The good vintage life = eco friendly!

[Helen Troy]

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

That is why I will not change my IKEA couches until it is absolutely nescecary: When they falls apart. Sadly, it will. I regret we got it in the first place.I was planning to buy couches at the Salvation Army, but the sad and absurd thing here is that Salvation Army charges more than IKEA for same or worse furniture. So having to think economicly drove me to not be eco friendly this time.

 

[warbird]

That is why I will not change my IKEA couches until it is absolutely nescecary: When they falls apart. Sadly, it will. I regret we got it in the first place.I was planning to buy couches at the Salvation Army, but the sad and absurd thing here is that Salvation Army charges more than IKEA for same or worse furniture. So having to think economicly drove me to not be eco friendly this time.

Salvation Army is more, for used furniture, than the new furniture store? WOW[huh] :eusa_doh:

Somebody needs to rap them on the head with a ratchet and say, 'hey wake up I think you missed the point here.'

 

[dhermann1]

What a dump!

A friend of mine lived in West Cornwall Conn, (now she's in Lakeville, so I assume this still applies) and they had a great recycling center at the town dump. They had bins of every usable type of item. There's an indoor area where things like books could be found. There's a reason that New England can be considered one of the great civilizations, all on its own, and that includes the "waste not want not" ethic.
Speaking of St Vincent DePaul, et al, my experience has been that they charge a lot for junk, which is what most people want, but the really good stuff is cheap. Most people don't know quality when they see it, both in terms of construction or style. You should see the dining room set I got years ago for $160! A huge hutch, big table and upholstered chairs. A little worn, but really solid. And elegant, as well.

 

[koopkooper]

The annoying thing today is that ECO is a buzz word used by people who think they are being trendy and modern.

The other day I saw an ad in the local rag for an "ECO wedding"...geez, give me a break.
My mother received a wedding invitation on recycled paper that was made from corn or something and quite frankly I was embarrassed for the bride and groom.
It was tatty, flimsy and looked so very cheap(slightly thicker than toilet paper). Ironically they are my richest relatives. Very rich.
People are taking it too far and need to calm down, I think some of these ECO lobbyists are akin to the crazy guy on the corner with the big sign that says"the world is going to end on the 18th of November, repent now".

 

[Kimberly]

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.

I would have loved to have had family that valued 2nd hand hand me downs. My mother could never stand old things and used to throw away furniture for newer things all the time. When my father died, she threw out every thing he owned (she was only 25 when he died so I think it was so painful she threw away everything because it hurt so much). The only thing she didn't' throw out was a coffee table and end table that they bought together when she was pregnant with me. I still own it to this day and would never sell it.

I think her attitude is one of the causes of my love of older things. I remember going to my grandmothers house and looking at the beautiful crown molding and all of the other unique attributes that my own home lacked. When I got my fist apartment, I started buying older things for it and then I discovered thrift stores and vintage clothing and the rest is history.

I have been doing well recently because my grandmother has been holding off on her own things because she knew none of her kids or grand kids would want them (they all share the same "I like the new stuff disease"). Now she gives it all to me. She is even giving me her wedding gown she was married in during the 40's. :eusa_clap

 

[Rooster]

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!

I'm not aware of any unusual climate change. It's been a harsh winter where I live and a very wet and cold spring. No global warming in Iowa. Any warming that is occuring world wide is a result of a natural climate cycle. The earth has gone thru these for ever, no big deal.
I don't live my life with any idea of my impact on the eco system. I'm just as natural as any other animal on this planet.
Fur...... I sure wish it would come back in fashion with a vengance. Since fur has become non PC there are dead animals hit all over the highways. The racoons get distemper due to their over popoulation and die miserable deaths. They also are so thick they are a constant threat to my chickens. I have to shoot several dozen a year. Too bad their fur isn't worth anything anymore, as they just go to waste after I shoot them. I remember back in the late 70's I could get $70 a pelt. I usuallly made over $3000 a year off of trapping back then. Alot of poor families that relied on trapping to make ends meet have gotten alot poorer since then.
And foxes....good goly have I been waging war on them the past couple years. I used to get $125 for those, now you can't get $15.
The point I'm trying to make here is that fur is a renewable resource if managed properly. Trapping was certainly good for rural families back in the day, and the fur bearing animals were healthier due to the lack of not being over populated.

 

[Joie DeVive]

Surprisingly, in ways, the past had recycling as good as we do now!

For example, my parents and grandparents remembered the "rag and bone man" who collected those particular things for reuse.
Boy, I wish I knew the best place to send my rags once I've done them in.
Metal was salvaged, and composting was just considered normal.
(My Dad used to go "junking" with his father too!)

And global climate change or not, I try to live with as little waste as possible. Just like Grandma, my extra paper (in my case, one sided flyers and junk mail) becomes scratch paper. And then I take it down for recycling. I have been known to use the aluminum foil I use to heat bread repeatedly. I mend socks, undies and T shirts until they are falling apart, and then the cut them up for rags. Some years I even make my own Christmas cards Victorian style using images cut from used wrapping paper! I know there are more examples, but those are what I can think of right now.

Maybe it's quirky , but I think it comes from Depression Era behaviors. My parents were born close enough to that era that they learned to save and not to waste anything. I learned it from them.

 

[jake_fink]

Refillable bottles are golden era and eco-friendly

Up here in Nod our plastics recycling program was initially funded by the soft drink industry as a cost effective way of nudging out regulations requiring refillable containers. Plastic bottles are so much cheaper. I can still recall paying for the soda but not the bottle depost so I had to drink it in the store (on the curb outside, if they let me, where I could read my new comicbook).

 

[LizzieMaine]

Maine's had a bottle deposit law since 1976, and refillable glass bottles were the rule here until the late '80s. And then one day they were just *gone* and everything came in plastic -- along with a barrage of ads explaining how it cost less to ship lightweight convenient plastic and how we should all be happy for the convenience, etc etc etc. Guess who paid for those ads.

Of course, there were drawbacks to the glass bottles -- if you've ever dropped a 64-ounce refillable glass soda bottle on your foot, you know your foot was more likely to break than the bottle!

 

[Paisley]

I read once that in places where there was a refundable deposit on bottles, vagrants would dig through trash cans, making a mess, to look for bottles to return.

 

[SpitfireXIV]

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.

i would rather recycle and old fur than subject any more animals to their fate. i'm not a big "fur" person, but i did inherit 3 furs from 3 generations, and i have worn them a few times.

considering the styles, i don't think i'm in any danger of starting a new trend with the local lemmings.

 

[Sefton]

My grandparents who were born in Spain at the end of the 19th century are my model for "eco-friendly" behavior. They came from poverty and although they were much better off in the U.S.A,they still held fast to a way of life that wasn't wasteful. I remember my grandmother carefully laying out used papertowels to dry so that she could use them again! Of course grandfather would never spend the kind of money for a hat that I have. In my defense I'll just say that I intend to wear it until it falls apart and then I'll recycle it somehow. Felt drink coasters perhaps...