Viva la Sostenibilidad!

Here's a cheer you don't hear every day, but we recently received it, with an emphatic fist pump, too: "Sustainable living!" 

Let me clarify that I did not just translate this post's title, although the words are similar. "Viva la sostenibilidad" is Spanish for "Long live sustainability," which is actually redundant when you think about it. Anyway.

I'm going to mention crab apples. Again. It's that time of year. We were picking that second harvest, when a passerby shouted from his truck. (At least one passerby stops to talk to us every time; the trees are along a busy road.)

Guy: "What kind of apples are those?"

Me: "Just crab apples!"

Guy: "Are they sweet?"

Me: "Yes, they kind of are!"

Guy, giving two thumbs up: "I never noticed them here before!"

Me, spreading my arms like, well, here they are.

Guy: "What do you do with them?"

 Me: "Make cider!"

 Guy, giving a viva-style fist pump: "Sustainable living!"

Me, a thumbs up back.

You can argue that we didn't save these crab apples from going to waste, because they weren't somebody's leftover food, and they weren't headed for the landfill, but I will argue back that they're an example of the world's imbalanced abundance, an example of eating locally and seasonally, and an example of our making use of existing resources so that even something that's purely just for fun (cider!) has minimal negative impact on the environment and community.

And then, a recent Goodwill email was titled "How Thrifting Helps Support a Low Waste Lifestyle." It linked to this guest blog post by Sustainable Kay. I've never heard of her (and I disagree with her non-hyphenation of "low-waste"), but I like what she has to say, including:

A huge environmental benefit of thrifting is that it does not require new materials. When you purchase things that already exist, new resources are not used to create that item. This is especially big when it comes to items that cannot be properly recycled, such as certain types of plastic.

The blog post is, essentially, an ad for Goodwill, but it still makes a valid point. Before we try to recycle, we should first reduce and reuse, and the easiest way to do both at once is not to buy new. You can avoid brand new purchases by acquiring second-hand goods (Hello, garage sales and hand-me-downs!) or borrowing, whether it's a book from the library, a tool from a neighbor, or rental equipment.  

The Kindness Factor. Activist Rob Greenfield suggests you ask yourself, "Why buy when you can borrow? Why hold on to goods you don’t need when you can lend them to others?" Our own major example of this is being a one-car household. Thanks to bikes and trains and working from home, owning only one car works well for us most of the time. On the few occasions when we need a second vehicle or just one with larger capacity, we don't go buy a second car. We have the blessing of relying on the kindness of others, who give us a ride or lend us their car for a few hours. It's only fair that we should extend the same kindness and generosity with whatever resource we have. Books, tools, specialty kitchen gadgets, camping gear -- we're not using these things all day, every day, so someone else could use them when we're not (and you trust, of course, that they'll take good care of and return the items). You can also lend your time and energy.

The Money Factor. Obviously, you can spend less. Borrowing and curbside treasure-hunting cost you nothing, with the loose exception being a trade of goods or favors (say, neighbors exchanging vacation lawn care coverage), while renting and thrift-shopping certainly cost less than buying new. But, you can also make money in this second-hand system. Len has become our household's Director of Acquisitions and Sales. He finds things people are just throwing out, some of which don't require any fixing up, and we either keep it for ourselves (see patio furnishings, our game room, and winter goods), or Len sells it. While there are still plenty of yard sales around, online marketplaces like OfferUp and Facebook Marketplace have been great for buying and selling one item at a time. There's no setup, no signs to make, no sitting around in your driveway for hours. You'll encounter the occasional weirdo or no-show, but overall these have been successful avenues for us. (This outside post fairly reviews the sites.) Len lists an occasional freebie but mostly sells household items and makes $5 here, $20 there, even $100 on something big. He has also hunted down items we wanted for free or cheap: paver stones to redo our patio, a wine fridge for cold-crashing our bottles of apple cider, and so on.

I guess all this is to say that sustainable living doesn't mean eschewing all material goods but rather maximizing the usefulness of existing material goods instead of producing and buying unnecessary new goods. Just because you're done with something doesn't mean it's reached the end of its life. Someone else can use it. And, someone else out there is done with something you can now use.