The Compact
Some of you know I joined a group called the Compact last August and were asking about it. I thought I'd take a minute to share with everyone what it is. It was started in San Francisco beginning in Jan 2006 by a group of friends who wanted to change their lifestyles to lessen their ecological footprint. They pledged to buy nothing new for a year, except for food, underwear, and socks, plus a few personal items and medical supplies. They agreed to borrow or barter for the rest of the things they really needed/wanted, or to find things used. The group got publicized and now there is a yahoo group for Compacting with several thousand members around the world.
Many people have been living this way for a long, long time. If you were raised in a different country, or during the Depression or wartime, Compacting is probably already in your blood. Your grandma might call it being thrifty. If you've ever reused aluminum foil for three months or wondered how to make artistic use of your strawberry baskets, you are a Compacter in the making!
Here is a link to a blog about the Compact.
There are lots of links on that page. You can join the Yahoo group for all Compacters and/or the OC yahoo group without actually making a pledge to buy nothing new for a year. In general, people decide to join the compact for one or all of the following 3 reasons:
1. environmental impact: to lessen the amount of resources needed to create new things and to decrease the landfill space required tostore these things in perpetuity
2. Consumerism: to free ourselves of the mind-control that mass marketing has today, to change our relationship with stuff, torecognize the needlessness of many purchases
3. community: to learn how to share and borrow and barter with your neighbors. This can be fun and fullfilling, plus if the end of the world ever comes (pick your poison: terror attack, peak oil, etc.), Compacters will be more accustomed to working/living communally than others in our society.
A fourth benefit is saving money. This isn't usually why people join the compact but it can be a motivator. It certainly motivated us!! You are still allowed to spend money, though. Compacting is about buying nothing new, except for your own exception list. You still can go to the movies, dinner, buy take-out, pay for services, etc. You can also buy used things, but not going overboard. A nice benefit of joing the online group is that there are lots of discussions on how to spend money in the service sector with environmental sustainability (i.e. the environmental impact of using a gym vs. working out in the park, or how to get a gift that is service-related and isn't a "thing," or how to throw a kid's birthday party without buying anything new, etc.)
I should warn you that while there are a ton of useful threads on the main yahoo group site, (i.e. how to Compact in the kitchen--paper towels, baggies, coffee filters, etc.) there are also many threads that turn into debates as people bring their personal agendas to the Compact (i.e. world terror/oil depletion, the economy, anti-TV,etc.) Sometimes those viewpoints are relevent to the Compact and other times they aren't. I have found that our OC yahoo group is more positive and less "jump down your throat" than the folks at the main yahoo group site. But there are also fewer people and so less info. It is a trade-off. Also, of course you can Compact without going online at all! You just decide to buy nothing new except for your own exceptions and go from there.
I have found that clothes and toys are the easiest to avoid buying new (or at all). I am working towards buying fewer disposable items,but that is tough for me. Avoiding the mall, period, also really helps. And Target. Don't go to Target! The less time I spend at a store, the more immune I am to the compulsion to buy buy BUY.
Our exception list:
socks
underwear
food
medicine
items that will make me more environmentally responsible--if Ican't/won't find them used, of course, like a composter, reusable tupperware, ingredients for green cleaning products, or my new DivaCup!
Organic cleaning products and toiletries
disposable diapers
Occasional art supplies for the kids, new shoes for us, sippy cups
Occasional replacement items, like the new camera we bought when we lost our old one
Occasional gifts, although we try to give Compacty gifts (like used things or certificates to restaurants, massages, trains, etc.)
But I now cut out card board cereal boxes and the like for paper for painting with the kids and find other ways of reusing items in new ways. We also have let go of so many things since Compacting. Hey,if we aren't using it, we should pass it on so that someone else doesn't buy it new.
Check out www.freecycle.com for more give away/trade ideas. Let me know if you have any other questions! Our year of Compacting ends in August but I don't think we will ever really go back to the way we lived before. Not that we were shopaholics, but there were several times Scott would come home to see a bag from IKEA or Target and say, "Seriously, where are we going to STORE that thing!?"
Many people have been living this way for a long, long time. If you were raised in a different country, or during the Depression or wartime, Compacting is probably already in your blood. Your grandma might call it being thrifty. If you've ever reused aluminum foil for three months or wondered how to make artistic use of your strawberry baskets, you are a Compacter in the making!
Here is a link to a blog about the Compact.
There are lots of links on that page. You can join the Yahoo group for all Compacters and/or the OC yahoo group without actually making a pledge to buy nothing new for a year. In general, people decide to join the compact for one or all of the following 3 reasons:
1. environmental impact: to lessen the amount of resources needed to create new things and to decrease the landfill space required tostore these things in perpetuity
2. Consumerism: to free ourselves of the mind-control that mass marketing has today, to change our relationship with stuff, torecognize the needlessness of many purchases
3. community: to learn how to share and borrow and barter with your neighbors. This can be fun and fullfilling, plus if the end of the world ever comes (pick your poison: terror attack, peak oil, etc.), Compacters will be more accustomed to working/living communally than others in our society.
A fourth benefit is saving money. This isn't usually why people join the compact but it can be a motivator. It certainly motivated us!! You are still allowed to spend money, though. Compacting is about buying nothing new, except for your own exception list. You still can go to the movies, dinner, buy take-out, pay for services, etc. You can also buy used things, but not going overboard. A nice benefit of joing the online group is that there are lots of discussions on how to spend money in the service sector with environmental sustainability (i.e. the environmental impact of using a gym vs. working out in the park, or how to get a gift that is service-related and isn't a "thing," or how to throw a kid's birthday party without buying anything new, etc.)
I should warn you that while there are a ton of useful threads on the main yahoo group site, (i.e. how to Compact in the kitchen--paper towels, baggies, coffee filters, etc.) there are also many threads that turn into debates as people bring their personal agendas to the Compact (i.e. world terror/oil depletion, the economy, anti-TV,etc.) Sometimes those viewpoints are relevent to the Compact and other times they aren't. I have found that our OC yahoo group is more positive and less "jump down your throat" than the folks at the main yahoo group site. But there are also fewer people and so less info. It is a trade-off. Also, of course you can Compact without going online at all! You just decide to buy nothing new except for your own exceptions and go from there.
I have found that clothes and toys are the easiest to avoid buying new (or at all). I am working towards buying fewer disposable items,but that is tough for me. Avoiding the mall, period, also really helps. And Target. Don't go to Target! The less time I spend at a store, the more immune I am to the compulsion to buy buy BUY.
Our exception list:
socks
underwear
food
medicine
items that will make me more environmentally responsible--if Ican't/won't find them used, of course, like a composter, reusable tupperware, ingredients for green cleaning products, or my new DivaCup!
Organic cleaning products and toiletries
disposable diapers
Occasional art supplies for the kids, new shoes for us, sippy cups
Occasional replacement items, like the new camera we bought when we lost our old one
Occasional gifts, although we try to give Compacty gifts (like used things or certificates to restaurants, massages, trains, etc.)
But I now cut out card board cereal boxes and the like for paper for painting with the kids and find other ways of reusing items in new ways. We also have let go of so many things since Compacting. Hey,if we aren't using it, we should pass it on so that someone else doesn't buy it new.
Check out www.freecycle.com for more give away/trade ideas. Let me know if you have any other questions! Our year of Compacting ends in August but I don't think we will ever really go back to the way we lived before. Not that we were shopaholics, but there were several times Scott would come home to see a bag from IKEA or Target and say, "Seriously, where are we going to STORE that thing!?"
Labels: environment
posted by Sarah at 2:50 PM
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