How Not to Wishcycle
We all want to make good consumer choices. We all want to help our planet and environment and leave it better for the next generation. How can we do that? Well, donating your gently used items to organizations that can reuse or re-home them is one way!
You pack up your goods: that raggedy t-shirt that you got at the concert in 1991 (but it was such a fun time!), that basket that your grandma gave you, (sure, the handle is broken, but what a cute pattern!), that old printer that doesn’t work, (there’s gotta be someone wants to tinker with it!). You load up all the boxes, you drive to the thrift store, you say hello to the attendant and you drop off your stuff. Done! Congratulations! You did good! You could have just thrown it away, but you didn’t, you donated it!
Enter wishcycling!
What is wishcycling you ask? As defined by a November 2021 article from the BBC, it is aspirational recycling. A well intentioned, but often unfounded belief, that something is recyclable, even though it’s not. In short, it’s the act of donating materials to organizations that can’t use them. There are many ways that we all contribute to wishcycling, here are just a few examples:
Donating stained clothing to a thrift store
Not checking the “what we accept” list of an organization and including things that they don’t accept
Donating broken or damaged materials
Taking expired canned goods to a food pantry
Including pizza boxes in your recycling
What we as individuals choose to consume has an impact. Whether it’s environmental, social, or economic, our choices influence our relationship with stuff. Nothing is free.
That brings us to our organization, Austin Creative Reuse. We accept gently used creative materials, bring the value back to them, and make them available to the public at affordable prices. We have a narrow list of items that we accept because we try and reduce overlap between organizations. We want to concentrate our resources on items that other organizations don’t bother with. For example, testing markers, sorting buttons, disassembling trophies or sorting office supplies.
When we have to use those same resources to divert materials that are donated to us intentionally or unintentionally, it increases our labor costs. This directly impacts the amount we have to charge to cover our expenses, which means a higher price for you, the consumer.
So, as we enter into 2022, let’s all make a commitment to the planet! Let’s make a commitment to be a responsible consumer and to divert materials where they can be best utilized! Here are a few suggestions to help you out:
Join your local buy nothing project
Get to know your zero waste block leader
Know where to go for research! Try the city of Austin’s “what do I do with” list or The Austin Common’s Reuse Directory
Share your findings or stories on social media with us by using the hashtag #acrwishcycling