The second concept, “reuse,” is worth examining, and that’s what the Review will do in a three-part series beginning today on the art of repurposing.
The Great Recession may be the igniting force behind this change in mindset, or the green revolution may be the impetus. Regardless, Americans have a lot of stuff.
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From thrifty crafting, like turning a pair of worn out blue jeans into a handbag, to revamping kitchen cabinets during a construction project, the use-it-again mentality is becoming engrained in the public consciousness. Google search keywords like “repurposing,” “sustainability,” “consumption” and “green” climbed rapidly during the second half of 2008, likely corresponding to a period when it became clear that consumption rates couldn’t persist.
Even local waste management agencies have noticed a drop in business. Ox Mountain Sanitary Landfill, which serves San Mateo County, has seen about 10 percent less trash brought in over the last two years, according to the landfill’s staff accountant Herman Guardado. The dump currently gets between 35,000 to 60,000 pounds per month, charging $23 per yard or $55 per ton. Guardado said Ox Mountain usually sees large items like furniture and yard and garage remnants, and the company blames the decrease in business on the downtrodden economy. He also mentions the trend toward sustainability.
“A lot of companies are doing more recycling, which reduces the garbage they bring here,” Guardado said.
Even advertisers are changing how they target this new kind of “mindful consumer.”
“We must find ways to speak to consumers’ growing distaste for excess and waste and their reawakened hunger for such nearly forgotten values as communalism, thrift, responsibility and self-sufficiency,” wrote Adweek, an advertising trade publication.
As wastefulness becomes taboo and conservation comes into vogue, the Review will investigate instances on the Coastside where repurposing exemplifies this mindset and in some cases becomes occasion for the community to come together.
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