FOR WE ARE LIVING IN A MATERIAL WORLD

Today's post is all about recycling your duds. The fact of the matter is, production of clothes and just STUFF in general takes up a lot of energy. Living in such a fast-paced consumer society as we are, we're using up a hell of a lot of stuff and a lot of energy. You may be used to thinking of coal and oil just as that black stuff that goes to factories and the stuff used to power your go-go mobile, but let's switch to the mentality of remembering that ALL of our stuff - requires energy for its production (energy coming from coal & oil - get it?) and ALL contributes to carbon output and landfill.

With the speil by the spool out of the way, let's look at the fast growing trend of clothing exchange events. I attended one but a month ago called Rethreads. How does it work? You turn up with your stuff and are given a wristband indicating how much stuff you can leave with. Some events give you buttons instead, which you use as currency to "buy" other people's stuff!

Well, thanks to my friend Greg over at The Three Hour Plot (if you need to know anything about starting a vegie garden, Greg's your man) for letting me know about the upcoming event in Sydney, The Big Aussie Swap Party. This will take place on Tuesday the 10th of November at Martin Place. You can bring clothes, CD's books and assorted bric-a-brac to swap.


The Clothing Exchange is another great one - they frequently host events across Australia and are suited to your more picky lass - they have tighter standards on the stuff you can and cannot swap and charge an entry fee. But considering you can potentially free your wardrobe of things that are just taking up space and come home with an armful of new stuff, it's well worth it!

Environmental Benefits of Clothing Exchanges

Recycling takes items you have finished with and puts them back into circulation.

By passing your clothes, accessories or equipment on to others, you are diverting materials from landfill thus conserving resources and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In landfill they produce methane, a greenhouse gas with the global warming capacity 20 times stronger than CO2

Reusing a product, rather than buying a new one, reduces the demands for water, energy and raw materials.

Swapping 1 suitcase (20kg) of clothes saves enough energy to run a TV non-stop for 1.7 years.

Swapping 1 box of books (25 kg) saves enough water to fill 150 spa baths.


Courtesy of Rethreads - Statistics from Planet Ark