The good vintage life = eco friendly!

[Helen Troy]

With the growing awareness of climate changes and such lately, I have been looking at my life to try to make it a bit more eco friendly. The worst thing I do is flying, but other than that I'm not to bad. And that is not because I'm av nice person or an activist, it's because of my vintage or old fashioned habits.

-I almost NEVER by new clothes or shoes. I just don't like it. I by used, wonderful things on ebay instead. And even though I have it shipped from USA to Europe, thats still better than going to a department store and buying cheap clothes made by children and shipped from Hong Kong!

I can even by fur. The animal was killed in the 40s and I am not supporting the fur industry by purchasing it.

-I by my food as fresh as possible and cook from scratch. That way i reuse leftovers, and waste less packing than if I had been eating ready made meals.

In time, I plan to get the my furniture, (when I have to replace the cheap, falling apart IKEA things I own) with used furniture.

The best thing about this is that this is not something make myself do to be more eco friendly. It is the way I like it, and just happens to be better for the earth.

Have anyone else thought of this? Is that one of the reasons to go vintage for you, or is it just a coincident? Share your thoughts!

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Here in the U.S.A., the WWII homefront was a paragon of recycling and saving. Our grandparents did an incredibly good job ... and apparently hated every minute of it, since a lot of them went hog wild buying (and dumping) tons of big stuff in '50s.


Oh, and those of us who wear vintage clothing and use vintage appliances, utensils, furniture, bikes and autos are recycling. :eusa_clap


.

 

[KittyT]

I can even by fur. The animal was killed in the 40s and I am not supporting the fur industry by purchasing it.

When you wear used fur, you are still indirectly supporting the fur industry by promoting fur as a fashionable item to wear.

 

[warbird]

Here in the U.S.A., the WWII homefront was a paragon of recycling and saving. Our grandparents did an incredibly good job ... and apparently hated every minute of it, since a lot of them went hog wild buying (and dumping) tons of big stuff in '50s.


Oh, and those of us who wear vintage clothing and use vintage appliances, utensils, furniture, bikes and autos are recycling. :eusa_clap


.

True, but I ask you this. What happens to the furniture they throw out to buy the used vintage furniture.

 

[warbird]

I live pretty close to Al Gore. I take my cues from him. I use as much electricity as possible every month, then offset it by buying me some carbon credits.

 

[LizzieMaine]

True, but I ask you this. What happens to the furniture they throw out to buy the used vintage furniture.

Some of us have never owned anything *but* used furniture.

 

[warbird]

Some of us have never owned anything *but* used furniture.

And for that Lizzie, I applaud you. As a person who has almost all old furniture I find it sturdy, obviously it is it has lasted this long, and nicely designed. Plus I enjoy that there is history in my house.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

True, but I ask you this. What happens to the furniture they throw out to buy the used vintage furniture.

That's a great question. Some of it goes to the Salvation Army, Goodwill, St. Vincent de Paul Society, and garage/yard sales, where others buy the stuff and therefore do their own recycling.


.

 

[RedPop4]

And for that Lizzie, I applaud you. As a person who has almost all old furniture I find it sturdy, obviously it is it has lasted this long, and nicely designed. Plus I enjoy that there is history in my house.

Same here. Two of the items in the bedroom are my step-FIL's mother's things she sold us. Some are my wife's aunt's things she gave us.

 

[warbird]

That's a great question. Some of it goes to the Salvation Army, Goodwill, St. Vincent de Paul Society, and garage/yard sales, where others buy the stuff and therefore do their own recycling.


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:eusa_clap Nicely done Marc. I knew that would be your answer. I simply found it to be a potential irony, hence a morsel of thought for some to consider.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

and some of us get our vintage furniture the old fashioned way....

My dresser and nightstand come from a set that I used all through childhood, which belonged to my uncles when they were young (so circa 40's). The bedframe is a twin, so its in Mom's guest bedroom.

My sewing table was my grandmothers fold out one from probably the 30's.

Most of the decent furniture in my family gets passed around to whichever cousin or relative needs it at the time. Its sort of like a giant familial bank of things to be borrowed or given.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Truth is, most people around the world recycle stuff like clothes, furniture, appliances, bikes and cars. Not to "save the planet," but to save money. The poorer people are, the more ingenious they are at "adaptive reuse." Necessity is the mother of (re)invention.


