, and craigslist, but we could go so much further and transcend from the virtual world into the physical world. We need to build institutions of gift economics such as free stores in every community so that we can recuperate, store, and distribute everything that might otherwise end up in a landfill. The throwaway culture is destroying this planet and enslaving us in order to pay for it.
If we learned to make due with less and to source our needs from the piles of waste instead of the malls, we wouldn't need to work so much and could create healthier communities and environments. One perfect example of gift-economics and the positive impacts on community is the “really really free market.” We've had several successful RRFMs at Fanshawe in the last two years, but many cities have them monthly and even weekly. The concept is simple; everybody brings goods, services, or talents and shares them freely with others. Friendships are started, communities are strengthened, and needs are met.
In student towns such as London, the success of these types of events can be incredible as conscious students recuperate their peers waste and bring it to the “free market” to be redistributed to the community. As this culture of free sharing grows, more and more people disconnect from consumer culture, less and less waste is produced, and communities become stronger and more resilient at meeting their own needs.
And the idea seems to be catching on. After several “free markets” according to a Facebook event, with over 250 people listed as attending, a massive really really free market is being organized for May Day (May 1) in Victoria Park starting at noon.
More info about the really really free market: http://crimethinc.com/texts/atoz/reallyreally.php
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
But you might also see opportunity. Several businesses in East London send teams to dig through the mountains of student waste to find things they can re-sell. There is also a growing cultural phenomenon named “freeganism” whereby people live off the excess and so-called “waste” of consumer culture in order to avoid contributing to it directly. Why bother working in order to pay for things when you can just find them for free?
But simply going around picking through trash is not enough to stop the drastic amounts of waste created by this consumer culture. We can only recuperate so much on our own, and many useful things are left to rot because professional waste recyclers don't deem them profitable or sellable. If you've ever worked at a thrift store like Value Village you will see that they throw away more of the stuff that's donated than they attempt to re-sell. And they re-sell items at an absurdly expensive price that is unaffordable for many low-income people. They also press criminal charges against people who attempt to dig through their trash to save useful items or shoplift the overpriced goods from their capitalist big-box stores.
Forget about donating your things to these greedy enterprises, and start giving things away directly to people who will make use of them. That's the only guarantee that they will actually get into the hands of people who will use them. People are already building a culture of gift-giving online through websites like freecycle, kijiji, and craigslist, but we could go so much further and transcend from the virtual world into the physical world. We need to build institutions of gift economics such as free stores in every community so that we can recuperate, store, and distribute everything that might otherwise end up in a landfill. The throwaway culture is destroying this planet and enslaving us in order to pay for it.
If we learned to make due with less and to source our needs from the piles of waste instead of the malls, we wouldn't need to work so much and could create healthier communities and environments. One perfect example of gift-economics and the positive impacts on community is the “really really free market.” We've had several successful RRFMs at Fanshawe in the last two years, but many cities have them monthly and even weekly. The concept is simple; everybody brings goods, services, or talents and shares them freely with others. Friendships are started, communities are strengthened, and needs are met.
In student towns such as London, the success of these types of events can be incredible as conscious students recuperate their peers waste and bring it to the “free market” to be redistributed to the community. As this culture of free sharing grows, more and more people disconnect from consumer culture, less and less waste is produced, and communities become stronger and more resilient at meeting their own needs.
And the idea seems to be catching on. After several “free markets” according to a Facebook event, with over 250 people listed as attending, a massive really really free market is being organized for May Day (May 1) in Victoria Park starting at noon.
More info about the really really free market: http://crimethinc.com/texts/atoz/reallyreally.php
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
