The Summer of Reuse, Repair, and Reconnection

The Summer of Reuse, Repair, and Reconnection

This summer is blooming with community-centered efforts to reuse, repair, and take care of our belongings

Deborah Martin (Class 81) Repair PDX event at Life Change Church

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Let’s face it: materials matter. From the delicious pasta shared with a friend, to the pendant given as a gift, materials contribute much toward our health and well-being. Housing, food, art, and medicine are sustaining parts of the human experience.

Unfortunately, the rate at which we produce, consume, use and discard materials has serious global environmental and social consequences. The United States’ relentless fixation on low price products has created a marketplace that is full of cheap, disposable products.

Our relationship with our material possessions is, all too often, turned on its head. Instead of seeking material possessions that meet our personal needs, we are increasingly becoming defined by our things. Popular culture (driven by massive advertising campaigns) has manufactured portraits of who we should be. Teens are especially vulnerable to relying on their things to feel accepted, attractive, and good about themselves.

Meanwhile, an increasing number of people in our community do not have access to the materials that provide a basic quality of life -housing, food, or medicine.

The drive to purchase more stuff leaves Americans on what is often referred to as a work-to-spend treadmill. Many of us are working harder and working longer hours so we can consume more.

We can do things differently. We can decide for ourselves what it is we need (or even want) rather than waiting for someone else to tell us. We can determine for ourselves what is enough stuff based on our internal values rather than someone else’s profit margin. And we can decide as a community to make it easier -and more fun- for everyone to get what we need in a sustainable way.

Lauren Norris (Class 31) attending Green Lents Tool Library sharpening workshop

We might decide to fill some needs with things, but research shows that we are most satisfied by making connections in our community and family, and by focusing on our health and that of our families.

Our region is blooming this summer with new efforts that connect us with others in our community through reuse, sharing, borrowing and fixing our stuff.

These budding efforts have the potential of changing our relationship with our stuff and our neighbors. They can help us recognize that materials are vibrant parts of our experience on this planet. The discount culture has cheapened their value. But turning against materialism is not necessarily the answer as it denies the physical world that is our reality. Anti-materialism also neglects to acknowledge that there are people in our community who need to consume more to meet their basic needs.

What if we turned around instead and learned again to truly love our possessions? If we cared deeply about our things again, we might want to find out where they came from and what they are made of. We would ask who made them. We would take care of them and share them with others. We would fix them when they got damaged. And we would find a good place for their next life cycle — be it reuse, repurposing or recycling. Perhaps we would even find ways to ensure that everyone in our community has enough.

Ways to connect with Repair and Reuse this Summer and Beyond

Repair: There are so many ways to get stuff fixed this season!

Swap: Gatherings where people get what they need communally

Team of Master Recyclers from Class 78 at Beaverton Library Swap

 

Let’s see how deep these roots will grow long after summer 2022!

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