But, what if you could grow your own toilet paper? According to environmental activist Robin Greenfield, you can do just that. 

Greenfield’s Grow Your Own Toilet Paper Initiative is about supporting thousands of people in switching to homegrown toilet paper in 2023 by providing cuttings or seeds (depending on the climate where you live) for a nominal donation. These provisions can grow large enough “Toilet Paper Plants” to save participants from buying toilet paper for the rest of their lives.

When I moved to Orlando, Florida in 2018 I planted two cuttings of the Toilet Paper Plant that a friend gave me, and within one year I had a TP bush abundant enough to support a family of five, plus cuttings to share with hundreds of friends each year so they could grow their own TP too!

Here are a few of my favorite reasons to grow your own toilet paper:

• • • These plants are easy to grow. They are great for beginner growers or even as a first plant! They can be grown in the ground or in pots.
    • These plants thrive! Even if you aren’t ready to make the switch to your homegrown TP, you can plant it now so you have it in case there’s a pandemic with a TP shortage. But let’s be real, we don’t need to wait for that. These leaves are the Charmin of the Garden!
    • Growing your own TP is like printing your own money! The average person works two months of their life at a 40-hour job just to pay for the paper to wipe their butt.
    • Opt out of consumerism! According to one study, the average U.S. household of 2.6 people uses about 400 regular rolls of TP per year. Growing your own TP is one more step in breaking free from the consumer lifestyle.
    • We are flushing our planet down the toilet. We’re chopping down trees, burning fossil fuels, and polluting our waterways by pooping in clean water. The compost toilet and toilet paper plan are a step forward in living in harmony with Earth.
    • Wiping your butt with leaves is humbling. If yoga hasn’t humbled your ego enough yet, try these leaves.

How to share: 300 guides to help your community thrive

Which plants and why?

For warmer climates, like Florida, we recommend growing the Blue Spur Flower (Plectranthus barbatus). Why? Because it is one of the easiest-to-grow plants, it’s great for beginners. It can be grown in the ground or in pots, and it thrives.

If you’re not convinced, here are eight reasons why to use the Blue Spur flower:

• • 1. The leaves are very soft — softer than many toilet papers on the market.
    2. The leaves are strong and durable. (Your fingers will not break through when wiping.)
    3. The leaves often grow about the same size as a store-bought piece of toilet paper.
    4. On dewy mornings, these furry leaves hold onto moisture, so they double as a wet wipe.
    5. It is in the mint family (Lamiaceae), so it has a fragrant minty smell!
    6. The flowers attract hummingbirds!
    7. The leaves are used in Brazilian culture as tea for an upset stomach. (Not after using it on the bum of course!)
    8. The leaves can be harvested and last up to three weeks before use, retaining their softness, durability, and strength.

For areas with cold winters that freeze over, we suggest mullein (Verbascum thapsus), which has been used as toilet paper for hundreds of years, due to its large, soft, fuzzy leaves.

If you live in cooler climates, here are four reasons to grow Mullein:

• • 1. The leaves are some of the softest growing in the northern hemisphere, perfect for the sensitive spots of the body.
    2. Grows quite easily from seed.
    3. Prolific, self-seeding plant (once established), meaning your toilet paper supply will multiply.
    4. It’s an herbal medicine that millions of people work with.
    5. Drought tolerant, and does best in dry soils.

How to grow the Toilet Paper Plant*

• • • The Blue Spur plant is low maintenance and it doesn’t require highly fertile soil, needs minimal water, and we’ve rarely seen any insect damage except a few bites here or there.
    • The plant starts via a cutting. We provide cuttings of the plant to get started, which are simply a 6″-9″ cutting of one of the branches. These cuttings can then be planted in a small pot (such as a 4”x4” pot) to be nurtured for a few weeks to a couple of months until it has established roots and leaves. Then it can be transplanted in the ground or to a larger pot.
    • We’ve seen two 8″ cuttings grow into a 10-foot by 6-foot Toilet Paper Plant patch within a few years, while it was still being heavily used for both toilet paper and propagation.
    • Proper pruning will create a bushy plant that produces ample toilet paper for at least one person.
    • Once established, you can easily take cuttings from your own Toilet Paper Plant to plant more of it and provide cuttings to help others grow their own TP, too. Plant people know that plants create abundance, so much so that we have plenty to share with our communities.

*Additional instructions for growing Mullein can be found here (will be available 5/1/23). 

How to use the Toilet Paper Plants

Like any plant, some people may have an allergic reaction. Be safer than sorry, and before you try the leaves on your bottom, swipe the leaf across your hand or wrist, and wait 24 hours. If no reaction occurs, the leaf will most likely be safe to use on more sensitive areas (but it’s best to test that as well before regular use).

• • • Simply wipe your butt, and then have a plan for where you’re going to put the used leaves.
    • Our favorite plan is to use them with a compost toilet. Simply drop the leaves into any compost or dry toilet.
    • If you have a flush toilet, you can place a small bucket next to it for used leaves. Then take them outside and compost them or bury them in the yard. Having a bucket for used TP is a common practice throughout many regions of the world where the septic systems need more gentle care.
    • We have not experimented with flushing the leaves and our recommendation is to not flush them.

See Greenfield and the Toilet Paper Plant in person

Greenfield is taking his Toilet Paper Plant on a two-week tour of Florida from April 27th–May 9th, 2023. In each major city, Robin will set up his compost toilet and his plants on either side of him, to introduce this alternative, environmental way forward to all who are interested.

