Reuse in action
The team at Res.Awesome love supporting community reuse in action. Moving towards zero-waste means taking many pathways and investing in multiple solutions. Creating results that are higher up the zero-waste hierarchy than just recycling.
Refuse and Reuse is at the top of the zero waste hierarchy, and these are new old skills that we need to rediscover and part of our infrastructure system we must invest in. We are pleased to see that there is investment happening in this space locally from the Dunedin City Council. With these new upgrades to our curbside recycling systems being put in place over the coming years, we also need to invest in a reuse economy for all the other stuff that needs to be rehomed, and rediscover others’ treasures.
This is why we at Res.Awesome support and are now collaborating with The Restore Dunedin, our Kaiwhakaara Fi was invited to join the Restore Dunedin’s committee table as they go through some exciting upgrades.
The Restore Dunedin supports Habitat for Humanity’s Dunedin efforts to support the community with low-cost housing and housing repair.
When you shop or donate goods to the Restore you are supporting your local community to have better housing. Now that is Reuse in action!
In Dunedin, we have many second-hand stores and worthy charities to support our donations of reusable goods.
and many more…..
Check out this map of all the second-hand stores in Dunedin for the next time you are looking to donate good-condition reusable items or looking to shop for your own needs.
Reuse is a key aspect of shifting towards a circular economy of stuff. It works better when we have a market for reusable or up-cycled-value items that we can re-home. Items must be in good condition, function well and be clean. There’s nothing worse than receiving broken or stained items that you don’t have the resourcing to deal with. If donated the majority of these end up in landfill as second hands stores generally cannot repair or break down these items.
This is the ideal circularity we want to be able to resource and invest in. Disrupting the feedback loop that heads into Papatūānuku puku, our landfills. Enabling more resource recovery, separation of mixed items and employment for our whanau. This is where our work with Habitat for Humanity and Restore comes in. As a community that is working toward better outcomes for those in lower socio-economic parts of our city and also personally being a recipient of their support, through my father, Paul Clement’s skills to build and reuse my own home. Which we have now been living in for 8 months, Still under construction might I add as we resource it in stages.
Big thanks to Naylor Love and their deconstruction work at Mercy hospital for also resourcing some of our build with wood and 2 metal bathtubs. There is so much more than we realise going to waste every day, we could build so many tiny houses for our homeless and others in need with the skills we have in this city, if only we knew how to collaborate properly.
And so, we just do, we want this shift to be created so partnering with Restore and supporting Habitat for Humanity Dunedin with some exciting upgrades in the future is where we place our energy. This is a volunteer role that I am really excited about, any opportunity to enhance our communities resource recovery efforts is one I want to participate in.
We also recognise that there is a necessity to also REDUCE, REDESIGN and RETHINK! This is where education is part of us REDISCOVERING our own power in how we purchase, use and dispose of items.
Here are a few questions to ask to help you on that REFUSAL and REDUCTION journey.
When you purchase an item do you do your research beforehand or is it impulse that attracts you to purchase?
Do you purchase for need or want first?
Do you look for energy or water ratings?
Do you look for repairability?
Do you question your brands and ask if they offer repair, extra parts, servicing, recycling or take-back schemes?
Do you look into a brand’s supply chains or processes of making?
Do you look for durability? What is it made from?
Is it designed to break down and recycle?
Where was it made, locally or globally?
Were the workers paid a living wage?
Of course, this list is non-exhaustive, there are many things we can ask ourselves before we purchase an item. Whether it is out of necessity or want, it also comes down to budget, price and availability.
We encourage everyone to REDUCE items ending up in a landfill again and again, whether this looks like REPURPOSING or simply being super on to it when purchasing and REPAIRING items. Cyclical use of RESOURCES is essential to a zero-waste lifestyle.
REUSE + BREAKDOWN inorganic items to REDISTRIBUTE them correctly, separating metal from plastics, wood from metals and REUSABLE notions from textiles. Doing this proper separation creates more REUSABLE parts that can be distributed for more innovative creative REUSE.
Now that’s the world I want to live in!
xxx
Blog researched + written by Fi Clements - Kaiwhakaara
