Buy Less Stuff - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

Summary: Buy Less Stuff

Description

The things we buy all use energy and resources: from their raw materials, manufacture, and transportation to their operation, usage, and even their disposal. And, every phase of their lifetime generates greenhouse gases. Then when we’re finished with them, they typically end up in the waste stream, where they generate still more greenhouse gas emissions in the form of carbon dioxide and often methane too.

By embracing the three R’s — Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose — we can get more use from what we (or our neighbors) already own and avoid the carbon emissions associated with producing new things. 

See Steps To Take for a list of tips, vendors, and helpful websites. See Deep Dive for a list of great books and articles to explore this topic.

Deep Dive

OTHER RESOURCES:

This Cooler/Smarter site by the Union of Concerned Scientists asks questions about your buying habits (based on data found here) to help people identify their emissions and target actions for reduction.

The Story of Stuff: Watch animated shorts and documentaries about our consumption-crazed culture and simple, viable, efficient solutions to a more just and sustainable future, including solutions that drive us away from plastic and promote real system change.

You can learn more about the carbon footprint of your clothing with ThredUp's Fashion Carbon Calculator. 

A blog post with an annotated list of Books to Counter Consumerism, compiled by Gemma Alexander (who does a lot of inspirational writing!)

How Buying Stuff Drives Climate Change, by Renée Cho, News from the Columbia Climate Schools, 2020.

READING LIST:

Year of No Garbage: Recycling Lies, Plastic Problems, and One Woman's Trashy Journey to Zero Waste by Eve Schaub

Vermont-based author Eve Schaub set out to spend an entire year without creating any waste. Read what she learned in her 2023 book.

Total Garbage: How We Can Fix Our Waste and Heal Our World by Edward Humes

An investigative narrative that dives into the waste embedded in our daily lives — and shows how individuals and communities are making a real difference for health, prosperity, quality of life and the fight against climate change, by a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist.

Empire of Things: How We Became a World of Consumers from the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First Century by Frank Trentmann

Trentmann’s 2016 history of stuff takes a long view on material culture. He tracks the centuries-long rise in trade-based affluence through to the current challenges of waste and inequality. But Empire of Things is not preachy or judgmental. If you want to understand acquisitiveness better without feeling too bad about it, this is a good book to start with.

Affluenza: How Overconsumption is Killing Us – and How to Fight Back by John de Graaf, David Wann, and Thomas Naylor

First published in 2001, Affluenza is a classic of anticonsumerist literature that introduced the idea of consumerism as a problem rather than a virtue to many people. A new edition updates the original with information on the Great Recession and new policy recommendations while maintaining the core message that the best things in life aren’t things.

A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America by Lizabeth Cohen

If you’ve ever wondered how citizens transformed into consumers, A Consumers’ Republic is the book for you. Bancroft Prize winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist Lizabeth Cohen shows how the pursuit of prosperity after World War II fueled America’s pervasive consumer mentality and reworked American life.

Less is More: Embracing Simplicity for a Healthy Planet, a Caring Economy and Lasting Happiness by Cecile Andrews and Wanda Urbanska

For some people, “anticonsumer” might feel a little too political. But there is an aesthetic wing to the movement known as “simplicity.” The essay collection Less is More includes Jim Merkel, Bill McKibben, Duane Elgin, Juliet Schor, John de Graaf, and others. They remind readers that community counts more than possessions, and recommend policies to make simplicity and sustainability available to everyone.

The Conscious Closet by Elizabeth Cline

In 2012, Elizabeth Cline sounded the alarm in Overdressed about the human and environmental harm caused by the fast fashion industry. Now she’s back with The Conscious Closet teaching readers how to get off the fast-fashion treadmill.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo

By now everyone has an opinion about Marie Kondo. Not everyone wants to thank their discarded knickknacks. But Kondo’s primary message is that people are happier when they don’t mindlessly stockpile stuff. If you are having a hard time letting go of stuff and you want to keep from refilling your space once you’ve decluttered, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up can help.

Credits: Annotations by Gemma Alexander and UnabridgedBookstore.com.

Steps to Take

1. Be mindful about your consumption 

• The more mindful you are about your purchases — i.e., being thoughtful about needs vs. wants — and the more you reduce purchases of "optional" items, the less energy will be consumed on your behalf and the less waste will be generated in the end. Both lead to reductions in carbon emissions. First, recognize that sometimes we choose to buy new things only to make ourselves feel better. Make a conscious commitment to think through each potential purchase and identify whether it is a true need, or more of a "want." 