In terms of human behavior, recycling is (and always has been) the norm rather than the exception. Massive waste is relatively new, the result of a growing affluence that hardly existed before the 20th century.

.

 

[LizzieMaine]

When I was growing up, "dump picking" was an entirely respectable practice -- an essential part of the Maine way of life, even. For every trip you made to throw something away, there's a good chance you'd come back with something else -- and, indeed, one of the great joys of my childhood was to be invited to go along on a dump-picking expedition with my grandfather. He'd hang around smoking his pipe and chewing the fat with the Dump Guy, and I'd run around looking for stuff we could use. Quite a few things I still own today, including my bike and the fully-functional vintage TV set in my office, came out of such excursions.

 

[RedPop4]

He smoked?
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.
And you still admire him?????





</sarcasm>
I'm sorry Lizzie, couldn't help myself lol lol

 

[LizzieMaine]

He smoked?
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.
And you still admire him?????





</sarcasm>
I'm sorry Lizzie, couldn't help myself lol lol

Yes indeedy -- a corn cob pipe full of Half and Half. But it didn't bother me when we went to the dump -- the aroma blended right in! lol

 

[Haversack]

There is at least one vintage household practice which today is not considered particularly eco-friendly and that is the weekly practice of burning one's garbage. Backyard incinerators or their remains can be found behind a lot of houses built before 1960. Some older apartment building had them too. Of course it reduced the load on the landfill... But they still would stink up the neighborhood.

Haversack.

 

[warbird]

Truth is, most people around the world recycle stuff like clothes, furniture, appliances, bikes and cars. Not to "save the planet," but to save money. The poorer people are, the more ingenious they are at "adaptive reuse." Necessity is the mother of (re)invention.


In terms of human behavior, recycling is (and always has been) the norm rather than the exception. Massive waste is a relatively new, the result of a growing affluence that hardly existed before the 20th century.

.

I agree. There is way too much consumption. For years I have bought a lot of my clothes at consignment shops. My wife goes to court all the time dressed in consignment suits and such (yes unfortunately she gets in trouble a lot) and she gets a lot of compliments on being one of the nicest dressed. I am always amazed what can be found at these consignment shops, new stuff, tags still on and most never worn. We go to Belle Meade to to those shops, very ritzy are. Unfortunately for me I have gained weight and can't find stuff as easily for me as I used to could. Also there's not but one shop for men in this area. When we lived in Virginia they were all over the place.

 

[Flivver]

When I was growing up, "dump picking" was an entirely respectable practice -- an essential part of the Maine way of life, even. For every trip you made to throw something away, there's a good chance you'd come back with something else -- and, indeed, one of the great joys of my childhood was to be invited to go along on a dump-picking expedition with my grandfather. He'd hang around smoking his pipe and chewing the fat with the Dump Guy, and I'd run around looking for stuff we could use. Quite a few things I still own today, including my bike and the fully-functional vintage TV set in my office, came out of such excursions.

The high point of my week as a kid was going to the dump with my dad. As he threw stuff away, I picked the dump. It started to become a problem (from my mom's point of view, at least) when I started bringing home more than we threw away!

Here in Central Massachusetts, dumps in the smaller towns have special areas where still useable items can be placed and picked up by the dump patrons. I've picked up perfect CD and DVD players there, one even in its original box. But it's not as much fun as actual dump picking.

Is dump picking strictly a New England thing, or is it done elsewhere?

 

[Marc Chevalier]

At summer camp in Northern California, one of the coolest things we did was take a trip to a dump that had been closed since the '40s. There were pieces of Model Ts lying around -- an engine block, a door -- and a lot of Depression-era bottles with molded designs on them. I picked up one that I swear had an embossed image of Herbert Hoover's head, but then some idiot kid broke it.

.

 

[Helen Troy]

When you wear used fur, you are still indirectly supporting the fur industry by promoting fur as a fashionable item to wear.

I see it more as a economical use of resources: When the animal has been killed decades ago anyway, the least we can do is to make sure that we use it's warming clothing potential to the full by reusing it.

But then, I'm not generally against the use of furs as clothing. I''m against the cruel way animals are treated in todays fur industry.