• April 27th: Gulfport from 5-8 PM SumitrA Espresso Lounge +, (2838 Beach Blvd S.)
• April 29t: St. Petersburg from 11 AM–2 PM Saturday Morning Market (at 1st St. entrance)
• April 30th: Tampa from 5-8 PM Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park
• May 3rd: Orlando from 5-8 PM Lake Eola Park (at N Osceola Ave & E Central Blvd intersection)
• May 4th: Daytona Beach from 11 AM-1 PM Ormond Beach Farmers Market
• May 4th: Jacksonville from 5-8 PM Downtown Jacksonville (exact location TBD)
• May 5th: St. Augustine from 12-2 PM Plaza de la Constitución
• May 5th: Gainesville from 5-8 PM Bo Diddley Plaza Plaza (Friday night concert series)
• May 6th: Fort Myers from 5-8 PM Downtown Fort Myers Library Plaza  (2450 First St)
• May 9th: Miami Beach from 5-8 PM Lincoln Rd & Alton Rd intersection

How to get your starter plants in the mail*

We have a Toilet Paper Plan for nearly every region of the United States. You can still request your Toilet Paper Plant: by making a sliding-scale suggestion donation to the initiative, and we will send you cuttings of blue spur flower, or seeds of mullein (depending on where you live), plus instructions to be successful in growing your own TP! Request plants in the mail here.

*Note, we do not sell plants. We are a non-profit providing resources to be of service to Earth, humanity, and our plant and animal relatives. The funds raised from this initiative support our food sovereignty initiatives. Learn more about Regeneration, Equity and Justice.

Additional Resources from Robin Greenfield:

• • • How to Compost – Composting Guide for Beginners
    • How to Compost Human Poop – Humanure Resources
    • 10 Ways to Wipe Your Butt for Free (alternatives to toilet paper)

Looking for more ways to share? Check out Shareable’s growing collection of over 300 how-to guides to save money, reduce waste, and build community through sharing.

The post How to grow your own toilet paper appeared first on Shareable.

After a two-year hiatus because of COVID, MAKE SMTHNG Week has relaunched with the support of Greenpeace Germany. Like many things that are refinding their way back, this year’s events are part of a soft re-launch that is aiming to expand beyond Germany to become a global campaign again next year. You can find all scheduled 2022 events here.

And don’t let the name fool you, MAKE SMTHNG events extend out across several weeks to increase the opportunities for impact. “We’ve seen that the shared experience of making things with others can lead to lasting change in both the lifestyle choices of participants and in the way that they engage with their communities,” says Shareable’s Tom Llewellyn. “We’re proud to be collaborating with Greenpeace and other partners to support communities to host events where people can opt-in to an alternative way of celebrating the holidays while forging new relationships and behaviors that will last throughout the year.”

There are many ways to be involved in MAKE SMTHNG Week 2022. Participants can attend an event, but the organizers also suggest planning an event of your own and sharing about the movement on social media. And you don’t even need to make your event public to participate. It’s the action that matters, so whether you’re making things with friends and family or going it alone, the most important thing is to just MAKE SMTHNG.

The spirit of MAKE SMTHNG can apply to all sorts of activities: whether it is cooking food instead of buying, using food scraps to make a broth, upcycling clothing or other materials, or reusing pieces of broken items to make new DIYs, creativity can play a huge part in sustainability. As we continue to work toward creating a more just, more eco-friendly world, we will have to work together to coordinate the best ways to use resources that are respectful to the planet. MAKE SMTHNG Week is a fun way that everyone can participate in sustainability, just by creating something at home. Use hashtags #MakeChangeNow, #MakeSMTHNG, #BuyNothing, and #MakersforClimate when you participate.

Editor’s note: this article has been updated and repurposed from an original post in 2019.

##

Get our free ebook: “Beyond Waste: Community Solutions to Managing Our Resources.”

The post What will you make during ‘MAKE SMTHNG Week’? appeared first on Shareable.

This is what could be called a “Circular Economy” approach, a new model of production and consumption that thinks of our impact on the environment and our society as a whole. Circular Economy takes us away from the linear take-make-dispose economy we are immersed in and encourages us to rethink waste and energy use. It’s an invitation to change from product design, manufacturing processes, and supply chains, to consumer perceptions and our lifestyles.

Outline

• What is the Circular Economy?
• When was the concept born?
• What are the key principles of Circular Economy?
• What are some examples of Circular Economy?
• Who is the Circular Economy for?
• What are the benefits of the Circular Economy?
• What are the key challenges of putting this model into practice?

What is the Circular Economy?

The Circular Economy is an alternative to our dominant linear economic model. It is grounded in the study of living systems and nature itself. We are pretty used to collecting and transforming resources that are later consumed and, once their lifespan ends, become waste. However, if you look at nature, you can see that processes are totally different. A tree is born from a seed, it grows and reproduces and when it dies, it goes back to the soil, enriching it and providing nourishment for new life. How could we apply that process to the objects we use at home and work?

“Circular Economy is a new business paradigm, inspired by nature, where all energy and resources flows are maintained in closed loops, eliminating the concept of waste while generating economic, social and environmental value,” explains Nicola Cerantola, founder and director of Ecologing, an organization that helps businesses find sustainable ways of doing their work. “The Circular Economy is not waste management — it is about exploring new mechanisms that enable a radical and regenerative transformation of the society towards a healthier, fairer and sustainable world.”

