I just watched an amazing short on “stuff”. Things you buy to wear or
use in your house. On the website storyofstuff.org, a cute animated
picture educates you on some pretty scary statistics. The short looks at the
story of stuff, from extraction of raw materials from the earth to the end
disposal of these materials, and looks at a system in crisis. For example, in
the US, after 6 months only 1% of the good purchased in that time are still in
use. This means that 99% of purchased goods make their way to the landfill
every 6 months. This got me thinking about the story of “Whistler’s stuff”, and
where it ends up!
Whistler is perceived as a place with wealth. The outside world thinks
of Whistler as a playground for the rich, a ski resort with big fancy houses
and lots of material goods. The big
question facing Whistler is what to do with things when they are no longer
desired by the owner? The other side of the coin is most of us that live and work here don't have a lot of wealth, but we also need and have stuff.
Up until about 15 years ago, everything went to the landfill. It was
located then where the town centre now exists. Locals who lived here tell me
the dump was the best picking in town, as EVERYTHING went into it. Then about 13
years ago, the RMOW, Whistler Community Services and some local service groups
like Rotary and the Lions got together to help build a thrift store that could
take donations of used goods.
Right now the new management team at the WCSS Re-Use-It Centre in
Function Junction are starting to drop that ‘deer-in-the-headlights’ look that
most employees get in May. There is a lot of STUFF at the store! It is the time
of year that most of our seasonal workers leave and locals spring clean their
closets. If you ever want to see what happens to things people are getting rid
of, the receiving area of the store is an interesting place to observe for an
hour or so. It is a testament to our team’s constitution that they don’t just
throw in the towel and walk away from the job; or rather crawl out from under
hundreds of black garbage bags to leave. At the store every single bag
is opened, any of that 'Whistler stuff' that is clean enough, and still useable is
sorted, priced and put out onto the shelves. Most of us have never physically
worked as hard as many of the staff at that store. And the items coming from
those bags are amazing!
It turns out that Whistler has good STUFF.
But the story would come to an unhappy ending there if the stuff just
sat on shelves. There always has been a strong contingent in Whistler that
understand that they can bypass the material economy, help the environment and
save themselves a lot of money by shopping second hand. In Whistler, is has
almost become chic to tell your friend that the new designer shirt you are
wearing was found at the Re-Use-It Centre.
Last year there were 49,000
purchases made at the store. And over 300 metric tonnes of good were saved from
the landfill. That shows that Whistler’s stuff can be used again. If you have
goods that you no longer want, and they are still in clean, unbroken and useable
condition, we want your Stuff! And if you have a friend that doesn’t know where
to take their old stuff, tell them about the Re-Use-It and Re-Build-It
Centres.www.mywcss.org
Finally, if you want to get rid of BIGGER stuff like furniture or
appliances that still work, arrange for a pick up at the Re-Build-It Centre at
604-932-1125 or rebuildit@mywcss.org . Watch for the first ever
Community Clean & Care Day Saturday, June 16th, where we will be
picking up donations of used furniture and household goods in Bayshores. For
more information contact the Re-Build-It Centre.
