Buy Nothing
An elephant crate. Spider plant cuttings. Old magazines. Baby clothes. Small appliances.
I could go on.
What do all these things have in common?
They’re all things I’ve seen neighbors gift each other in Buy Nothing groups.
There’s a reason “Reduce” comes first in “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.” One of the best actions you can take to live a more sustainable life is simply to buy less stuff! That being said, there will still be things you need, but for many items you have options other than buying new.
That’s where the Buy Nothing Project comes in.
Started by two friends who were alarmed at the amount of plastic waste they found on a beach, Buy Nothing facilitates hyper-local gift economies, in which neighbors can give and receive all manner of items (Food, gardening tools, furniture, pretty much anything you can think of!). By doing so, these items are kept out of the waste stream for at least a while longer, and recipients can save money by not having to buy things.
The structure is simple: through Facebook or the Buy Nothing app, people can join a group specific to their immediate region or neighborhood (for example, Norfolk has several Buy Nothing Facebook groups for various parts of the city). People with items to give away make a post, and potential recipients comment on the post to express interest. People can also make “wish” or “request” posts if they’re in search of something specific.
This elephant was handmade by Michael in junior high shop class!
There are no payments, no trades or bartering, no strings attached. The whole thing runs on gifting. Actually, there is one string attached: a key guideline is that people are not to ask for or receive gifts with the intent to resell items. The whole thing is about neighbors helping neighbors, keeping items within the community.
I first joined Buy Nothing in the early pandemic days, when I was still living in Palo Alto. I don’t remember where I first heard about the project, but I jumped straight to Facebook to look up local groups. When I moved to Norfolk, I looked up Buy Nothing here, joined a group, and convinced my mom to do the same.
Because the aim is to keep groups small and hyper-local, when a group gets too big it will split into two or more smaller and even more localized groups. I saw this happen with the original group I was part of in Palo Alto, and again with the Norfolk group my mom and I are both in here. (Even after the split, she and I are still in the same sub-region of Norfolk, so I get to see all her posts. She’s become quite a powerhouse of Buy Nothing-ing!)
The elephant is off to a good home!
In addition to sustainability and community, a key tenet of the Buy Nothing Project is transparency. People are expected to comment their interest publicly on giveaway posts, and the poster is expected to publicly choose and announce a recipient on the same post. Only then can the giver and recipient move to private messages to coordinate pickup of the item(s). Doing so keeps everything out in the open (except for people’s addresses) and ensures that everyone knows the status of a given post.
The ethos of the Buy Nothing Project is very reflective of leaving a clean wake, as communities come together to help each other and live more sustainably. Needless to say, we here at Leaving a Clean Wake are big fans…and not just because we’ve gotten a lot of stuff out of the basement and various closets via Buy Nothing. 😉
Are you part of a Buy Nothing group? What’s the best or weirdest thing you’ve seen gifted?