The Circular Economy looks at all the options across the chain to use as few resources as possible in the first place, keep resources in circulation for as long as possible, extract the maximum value from them while in use, and recover and regenerate products at the end of service life. Javier Goyeneche, co-founder of sustainable clothing brand ECOALF, puts it simply: “Circular Economy means not to understand garbage as a waste but as a potential resource that can be reused.”

This new way of understanding goods also means designing products to last so that materials can be easily dismantled and recycled.

When was the concept born?

The concept of Circular Economy has been gaining momentum since the late 1970s, when researchers Walter Stahel and Genevieve Reday sketched the vision of an economy in loops and its impact on job creation, economic competitiveness, resource savings, and waste prevention. They conducted a research for the European Commission and published their conclusions later in a book called “Jobs for Tomorrow: The Potential for Substituting Manpower for Energy.”

In many ways, the Circular Economy model shares key ideas with others such as Biomimicry, which studies nature and imitates its designs and processes to solve human problems; the Cradle to Cradle proposal, which advocates for extending a product lifespan; and the Blue Economy, that uses open-source solutions based upon natural processes.

What are the key principles of the Circular Economy?

The Circular Economy is based on three key principles, as explained by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, one of the main organizations promoting this economic model worldwide:

1. Preserving and enhancing natural capital by controlling finite stocks and balancing renewable resource flows. That is, using as less raw resources as possible and if totally needed, choosing renewable or better performing ones.
2. Optimizing resource yields by circulating products, components, and materials at the highest utility at all times in both technical and biological cycles. This means designing for remanufacturing, refurbishing, and recycling to keep components and materials circulating in and contributing to the economy.
3. Fostering system effectiveness by revealing and designing out negative externalities. This includes reducing damage to human utility, such as food, mobility, shelter, education, health, and entertainment, and managing externalities, such as land use, air, water, noise pollution, release of toxic substances, and climate change.

What are some examples of the Circular Economy?

The Circular Economy has already been put in place by many organizations and businesses around the world. The sectors that have adopted the Circular Economy approach are ones related to scarce or special materials or/and fragile supply chains, according to Cerantola. “All the materials that are valuable for being recovered have started to be circularized even decades ago; let’s think about plastics, steel, gold or aluminum. Now the challenge is to spread this close loops systems to all the economic sectors and regions including materials that are less noble or apparently not so profitable such as textiles, for example.”

Fishing Nets

The also researcher on Sustainable Design and Green Entrepreneurship, Nicola Cerantola, highlights the project Econyl by Aquafil. This company, based in Italy, has been researching and achieving to upcycle (recycling without losing quality of the material) its main raw material, the nylon. “They did it not only for complying with their CSR but also for strategic reasons since they forecasted a 30 percent increase on the demand for nylon in the coming years. So to prevent from suffering from supply chain disruptions or price volatility they chose to explore a circular way of doing business,” says Cerantola.

As a result, this enterprise is currently recovering and upcycling used fishing nets around the world to create new fishing nets. It also provides other fishing services.

“This is one of the key in the transition to the circular economy, find the ways to align business interests with humanity’s,” adds Cerantola.

Sustainable Clothing

Another initiative that reuses fishing nets, this one in the fashion industry, is ECOALF. ECOALF is an eco-friendly fashion label that today produces more than 100 different fabrics made from recycled materials such as fishing nets, plastic bottles, used tires, and coffee grounds.

ECOALF was created by Javier Goyeneche in 2012 “from a deep frustration with the excessive use of the world’s natural resources and the amount of waste produced by industrialized countries — specifically by the fashion industry.” Today, ECOALF’s team manages the full process from waste collection to recycling technologies, manufacture, design, and retail.

Currently in 11 countries, the company seeks to create the first generation of recycled products with the same attention to quality, design, and technical properties as the best non-recycled products in the market. “There is absolutely no need to continue depleting the earth’s natural resources for the sake of production,” says Goyeneche.

Bioclimatic Architecture

The Circular Economy model can also be used in architecture, focusing on three key resources of this sector that can work on a closed-loop: energy, construction materials, and water.

Think of a house that is designed to maximize natural resources like sunlight and the wind; one that is built using biomaterials (sheep’s wool insulation can be reprocessed back into insulation or into fiber for use in clothing) which are locally sourced, have a low carbon footprint, and do not harm the environment. As architect Pablo Farfán explains, there are architectural organizations that are using the Circular Economy model all over the world: Passivhaus and Bioconstruction in Germany, Earthships in New Mexico, and the Neo Vernacular architecture in the U.K.

Traditional Businesses

Fortunately, there are many more examples of how to apply Circular Economy processes even in traditional companies and institutions.

The electronics giant Philips based in the Netherlands is experimenting with a “Pay per lux” model. Under this model, the company maintains ownership of the materials, while customers benefit from maintenance and service, as well as from the option to adapt or upgrade their electronics, with the manufacturer able to recover the materials when necessary. Dell has made the first computer using certified closed-loop recycled plastics and uses its international position to influence standards and policies toward a circular economy. And Levi’s has started accepting old clothes in its stores and turning them into building materials. It also plans to recycle old Levi’s jeans into new ones in the near future.

Meanwhile, in Denmark, where the public sector procures goods and services for around 38 billion euros annually, a national initiative is aiming to shift the country’s public procurement practices to support a Circular Economy by prioritizing criteria such as the use of non-toxic chemicals, extended product lifespan, and the cycling of biological and technical materials.

Download our free ebook: “Beyond Waste: Community Solutions to Managing Our Resources”

Who is the Circular Economy for?

