When we fix, mend, share, rehome, borrow, donate, or swap, we keep useful items out of the landfill. Moving away from a throwaway society is part of the circular economy.
We all do our best to recycle. Setting aside our cardboard, rinsing tin cans, putting food waste into our green carts.
But I’m going to let you in on a little secret.
As good as recycling is, sharing and repairing is even better.
Here’s why.
When we recycle items, they are remanufactured, using energy and other resources so that they can be remade into new objects. Each time an item goes through this process, its life gets shorter, until it can no longer be recycled and has to be thrown away.
When we share items by gifting, rehoming, thrifting, donating, or swapping them, or if we mend items so that we can continue to use them, we create less litter and pollution, fewer emissions, and less deforestation than buying new items, even if we recycle the old items first.
Not only that, sharing and repairing saves you money and helps support local jobs at repair shops, thrift stores, and rental businesses.
I get it. It’s not always easy to take that next step. Scroll down to see how you can take recycling to the next level.
Pass It On
Before you toss an item in the trash, think about ways to pass it on to someone who can use it. This can be as simple as gifting gently-used kid’s clothing and toys to a friend’s younger child or dropping books at a Free Little Library.
Sharing items
Finding a new home for items you no longer need ensures they last as long as possible and aren’t unnecessarily thrown away. Consider these options to pass along your gently-used items:
Food banks
Food rescue
Hand-me downs
Sharing skills
Sharing your skills might not seem like a path to less garbage, but teaching or trading your home repair skills, meal planning, and mending knowledge can help others extend the life of their things.
Trading skills with a friend or signing up to volunteer at a Repair Cafe are great ways to pass along your knowledge to others.
Time vs money
We’re all busy, and sometimes it can be easier to discard and replace an item than it is to find it a new home. To help make it easier, we’ve created a list of places in Lethbridge that will help you pass along unwanted items.
Use it again and again
Purchasing a new item, only for it to break weeks or months later can be extremely frustrating. Even more annoying is that many items are difficult or expensive to repair, causing them to be thrown away prematurely.
Using the items you buy for as long as possible not only keeps them out of the landfill, it also saves you money. Unfortunately, many manufacturers benefit from making repairs as difficult or expensive as possible. To counter this, right-to-repair legislation makes it easier to have items repaired.
The greenest item is the one you already own. Taking the take to maintain your stuff and get it repaired helps save both the environment and your wallet.
Make it last
Taking proper care of your items is the first step to ensuring they last as long as possible.
Buy repairable first
Whenever possible, look for items that can be repaired instead of items that are made to be thrown away.
Fix it up
Learn basic repair and mending skills to fix up broken items. While it can be intimidating to try to fix something for the first time, satisfaction and saving money make it well worth it. Plus if it’s already broken, what do you have to lose? For more complicated fixes, consider bringing items to a repair cafe or find a professional.
New to you
It’s never been easier to buy something new. From the internet to big box stores, finding and purchasing anything you’d like can happen almost instantaneously. But quick and convenient usually means paying more or giving up on quality. You might have to invest more time, but looking for options to find new-to-you is greener and saves money.
Thrift first
Thrifting is beneficial in many ways. First, it helps keep items out of the landfill. Second, it saves you money. The third (and often overlooked) reason is that these older things, particularly furniture, appliances, and some types of clothing, were built when quality was more commonplace and will last you longer than a new equivalent.
For example, IKEA used to be known for their quality, sturdy furniture, as pieces were often made from solid wood or metal. In recent years, IKEA has begun making their furniture with more particleboard, which is a building material made out of recycled wood scraps and some kind of binding agent, usually a type of resin.
Borrowing and renting
Sometimes, renting or borrowing makes more sense than purchasing an item for yourself. If you’re only going to use an item once, you may not need to own it at all. The Lethbridge Public Library hosts The Library of Things, which includes all sorts of items from cake pans to hockey skates and camping equipment to a lemonade stand, all of which are available to borrow with your library card.
Buy less
Buy quality
If you need to buy new items, be sure to buy the best quality you can afford. Higher quality items last longer, meaning they won’t need repairs right away and they won’t get thrown away. When searching for higher quality items, don’t only consider the price, but think about the materials items are made from and whether they will withstand wear and tear.
Buy local
Buying local not only helps small businesses here in Lethbridge, it also is an opportunity to buy items with less packaging. In particular, handmade and hand grown products travel a shorter distance and are likely high quality.
Leave it on the shelf
One of the most difficult, but best ways to max out your recycling habits is to not buy unnecessary items at all. Consider trying a buy-nothing month or year that limits your spending to essential purchases. Think about ways to get extra items without purchasing them by borrowing, renting, or sharing with friends.
To get into the habitat of buying less, consider the following:
- Remove shopping apps from your mobile device
- Don’t follow influencers whose content mostly revolves around brand sponsorships
- Unsubscribe from marketing or brand email lists
- Delete social media or remove from homescreen to spend less time on it
- Install an adblocker
- Unfollow brands and companies on social media
- Don’t make shopping a social activity
- Borrow items from the Library of Things!
Thank you to Alberta Ecotrust for supporting Lethbridge’s circular economy.