October is Buy Nothing New Month

Published on 06 October 2023

Put your card (or phone) in your pocket and make a pledge this month to Buy Nothing New this October.

Buy Nothing New month aims to get people to think about their spending habits and encourage them to consider repairing an item, borrowing it, or buying something second hand instead of throwing it out and buying something new.

“Buy Nothing New Month is about getting people to make a decision to send less waste to landfill,” Zoe White, Council’s Resource Recovery Education and Compliance Officer, said.

“Things like bicycles, electrical items and clothes are so cheap that the concept, and art, of repairing things is really being lost,” Ms White said.

“People don’t think twice about throwing something out and buying a new replacement so over the next few weeks we are going to have a red-hot crack at trying to change this trend by running some mending and repair workshops.

Two Bike Repair Workshops are being held at Council’s Re-Market Tip Shop at the Byron Resource Recovery Centre in October:

“Textile waste is a huge problem with Australians disposing of 6,000 kilograms of fashion and textile waste every 10 minutes,” Ms White said.

“By learning how to do simple fixes to our clothes we can help to reduce this,” she said.

There will also be a ‘Sashiko’ workshop at the Re-Market Tip Shop to teach people how to turn holes in old clothes into beautiful Japanese embroidery so they can live another day.

More information about Buy Nothing New Month and how to register for the repair workshops is on Council’s website.

People can also find businesses and organisations that repair broken items via the online Reuse and Repair Trail, an initiative of regional waste education coordinators, North East Waste.

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