Despite the fact that there are more and more organizations using the circular approach, there is still a long way to go until this proposal becomes mainstream. Cerantola, founder of Ecologing, believes the reason why Circular Economy has not become popular yet is that the early adopters have not been consumers, but industries seeking cost reduction, competitive advantages, or innovative business models.

However, consumers need to be part of the equation. In addition to the financial, political, and legal support for the Circular Economy, there is a need for education on this model in schools, public and private groups, and media outlets.

What are the benefits of the Circular Economy model?

There are lots of advantages to adopting the Circular Economy. First of all, the Circular Economy commits to reducing water and energy consumption and using energy from renewable sources. By reducing waste, it also diminishes the negative impacts associated with overflowed landfills that contaminate water and soil. Not only does it have a positive environmental impact, it is also good for enterprises and the economy.

When dependence and price of natural resources lower, risk is minimized and businesses become more sustainable and self-reliant, too. It is true incorporating new recycling and remanufacturing processes require investment, but the efforts will always pay off. Circular Economy improves the reputation of businesses, and it benefits local economies by generating wealth and employment opportunities — for instance, it opens up new avenues for businesses such as repair and maintenance services.

Finally, from the consumers’ point of view, it results in longer-lasting products and even a small stream of income when businesses and other organizations begin offering incentives for returning old goods.

What are the key challenges of putting this model into practice?

The transition towards a more circular economy is not easy. This is not something a single business can do on its own. There is a need for public support and investors willing to take this model to the next level.

As a society and as individuals, we need to be ready to assume the costs of this change. Architect Pablo Farfán uses bioconstruction as an example: If you want a house that is built in a more environmentally-friendly way and is self-sufficient, you will have to invest a bit more money, but the benefits in the medium and long term will make it worth it.

Ecologing’s Cerantola says: “Financial issues are to be tackled to grant funds and investments. Education and entrepreneurship need to be promoted.

Chemistry needs to provide us with new processes and solutions. … Life needs to be reinterpreted towards less material and more experiential and conscious style. Much is to be done yet, but the transformation is underway. It is just a matter of time.”

The Circular Economy offers a unique opportunity to make our economy more sustainable and competitive. Let’s change the economy to change the world.

This piece was written by Isabel Benitez, who is responsible for International Media at the New Economy and Social Innovation Forum (NESI Forum), with the contributions from Nicola Cerantola (founder of Ecologing), Javier Goyeneche (co-founder of ECOALF), architect Pablo Farfán, as well as speakers and collaborators of the NESI Forum.

*This article was originally published in March of 2017 and has been updated in 2021.

Additional reading

• These 3 organizations are creating a circular economy through waste reduction schemes

• Free ebook: “Beyond Waste: Community Solutions to Managing Our Resources”

• “Doughnut Economic” model arrives in California

The post Circular Economy: A Shareable Explainer appeared first on Shareable.

Makers around the world:

Thailand

Italy

Czechia

United States

Japan

Kenya

Malaysia

Poland

Spain

Turkey

##

This post is part of our Winter 2019 editorial series on waste reduction. Get our free ebook on this series: “Beyond Waste: Community Solutions to Managing Our Resources.” Shareable is a partner of this project with Greenpeace.

The post Makers worldwide come together for Make SMTHNG Week- Photo series appeared first on Shareable.

Berkeley, California: Urban Ore

Urban Ore is a beloved salvage and reuse superstore operating out of a three-acre warehouse in Berkeley. It sells clothing, toys, appliances, furniture, gifts and even building materials. Items are sold at a significant discount from new items, and people can drop off used items for store credit. Urban Ore has operated since the 1980s, and throughout its long history has been an advocate for zero-waste communities.

Komikatsu, Japan: Zero-Waste Town

The city of Komikatsu used to incinerate all its trash, but after realizing how damaging it is to the environment, officials decided to embark on an ambitious waste-reduction program. Now residents sort their trash into super-specific categories to make sure as much as possible is recycled. In total, 80 percent of the town’s waste is now recycled, composted or reused. Additionally, there is also a store in Komikatsu where residents can donate or exchange unwanted clothing, furniture, household decor and toys, as well as a factory that makes toys from discarded fabrics. The village hopes to be entirely zero waste some time this year. 

Palo Alto, California: Household Hazardous Waste Station Reuse Zone

Household cleaners, paints and other items with toxic chemicals can be difficult to dispose of safely. To tackle that issue and help reduce waste, the city of Palo Alto has city workers collect unwanted household items and inspect them to be sure they are still safe to use. If so, other residents can drop by a colorful shed on the property of the Household Hazardous Waste Station called the Reuse Zone, and pick up gently used motor oil, epoxies, paints and cleaners, all for free. Most of these products would have been used for a single household project and then discarded. But with city workers able to make sure the products are safe for continued use, people can donate their unwanted products and give back to their community in the process. 

San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala: A Plastic Free Village

San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala, a village on the shores of Lake Atitlán, was becoming overrun with plastic packaging, so in 2016, Mayor Mauricio Mendez decided to make a change. He banned plastic outright, and in order to help residents adjust, the city purchased woven  reusable bags and containers for every family in town. Now, San Pedro La Laguna residents — the majority of whom are Mayan — have revitalized traditional practices like wrapping meat and tamales in leaves. 

