That’s Buy Nothing New Month for 2020.
But is it?
We live this.
Have for 20 years.
You can too.
Just buy nothing new tomorrow.
And the next day.
And the next.
Get your mates on too.
Hit us up with any questions and suggestions.
We’re all ears.
P.S. It’s Buy Nothing New Month.
We never said which month.
Anyone can do this anytime.
So when your lame mate says ‘oh I was gonna do that, but it had already started’ let ’em know they can do it anytime.
The Buy Nothing New Month Crew
We’re ever grateful for the ongoing media support for Buy Nothing New Month.
Thanks Money Mag for helping us spread the word about the ‘why’ and ‘how to’ of Buy Nothing New Month in a Covid world.
Check out how to get ‘stuff’, save money, stimulate the economy and repair our earth without the waste.
moneymag.com.au/buy-nothing-new-pandemic
And thanks to ABC News Breakie for giving us a reason to wash our hair for the first time in about 6 months:
youtube.com/watch?v=FAdKBG8AJRw&t=7s
Thanks Melissa Singer, Fashion Editor of Sydney Morning Herald for spreading the word on how we can update our spring wardrobes without buying anything new.
As we near the end of Buy Nothing New Month we’d love to hear from you if you have any feedback.
We’d love to hear your experience, what you found easy, what you found tricky.
What you’d like to hear more about from us.
And remember. It’s Buy Nothing New Month. We never said which month!
Peeps can do this anytime.
Many choose to do it in December and have a wrapper free/stress free Buy Nothing New Christmas.
This can be a bigger challenge to help people move beyond ‘presents’ to ‘presence’ at Christmas. But a waste-free world is a gift worth aiming for.
The Buy Nothing New Month Crew
A circular economy designs out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use (circular) and regenerating natural systems.
In the circular economy we are working towards, reuse and regeneration are key.
In our current system of turning natural wealth into cash, where 91% of plastic waste produced never gets recycled, waste is almost unavoidable…
We’re excited about the circular economy and Doughnut Economics (Kate Raworth of Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute) and the better future they’re mapping out.
Our current economies need to grow, whether or not they make us thrive.
Doughnut economics shows how countries, cities, people and out planet can thrive without the endless need for growth.
Amsterdam is engaging Doughnut Economics to carve their path out of the Covid pandemic. bit.ly/2S0smf3
Every time we refuse stuff we don’t need, be it clothes, stuff we can buy second hand, packaging etc we are part of re-building a better world.
Thanks for laying good tracks.
The Buy Nothing New Month Crew
To make the clothes we love last longer, wash them less.
Levi’s CEO famously instructed us all back in 2014 not to wash our jean AT ALL.
Choose better quality fabrics.
Wool readily absorbs moisture (up to 35% its own weight) this keeps us out of the sweaty-betty range and discourages bacterial growth.
Wool fibre captures odours within the fibre, where bacteria (which causes the smell) cant thrive.
Keeping our stuff fresher, longer, means less washing thus lasting longer.
We air dry our clothes with one of those hangy from the ceiling things in winter and on a outside line in summer. This slashes our energy bill and is waaay more gentle on our clothes.
There are also washing machines that are more gentle on your clothes.
Treat it better, it lasts longer.
The Buy Nothing New Month Crew
Ordering second hand stuff online from the couch can save you time and money, promote the circular economy and help repair our planet. But it can come wrapped in plastic.
We put a loving request to all online vendors “please avoid or use as little wrapping as possible.”
This reduces our part in the plastic problem.
The Buy Nothing New Month Crew
If you haven’t gotten into FBMP (Facebook Market Place) WHOOOAH.
Get ready for a new, reasonably healthy addiction.
To escape Covid dark times, we would disappear into FBMP looking for free plants, cheap plants anything within 5kms. (For those outside of Melb or Victoria, for what seems like 40 years, we’ve been confined to moving within 5kms of home.)
But FBMP is like the best department store of plants, garden furniture, clothes, household stuff.
