RUDE on Recycling and Rhetoric

“The values we live by are worth more when we pass them on.”  Author of Foundations of a Better Life

Today RUDE Girl finally realised that what RUDE does is definitely frugal.  We re-use and re-purpose.  We make do and mend.  We are NOT modern-day upcyclers.  We were the children of menders and repairers.  There was no excess of stuff to be frivolous with, in order to satisfy creative desire.

This article on upcycling is definitely NOT what we do, and we do not aspire to do our recycling in this manner.  We hope if you are conflicted about what it is you do, in relation to the type of re-cycling you undertake, then this article will clarify it for you.

For this week’s frugal Friday blog post, we just want to share a few scrapbook moments.  It’s a little glimpse into what we have been doing.  It’s very cold in Melbourne, Australia so RUDE being homebodies tend to hibernate at home and potter around.

Yesterday we did venture out to visit RUDE boy’s father in hospital.  He’s 86 years of age and undergoing surgery.  On the way home we stopped in a rest area behind some shops, to have our BYO refreshments, and RUDE boy just could not help but look through a pile of rubbish [photo below].

And yes, he found a few bits and pieces that he salvaged for possible future projects.  You can see the blue vacuum cleaner in the foreground.  He cut the cord off and took the clips and base.  He found some handles that he unscrewed from a security screen door.

RUDE Boy loves a good scavenge through a pile of rubbish.

Struggling ratepayers dealing with rate increases above CPI, foot hefty cost for three council officials to attend a conference in Mexico.

Many of you will know that RUDE is an avid activist on many issues related to recycling but also on global and local issues that we feel passionate about.  We advocate by making commentary and/or opinion on many issues, and we post widely.  This weather keeps us indoors, and what better way to be ageing activists than to have our say from the comfort of our armchairs.

This week just passed,  this article [above] in our local newspaper was featured, and we had to get our frugal heads around it. We initially thought it was a joke not a junket.

RUDE lives a frugal lifestyle to help ensure we can pay our ever-increasing costs of living, including municipality rates.  Cost of living in Melbourne, Australia is one of the highest in the world.  We get disgusted by some of the wasteful ways of our local council. This is evidenced by, in our view, an ignorant and self entitled organisation sending not one, but three officials to Mexico to spin and spruik at the 2nd Global Network of Learning Cities Conference. 

Anyways, moving on from unfairness and an overseas junket, to lack of transparency in relation to donations to charities.  This week we posted about how we have been getting all these donation bags stuffed into our letter box.  Four in a week is telling us something is not quite right in charitable land. 

We suspect private recyclers are paying charities money to use their names on these bags, but that the donations are going anywhere but our local charity shops.  We believe from what we have read, and have been told, that private recyclers are making money on-selling the donations to merchants that ship textiles overseas.

We suspect, many people donating are thinking that their local charity shops are being stocked from their goodwill.  Our understanding is that a vast amount is being shipped to third world countries.  This can have devastating effects on local tailoring and textile manufacturing industries in these countries.

Four plastic bags in a week shoved into RUDE’S letterbox. A bag for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

To end on a lighter and more positive note, I thought I would share a photo of stuff we bought before our landfill scavenger days. The old wardrobe and trunk came from charity shops.  From memory we paid $25 for the robe and $20 for the trunk.  The mat covering the trunk was purchased for $5 from a garage sale. 

And like I said at the start of this blog we do not upcycle .  We immediately reuse what goes into our home.  The wardrobe is a storage cupboard for RUDE boys electrical bits and bobs, a step-ladder and vacuum cleaner.  The trunk stores winter curtains during summer and summer curtains during winter. Everything in the robe and trunk is from landfill.

RUDE decor is secondhand, and all about immediate reuse and practical function.

Beat The Man and pass on your frugal tips and tricks for a better life.  Stick it to The Man when fairness is forgotten or ignored.  Refuse to vote for The Man who is self-indulgent.