Eskilstuna, Sweden: The Recycled Shopping Mall

ReTuna Mall is much like other shopping centers — stores inside sell clothes, décor, and technology. But everything at ReTuna is secondhand, from upcycled fashion and art to secondhand toys and books. The founder, Anna Bergstrom, wants ReTuna to compete with normal, high-fashion malls without hurting the planet. The mall is spacious and includes amenities like a gift-wrapping service and a coffee shop. 

San Francisco, California: SCRAP

SCRAP is a creative reuse center that first opened its doors in 1976. Educators and artists can find art supplies and fabric at SCRAP for a low cost, and the center accepts donations as well. Every year, SCRAP makes about $75,000 worth of art supplies available to teachers through giveaways, and also offers educational programs and workshops. 

Oakland, California: The East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse

Similar to SCRAP, the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse is a DIY paradise with secondhand craft and art supplies and tools. The Depot accepts donations and offers discounts for educators. They hold classes and workshops as well as selling all manner of reusable craft supplies. People interested in donating can drop off materials at the Depot themselves; for large donations or donations from businesses, Depot staff will even come pick them up. 

Reducing waste can be a community-building, creative process. As these projects all around the world demonstrate, there are myriad ways to reuse things and breathe new life into them, even items that might appear useless. With the help of enterprising leaders and committed residents, many communities are headed for a zero-waste future.

##

Get our free ebook on waste reduction: “Beyond Waste: Community Solutions to Managing Our Resources.”

The post How communities worldwide are going zero waste appeared first on Shareable.

Over the last three years, Shareable has been working with Greenpeace and other partners to give Black Friday yet another meaning. Rather than focusing on shopping and spending, the annual MAKE SMTHNG Week promotes the idea of creating and reusing. As reporter Casey O’Brien writes, “The spirit of MAKE SMTHNG can apply to all sorts of activities: whether it is cooking food instead of buying, using food scraps to make a broth, upcycling clothing or other materials, or reusing pieces of broken items to make new DIYs, creativity can play a huge part in sustainability.”

MAKE SMTHNG Week has quickly grown to an international initiative with hundreds of events, and thousands of participants. “We’ve seen that the shared experience of making things with others can lead to lasting change in both the lifestyle choices of participants and in the way that they engage with their communities,” says Shareable’s Tom Llewellyn. “We’re proud to be collaborating with Greenpeace and other partners to support communities to host events where people can opt-in to an alternative way of celebrating the holidays while forging new relationships and behaviors that will last throughout the year.”

Along with our work promoting and hosting MAKE SMTHNG Week events, this year, we published an editorial series outlining ways individuals, organizations and communities are reducing waste and managing resources around the world. Arvind Dilawar brought us the story of how Bonnie Linden set up a community cupboard in her California neighborhood; Paige Wolf explained how to start a reusable party pack; and Mirella Ferraz told us about the Fashion Detox challenge and the Right to Repair movement. We featured the Eunpyeong Sharing Center in Seoul, South Korea along with other initiatives such as Oakland’s O2AA maker village, the Japan-based MyMizu app, and Precious Plastic’s DIY recycling module. Finally, writer Marina Kelava described how the small Crostian island of Zlarin is getting rid of single-use plastics; and Nithin Coca highlighted how Japan’s Seikatsu Club Cooperative is challenging consumerism. In fact, Seikatsu Club may be the only retailer with anti-consumerist slogan — Stop Shopping.

We know this is a small sample of such initiatives, but they show how ordinary people can come together to reduce waste, manage resources, and make their lives better. Please drop us a line at info@shareable.net if you know of other resource management initiatives. We’d love your help as we continue our coverage of the topic into 2020 and beyond.

The post Get our latest ebook “Beyond Waste: Community Solutions to Managing Our Resources” appeared first on Shareable.

In 2017, Bonnie Linden read a Shareable article about a couple building a community cupboard in front of their home in Winnipeg, Canada. The concept was simple: set up a pantry box in a public space, which visitors can use to pick up or drop off donated food. Linden decided to give it a try, setting one up outside of her home in Capitola, California, east of Santa Cruz. Two years later, she and six other volunteers operate three community cupboards in the Santa Cruz area, which distribute 6,000 pounds of food each month.

“We stock the shelves daily — sometimes twice daily,” Linden said. “It disappears rapidly!”

Linden is just one of a growing number of people around the world who are using community cupboards and community fridges to alleviate food insecurity with groceries that would otherwise be destined for landfills.

The community cupboards set up by Linden are easy to construct and maintain. The cupboards are made from used bookcases, to which she adds plexiglass doors and dashboard protectors for insulation. The cupboards are then mounted on four-by-four posts and installed in publicly accessible locations with adequate shade to reduce food spoilage. Lastly, the cupboards are stocked with groceries donated from neighbors and local businesses and fixed with signs encouraging visitors to take what they need and leave what they can.

But Linden’s community cupboard faced legal hurdles. When she first set up her cupboard in Capitola in 2017, neighbors complained that it was attracting houseless visitors, who they accused of breaking into vehicles in the area. The Capitola City Council did not buy that argument, but her neighbors found another line of attack.

“[Neighbors] found an ordinance in the zoning code that prohibits food distribution from residences,” she said. “They threatened to fine me $500 a day if I continued to host the cupboard.”

After eight months of successful operation, Linden was forced to relocate her first community cupboard just across the Capitola city line, to the neighboring town of Soquel. The subsequent two cupboards she installed are both in Santa Cruz, where they remain unopposed by local ordinances. 

