October: Buy Nothing New Month
This Monday, a pilot starts for the Dutch version of Buy Nothing New Month (BNNM). Contestants are supposed to buy nothing new for the whole month of October. Food, drinks, medicines and cosmetics are excluded. Instead of purchasing brand-new stuff, people should loan, rent, share, give and swap more or buy second-hand.
The idea was introduced in October 2010 in Australia by Tamara DiMattina to promote awareness on buying behaviour. The idea has spread to the Netherlands, where Monday the entire abstinence of new stuff for contesters will start. The thought behind this action is simple: everyone has (too) many stuff and must first discover what’s already owned, before buying something new. It stimulates the awareness of what we already have.
What’s in it for you? More money to do other fun stuff and maybe also more time. The bigger picture? By buying less unneeded stuff, less resources are used and therefore, we pollute less and don’t exhaust the earth.
On the website of Buy Nothing New, there is an interesting link to a speech of Rachel Botsman, writer of the book ‘What’s Mine is Yours: How Collaborative Consumption is Changing The Way We Live’. She believes that different factors lead to more people inclining to the concept of what she calls ‘collaborative consumption’. This reveals itself by the increasing demand for sharing, renting, using and buying each others’ stuff. According to her, we are ‘waking up from a humongous hangover of emptiness and waste’ and are in the middle of a period of revolution in which we rediscover the collective good. We must commit ourselves to a durable system and learn when enough is enough.
A good and inspiring idea, if you ask me. But also hard. Who doesn’t love new stuff? That rush you feel at the cash register when you receive the shining plastic bag with the brand-new content from the laughing cashier. Maybe it’s time for me to participate too.
For more ideas and inspiration visit http://www.buynothingnew.com.au.