With the charity stores being closed to Covid, FBMP has fed our need for a fix.
The massive online market for second hand stuff gives every reason to put second hand first.
eBay is our favourite for top quality clothing. But there’s Depop, vestiairecollective The Real Real.
Here’s a pretty good run down.
brittslist.com.au/article/online-stores-for-second-hand-clothing
The Buy Nothing New Month Crew
A great way to buy nothing new and make loved clothes last, is with a sewing machine.
Borrowed or bought second hand, a sewing machine breathes new life into old clothes.
Cut a dress in half to make a top and a skirt.
Patch your jeans so they go further.
Good quality clothes at the op shop can be easily taken in or out.
Little imperfections can be patched over into eye catching features.
Another benefit, is you can make or mend your clothes to fit you not the standard from the rack.
This can completely change the way we feel about our bodies. When our clothes fit us. Not some number on a tag.
It also means after weight gain or weight loss you can modify your wardrobe rather than need to get more clothes to fit the bigger or smaller you.
Knowing your way around a sewing machine will save you so much time and money in recreating lit new looks from your existing wardrobe.
No interest in sewing? Get friendly with your local tailor or seamstress. It’s an awesome way to support your local community.
The Buy Nothing New Month Crew
Dear Tribe, can we blame Covid for us sending the wrong email just now?
Oh how nice to go back to 2016…like a time machine…what would we do differently?
For the Victorians, WELL DONE! We’re at 2 new Covid cases.
Happy Friday.
And now for the right email…
With Italy’s Covid shutdown providing time to rethink and reset, fashion icon Giorgio Armani Says Fashion Needs To “Do Less And Do It Better” and stop “churning out far too much ill-conceived product that nobody needs.”
“No more winter overcoats being offered in July, or linen dresses in January. Let’s get back in step with nature.”
We really love the bit about “…let’s get back in step with nature…”
Nice one Giorgio.
The Buy Nothing New Month Crew
We try to keep it light.
Sometimes we’re even very, very funny.
Othertimes, there is no sugar coating the s*itstorm of inequality in the cheap fast-fashion industry.
Fast fashion inst just the second biggest polluter in the world, it also uses the cheap and slave-labour of the poor, to make the rich richer.
At the start of Covid, some of the world’s biggest fast fashion brands were refusing to honor their financial obligations to Bangladeshi factories for orders that were completed, but couldn’t ship due to the virus.
Some of the richest in the world were forcing the poorest in the world to wear what should have been their financial burden. Unfair much?
Enter the power of the hashtag.
Advocacy nonprofit group Remake created #PayUp campaign exposing the brands cancelling and or not paying for their orders, leaving a pile of crap clothes and financial devastation for the Bangladeshi workers who had already fulfilled their side of the deal.
#payup saw billions owed being rightly paid to the Bangladeshi workers.
Remake’s ongoing mission is to see the fashion industry commit to liveable wages and social protections for garment makers so that mostly (young) women who make our clothes get paid fairly for their valuable work.
How we can create a fair world:
1: Understanding people that make cheap fast fashion are usually working in unsafe conditions and getting ripped off so we can have ten cheap t-shirts in all different colours.
2: Do a little research and buy from companies with ethical supply chains.
3: Buy second hand first at charities everywhere possible. This helps charities help those who need support.
4: Always take the option to spend cash where it helps, not harms and think about the impact of our spending.
The Buy Nothing New Month Crew
We love seeing Buy Nothing New Month stories in the media.
Check out this super fabulous professional photographer, surfer and mum of three talking about the joy of her Buy Nothing New Month LIFE!
Who are The New Joneses?
You are.
The New Joneses are those people everywhere walking towards the better life of living it up, not keeping up. Doing more with less. Simplifying. Downsizing their debts and upsizing their life experiences.
For The New Joneses, Buy Nothing New Month is a way of life.
Check em out here:
The Buy Nothing New Month Crew