Contrary to the generalizations made by her neighbors, Linden has found that visitors to her community cupboards come from all walks of life. Yes, some are houseless people living along the Soquel Creek or out of their cars, she acknowledges, but others are parents who are in the area picking up their children from the nearby school. She’s also watched as “well-to-do folks use the cupboards as a place to get a free treat — drive up in a new Mercedes and take a bunch of stuff,” as she put it.

“I’d like to be able to have a conversation about privilege, how the cupboards are for the needy,” she said. Then the spirit of sharing seems to take hold again and she reflects, “but I suppose emotional neediness plays into the equation as well.”

Community fridges partner with supermarkets to reduce food waste

Community cupboards like Linden’s can be found around the world — as cataloged by Little Free Pantry — but similar efforts in the United Kingdom have reached new heights with community refrigerators.

In 2016, London-based environmental charity Hubbub teamed up with Sainsbury’s, the second-largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, on a campaign to reduce food waste. Hubbub launched a community fridge in the small English town of Swadlincote. Like a community cupboard, visitors to the fridge could pick up or drop off food, and businesses could make their own donations.

“At the time, the concept was new to the UK, but not to other countries like Germany and Spain, where ‘honesty fridges’ or ‘solidarity fridges’ were common,” said Kanahaya Alam, the campaign’s manager at Hubbub. “The Swadlincote Community Fridge was so successful that within weeks of launching it we received hundreds of expressions of interest.”

To formalize their support, Hubbub created the Community Fridge Network, which provides guidance and even appliances for those looking to set up community fridges in their own neighborhoods. Today, the Community Fridge Network spans England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland with 85 current fridges, and 40 more being planned.

“On average, each project redistributes up to a tonne of food and attracts 200 visitors a month,” Alam said. Those located in urban areas could distribute four tonnes (2,200 pounds) each month, she adds.

Although community fridges have the obvious benefit of preserving perishable foods, which cupboards can’t as safely do, they do have drawbacks. The reliance on electricity means fridges should be housed indoors, which reduces access and creates safety issues as visitors pass from public to private spaces. For those reasons, the Community Fridge Network mandates that members register as “food businesses” with the UK government.

##

This post is part of our Winter 2019 editorial series on waste reduction. Get our free ebook on this series: “Beyond Waste: Community Solutions to Managing Our Resources.” Shareable is a partner of this project with Greenpeace. 

Take a look at the other articles in the series:

• Celebrate the radical power of DIY during MAKE SMTHNG Week
• Communities worldwide prepare to host MAKE SMTHNG Week events
• Fashion Detox Challenge invites people to pause, reflect and change
• How the MyMizu app is creating community and fostering sustainability in Japan
• Bring sustainability to the party with reusable party packs
• Right to Repair movement invites us to review the way we produce and consume electronics
• From Oakland to Utrecht, sustainability-focused maker villages unite artisans for creative exchange
• Using ancient values to solve modern problems at the Eunpyeong Sharing Center

The post Community cupboards feed neighborhoods despite legal hurdles appeared first on Shareable.

The Sharing Center isn’t creating new traditions for their community, but rather reviving the values of generations of Koreans: community centered activities, bartering and interdependence. 

“Our ancestors worked very diligently to increase productivity in limited farmland, and solved the labor-force problem needed for farming with joint labor and sharing products… This tradition was formed through agrarian life,” says the center’s secretary general Hyogeun Shin, who will be taking over as director of the center in January of 2020. 

The center, founded in 2011, offers classes, resources and tools to expand the sharing ecosystem in their community. The center is reflective of the interest across the mega-city of Seoul in community and the sharing economy; the city has a successful sharing city platform that includes a wide range of projects. 

One of the center’s most popular offerings is rentals

Community members can rent things like home repair tools and camping gear for three percent of the item’s retail cost. The idea is that residents can share items that are necessary only a few times a year, like a tent or a toolbox, and save space and money in the process. Research shows that borrowing is crucial for relationships between community members — it encourages small talk and casual connection, which we now know is essential to the fabric of strong communities. 

Sharing Center members don’t just share physical items

The center encourages knowledge sharing as well. “We also provide home repair services for families who have difficulty fixing and repairing their living area,” said Shin. Community members can also teach classes, seminars or workshops on whatever skills they have and want to share with others. 

Residents don’t need to have a degree or certification to teach at the center — anyone with a skill to share is welcome to teach it. “We simply interview them to check what they can share, and confirm their intention to a community,” Shin said. The center offers knitting, woodworking, leatherworking, and calligraphy, depending on who is available and interested in teaching. Woodworking classes are particularly popular and often use wood that would otherwise become waste. Sometimes the center even provides woodworking and carpentry to local city festivals. Along with the classes offered by community members, staff of the center offer education on the sharing economy both onsite and at local schools.

Community space sharing

The center also offers spaces that can be used by other community groups for workshops and events — sometimes for free. Community members are also encouraged to share their spaces with others — even space they might not even think to use, like rooftops. 

In densely urban environments, a roof might be the only open space left on a given street. Rather than being left empty, it could be used as a gathering space, a garden, or even for art shows and other cultural events that offer a diverse range of experiences for residents. “This problem causes a limit on various experiments, parties, art gallery viewings and other cultural spaces. We share rooftop space and try to resolve that lack of diversity,” said Shin. The Sharing Center and their community partners also coordinate a rooftop festival in Seoul, which encourages citizens to see the possibilities of unused space through activities — like concerts, yoga, book clubs and parties — all held on the roofs of Seoul’s community buildings such as libraries, museums and business incubators. 