• Consider a 30-day challenge NOT to buy optional items; then reflect on your experience and think of ways to incorporate ideas gained into your life permanently. 

2. Go secondhand!

• Commit to shopping secondhand and purchase new only if what you need is not available used. Local thrift stores and consignment clothing stores offer secondhand clothing and household items in good condition at deeply discounted prices. Williamstown's Nextdoor, Front Porch Forum, and Craigslist Western MA, as well as the Buy Nothing Williamstown group on Facebook offer many used items for sale or for free. Freecycle is an online forum for the exchange of goods for free. 

• Challenge yourself to go six months without buying new clothes. Stick to the motto “Use it up, wear it out, or do without.”

3. Repair it!

• Have a hole in a sweater? Tailor, repair, or mend clothing or apparel items; find a neighbor or local tailor if you need help! Or look at online sites like Pinterest or Etsy for creative repair ideas. 

• Adopt an attitude of repair rather than replace: think about the amount of space a broken item will take up in a landfill. Can it be fixed? There are numerous videos online that explain how to fix standard household items. 3D printers can sometimes be employed to replace broken parts. If the item really can’t be fixed, is there some other use for its parts? 

• Check out local repair services or volunteer "repair clinics/cafes." South Williamstown Community Association offers repair clinics twice a year, in May and November. 

4. Borrow it!

• Let friends and neighbors know you welcome sharing! Borrow or share tools, unusual kitchen items, and technical equipment. Strengthen your neighborhood’s ties through sharing and lending. 

• Check out the Thingdom at the Milne Public Library, a lending library for things. Borrow a sewing machine, a pair of hiking poles, a board game, and so much more! All it takes is a library card and the time to browse the collection!

5. Don’t trash it!

• Sell or donate unwanted items for others to use, to keep them out of the landfill and pay it forward. Remedy Hall is a local clearinghouse that takes donations to distribute to families in need. Or drop items off at Goodwill in North Adams. In addition to the Buy Nothing group on Facebook, other social media platforms such as Nextdoor and Front Porch Forum are good ways to find people who want things you no longer need.  

• Ask around! A recent post on Facebook yielded suggestions of more than ten places children’s toys could be donated or repurposed, including the Louison House in North Adams  and Kidding Around consignment shop in Pittsfield.

• Don’t throw away your packing materials! Local small vendors often welcome used boxes, cushioning materials, or bubble wrap to be used for shipping. Watch local social media for their requests.

• Check out the 2024 “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Guide” published by the Berkshire Eagle, especially the section “What Do I Do With…?”, pp. 10–20.

6. Make your own!

• A quick Internet search will lead you to DIY recipes to make your own skin moisturizer and deodorant. Learn how to make safe household cleaning products from ingredients you likely already have in your home. Use washable tea towels instead of paper towels in the kitchen. Even better, use scrap fabric to sew your own dish towels or handkerchiefs. Make your own candles, reusable beeswax food wraps, and reusable shopping bags. It’s fun and creative!

7. Reduce your paper clutter

• Remove yourself from merchant mailing and email lists. Catalog Choice can help with reducing unwanted marketing mailings and junkmail. 

• Love books? Borrow from the library rather than buying new volumes. E-resources reduce the use of paper. Or if you really love to own books, check out our wonderful local used book store, Chapter Two Books, run by the Friends of the Milne Public Library. You can also donate books you no longer want to Chapter Two by dropping them off at the Friends’ Donation Center at the library at 1095 Main St.

8. Get inspired!

• Find inspiration from articles or blogs by others who have experimented with buying less (search "buy nothing challenge").

• Talk with friends from other backgrounds and cultures, who may have more experience with some of these resource-saving practices. If you have friends or relatives on this "conscious consumer" journey, ask them to share their tips. 

9. A few additional sources 

• “How green are you? A beginner’s guide to climate responsibility,” by Karen Campbell, Globe Correspondent, Boston Globe, April 21, 2021, posted by Mothers Out Front.

• “Useful Links: Recycling, Low-Impact Living,” Green Acton website.

• For three months, write down things you would normally order online; at the end of that time, consider whether you actually do need those things.