Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make It Do Or Do Without

My grandmother was a big influence in my growing up years. She was one of the biggest motivators for me getting involved in the green and sustainable world. Grandmother was born in 1909 in a small town in South Texas and was a young woman during the Depression. At that time, most communities were small, rural, and self-sustaining. Ingenuity and reusing things were the norm as many things were scarce. I remember her telling my sisters and me when we were little to “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.”

Let’s look at this in modern day terms.

Refuse. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. I’ll toss in Repair too, just for good measure.

Use it up – reduce – use only what you need. If we would just eliminate the waste in many of our systems and processes, we would make great strides towards resources being more available for more people.

Wear it out – repair, reuse and recycle – so many items get tossed away (where that “away” place is another conversation) long before their useful life is complete. Sell or donate items if they are still usable. Repair items that can be repaired. And yes, we need products to be built to be repairable more. And if something is truly worn out and at the end of its useful life, recycle it if at all possible.

Make it do – reuse and recycle – find other ways to use stuff – the materials, parts and finished products we have in every corner of our lives. A little imagination and ingenuity goes a long way.

Do without – refuse – just say no to things you don’t really need. We live in a consumer based economy and buying things is equated with how well we are doing, status, etc. Moving to a quality based mindset over a quantity based mindset will help us all get better at refusing.

Just remember to refuse first, then reduce, reuse and then recycle. The culture of reducing, reusing, recycling, and refusing is becoming more fashionable lately. Especially amongst the younger people.

We need to learn to use all our resources wisely if we want them to be available for the next generation to use. People from each generation usually want to ensure that those in the next generation will be in a better position than they were. Most parents are willing to work hard so that their children do not have to work as hard. They want to know that their children are well provided for, well-educated, and in a position to make more money than they did.

Years ago, when curbside single-stream recycling was first introduced, I’d fill up my bin every week and watch as my trash got smaller and smaller. The neighbors started asking how I was getting so much into recycling and less into trash. I’d researched what could go in our recycling bins and was putting in everything I could. I was also working to bring less stuff in that needed to be trashed or recycled. As neighbors asked, I’d share with them what I’d learned and before long the other recycling bins started filling up too.

Actually recycling has been around for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I’d go up and down our street with our wagon collecting newspapers for newspaper drives to raise money for some cause or group. Paper has been recycled for a while and is relatively easy to recycle. Wood and its by-products, including wood pulp, are used a number of different ways as wood and paper products. Manufacturers are more frequently finding ways to use by-products (rather than waste) of one process for another product or process.

In William McDonough’s book Cradle to Cradle, in nature there is no such thing as waste. Every output of one process is an input for another. This is a good model for manufacturing, as well as our consumption of stuff.

“if it can’t be reduced, reused, repaired, rebuilt, refurbished, refinished, resold, recycled or composted then it should be restricted, redesigned or removed from production” Pete Seeger, Folk Singer and social activist

The more we can find ways to not throw things “away,” the better. This is contrary to our lifestyle of convenience and throwing things away when we are done with it. Disposable is convenient to us since we don’t have to deal with it, someone else does. In this same line of thinking, it appears that many products are designed for obsolescence rather than repair – electronics, appliances, cars, etc. If we were to make things repairable and/or recyclable, we could extend the lifetimes.

And just because a disposable item can be recycled, a reusable item is still almost always a better choice. Little steps add up! For what we do need to recycle, we need to make it easy to do. Typically, single stream recycling is a great fit for household everyday use stuff – paper, cardboard, aluminum and tin cans, most plastics (number in triangle), glass in many communities.

Then there is the hard to recycle stuff – printer cartridges, electronics, plastic bags (grocery bags, cleaner bags, etc.), CFL bulbs, batteries and more. In many areas, schools are collecting some of these hard to recycle items as fundraisers. Many big box stores and electronic stores offer recycling for electronics, CFLs and other hard to recycle items. Grocery stores collect plastic grocery bags and other film plastic bags. Hazardous products like paint and motor oil need to go to a collection center. Tires are typically recycled by the shop replacing tires. A great resource for hard-to-recycle stuff is Earth 911. This site offers a comprehensive search tool for recycling just about anything. There are lots of articles on recycling and green living too.

If you can’t recycle something, at least reuse or re-purpose it. Ask if there is somewhere to recycle it. At minimum, donate it. Get creative about keeping stuff out of the landfills as much as possible. Take a moment and think about ways to get something out of your possession without throwing it away.

For decades we have lived in a throw-away society. Instead of repairing items, we throw them away and replace them

A mindset change may be in order. Changing from the mindset of disposing of things when they no longer work or are no longer needed to a mindset of repair and longevity. Whenever possible, look to buy items that can be repaired or at least reused, repurposed or recycled.

Buying recycled items helps to drive manufacturers to offer more recycled products and at better prices. Oftentimes, “traditional” products are subsidized making them less costly than their recycled counterparts.

We agreed that the easiest stuff to buy recycled is paper products, including paper towels and toilet paper. And yes, I’ve found a good recycled toilet paper too. (side note – check out The Great Toilet Paper debate in the comments of blog To Buy Recycled or Not to Buy Recycled – A New Perspective on Toilet Paper) Many products you already buy are recycled and you may not even know.

The solution may lie within us though. Can you imagine your life without coffee cups or straws? Refuse to buy things you don’t need. It seems like a small price to pay for the greater good.