A cure for urban isolation

Rooftops offer a much-needed space for connection to combat the isolation that is common in large cities. Urban areas have a serious issue with loneliness and isolation, and Korea is no exception. Twenty-nine percent of Korean households were single-person dwellings in 2017, and a survey of 1,000 Korean adults found that 46 percent of those that lived alone reported feeling lonely “always” or “frequently.” Utilizing public space effectively is one way to curb the loneliness epidemic, so it’s high on the Sharing Center’s priority list. 

In spite of funding challenges (like many nonprofit and blended enterprises, the center struggles to find the money to sustain their work), the center continues to expand its reach. The center’s busy calendar for 2020 includes participating in the Global Week of Sharing in June, and coordination with partners around the world, including Amsterdam, Taiwan and Rotterdam.

But ultimately, Shin believes the center’s biggest accomplishment is their work in their own neighborhood. “It is very meaningful that it is located as a convenient facility for citizens making efforts for self-reliance,” said Shin. Through community events at the center, the residents of Seoul can reconnect with one another and learn new skills for self-reliance along the way.

##

This post is part of our Winter 2019 editorial series on waste reduction. Get our free ebook on this series: “Beyond Waste: Community Solutions to Managing Our Resources.” Shareable is a partner of this project with Greenpeace. 

Take a look at the other articles in the series:

• Celebrate the radical power of DIY during MAKE SMTHNG Week
• Communities worldwide prepare to host MAKE SMTHNG Week events
• Fashion Detox Challenge invites people to pause, reflect and change
• How the MyMizu app is creating community and fostering sustainability in Japan
• Bring sustainability to the party with reusable party packs
• Right to Repair movement invites us to review the way we produce and consume electronics
• From Oakland to Utrecht, sustainability-focused maker villages unite artisans for creative exchange
• Community cupboards feed neighborhoods despite legal hurdles

The post Using ancient values to solve modern problems at the Eunpyeong Sharing Center appeared first on Shareable.

Housed on the site of a former oxygen plant in West Oakland, California, O2 Artisans Aggregate bills itself as an eco-industrial park that is “home to a network of artisans working collectively to develop and promote environmentally progressive projects,” according to its website. Paul Discoe of Joinery Structures founded the community, which houses a variety of shops and studios, including a sawmill, a community composting hub, a sake brewery, and a “snackeria” focusing on the indigenous foods (including insects) of the pre-Columbian era. The public can visit the studios (email them for details), and 02AA hosts an annual Open Studios & Craft Fair. According to blacksmith Jay Morgan, the collective would like to hold regular Open Houses in the future. The intimate connections forged between artisans are at the heart of the community, however. “There [are] people that are just super talented at what they do and we’re all able to kind of be in the same yard and kind of help each other out,” says blacksmith Jay Morgan.

Independent ceramicist Stephanie Intelisano agrees. She joined O2AA when she needed space to work on a commission and felt ready to manage her own shop.  “Joining this collective has been a transformative experience for me and my work,” she says. “At first I was hesitant to be the only ceramicist in a studio setting but have found nothing [but] support from the community here. I also love being around craftspeople, artists, and fabricators that work in different mediums than me at such a high skill level.”

The first time Jay Morgan forged iron, he found it exhilarating and immediately wanted to do it again. So he loaded up an RV and left Connecticut — and a career in graphic design — to forge a new life in Oakland. He now makes knives in a studio at 02AA, which he calls “the yard.” Says Morgan, “The yard allowed me to essentially move to the most expensive real estate market in the country and practically start my career over and it’s kind of given me a place to re-establish myself and it’s been amazing.”

Besides supporting its artisans, O2AA is dedicated to sustainable initiatives. A few years ago, Paul Discoe asked Michael Veneziano, an arborist with more than 35 years of experience, to take over the on-site mill, and Veneziano also took an ownership stake in 02AA. Since then Veneziano has pioneered several sustainability initiatives through his company Ponderosa Millworks, which takes urban trees that have been cut down and turns them into beautiful slabs. “One part of it is diverting those trees from the waste stream,” and another aspect of his initiative involves the reuse of sawdust, which he gives away “to local gardeners and landscapers and to Pollinate, which is a business in Oakland that teaches people how to keep bees and keep chickens… So there really is a lot of connection,” according to Veneziano. The relationships among the artisans are palpable. When interviewed separately, Veneziano mentioned Morgan, and Morgan mentioned Veneziano, who sometimes supplies him with wood for knife handles.

Oakland is not the only city where innovative maker villages can be found. Along a once-neglected strip of land next to a railroad track in Utrecht, Netherlands, a unique tiny house community has emerged to fill a creative void. Co-founded by Biana Ernst, Hof van Certesius is a set of interconnected tiny houses that serve as studios for local artisans, entrepreneurs, and educators. In an interview for EU Green Week 2018, Ernst explained the concept. There are woodworkers, metalworkers, and a furniture designer. A bakery makes bread using the leftover malt from a nearby brewery, while a vegetable garden hosts educational workshops for local children. A free co-working space provides an inviting atmosphere for the public to come and work. 

Sustainability is at the core of the Hof van Certesius. The houses are made of 90 percent recycled materials, and many of the materials are leased so that after 20 years, they can be reused. Principles of great design were applied within a sustainable context. The design of the urban village fosters an open, collaborative community, as each interconnected tiny house features large glass windows looking out on an inner courtyard. During the next 20 years, Hof van Cartesius will expand, building three more villages but keeping its membership capped at 100 people so they can maintain a sense of intimacy.

If Hof van Certesius is intimate, DARWIN is expansive. When the former Army barracks in Bordeaux, France shuttered in 2005 and fell into disrepair, founders Philippe Barre and Jean-Marc Gancille took the 10,000 square meter space and converted it into DARWIN, which includes a coworking space, offices, a bar, artisanal shops, and a grocery store selling more than 10,000 organic products. Taking its name from Charles Darwin, the space, which opened in 2008, is built around the idea of adaptation and evolution. By day, “Les Chantiers de la Garonne” or “The Garonne Shipyards” are the domain of a local nautical club. But by night, the space — a former shipyard that manufactured wooden boats — transforms into a bar, serving Darwin-branded beer. Barre and Gancille have faced criticism for having ties to corporations that are not known to be eco-friendly and they lack the permits for certain areas, including the skate park. Despite the controversy, grassroots sustainability initiatives are thriving in the space. L’Étincelle is a bike repair shop that also sells hand-built bikes for €150-400 ($165-440 USD). Guided by a vow to never let a bike go into the garbage, the shops reuses bike parts so virtually nothing goes to waste.  

Maker villages are having an impact in cities across the globe, empowering local artists through resource sharing and the cultivation of a creative community bound by shared values. When speaking of her maker village 02AA, the ceramicist Intellisano said, “It pushes me to work harder and opens the door for collaboration in ways I didn’t consider previously.”

##

This post is part of our Winter 2019 editorial series on waste reduction. Get our free ebook on this series: “Beyond Waste: Community Solutions to Managing Our Resources.” Shareable is a partner of this project with Greenpeace. 

Take a look at the other articles in the series:

• • Celebrate the radical power of DIY during MAKE SMTHNG Week
  • Communities worldwide prepare to host MAKE SMTHNG Week events
  • Fashion Detox Challenge invites people to pause, reflect and change
  • How the MyMizu app is creating community and fostering sustainability in Japan
  • Bring sustainability to the party with reusable party packs
  • Right to Repair movement invites us to review the way we produce and consume electronics
  • Using ancient values to solve modern problems at the Eunpyeong Sharing Center
  • Community cupboards feed neighborhoods despite legal hurdles

The post From Oakland to Utrecht, sustainability-focused maker villages unite artisans for creative exchange appeared first on Shareable.

If so, you’ve experienced some of the troubles modernity has offered: A “buy, use, and throwaway” model of producing and consuming goods — especially electronics. This framework is exemplified by the fact that, on average, we replace our smartphones every 25 months, and the amount of household appliances that died within five years of their purchase has considerably increased over time.

On top of that, the “repair monopoly” by some manufacturers has created major limitations on the possibility of repairing devices. They’re either too expensive, require very specific tools to do the job, or are so complex that fixing it is not realistic.

Meanwhile, grassroots initiatives such as repair cafés and restart parties have become very popular, using a “do it together” model, in which volunteer menders support the owners of broken items.

Products that are not built to last or be repaired when they break are being challenged by the global Right to Repair movement. Right to Repair campaigns seek to require that manufacturers provide repair resources and diagnostic tools to both professionals as well as DIY repairers (repair café volunteers and individuals), so that repair is accessible to as many people as possible.

Chloé Mikolajczak, coordinator of the recently launched Right to Repair European campaign says, “This campaign aims to maintain pressure on European policy makers to adopt ambitious legislative measures supporting and encouraging repair.”

This fast-growing movement pushes for a radical shift away from one where manufacturers deliberately design products that are hard to disassemble, limit access to spare parts, price the parts in a way that discourages repair, do not make repair manuals easily available, and limit the length of software support and updates. All of these actions lead to products becoming obsolete sooner than they should. Changing these practices will dramatically reduce the production of unnecessary waste and altering our relationship with electronic devices.

While this cause is getting growing support from governments, concerns around potential breaches by laypeople without suitable knowledge or certifications — along with the potential for safety risks involved when opening up and dismantling a device — are also being discussed and taken into consideration in the process.

The Right to Repair campaign demands include, “…ecodesign for all products including smartphones, national registers for independent repairers, and the development of a repairability index to inform consumers,” Mikolajczak adds.

Challenging our increasingly disposable times, the movement calls on governments to act now, pushing for systemic change around repair. Recently, new ground-breaking European laws have been adopted mandating that, starting in 2021, manufacturers of household appliances such as TVs, refrigerators and washing machines, make their products easier to take apart and fix.

With more repairability requirements being put into effect extending the lifetime of many electronic devices and embracing the principles of the Right to Repair movement, consumers and manufacturers are realizing the importance and urgency of such actions, and are increasingly on board with such changes.

Learn more about the U.S. movement and European movement.

##

This post is part of our Winter 2019 editorial series on waste reduction. Get our free ebook on this series: “Beyond Waste: Community Solutions to Managing Our Resources.” Shareable is a partner of this project with Greenpeace. 

Take a look at the other articles in the series:

• Celebrate the radical power of DIY during MAKE SMTHNG Week
• Communities worldwide prepare to host MAKE SMTHNG Week events
• Fashion Detox Challenge invites people to pause, reflect and change
• How the MyMizu app is creating community and fostering sustainability in Japan
• Bring sustainability to the party with reusable party packs
• From Oakland to Utrecht, sustainability-focused maker villages unite artisans for creative exchange
• Using ancient values to solve modern problems at the Eunpyeong Sharing Center
• Community cupboards feed neighborhoods despite legal hurdles

The post Right to Repair movement invites us to review the way we produce and consume electronics appeared first on Shareable.