The consumerist culture of America tell us that new is always better. New cars, new clothes, new furniture, new houses and even new faces.
It’s easy to toss things in the trash knowing full well that something shiny and new will soon replace it. Although our society has made significant strides in recycling and composting efforts, a great majority of trash still ends up rotting in a landfill or polluting our oceans.
In Gainesville, the pursuit of new-ness is slowly being replaced by the thrill of transforming trash into treasure.
Enter The Repurpose Project.
Started by local environmental enthusiasts, The Repurpose Project is a nonprofit, community-based effort with the mission of saving useful resources from ending up in landfills and instead, redirecting them for use in public art and education. The organization exists to help us all rethink what we toss in the trash.
“If we continue to use up our resources faster than the earth can make them, we will run out and that will make a very difficult existence for our children,” said Sarah Goff, co-founder and artist of The Repurpose Project.
A hidden gem of Gainesville, the business fosters creativity and inspiration in a sustainable way. Featuring a retail store full of reusable art materials, a gallery full of repurposed art, work tables where sustainable creativity blossoms, deconstructed reusable building supplies and more, The Repurpose Project has been successful in ensuring that perfectly good material is not wasted.
“Besides the obvious thing of diverting tons of waste from our local landfill, I am really proud of our green job creation,” Goff said. “As we grow and bring in more money from sales, we will have the ability to hire more people which will help us better serve the community with more open hours.”
The idea of green job creation is a concept that is more and more prevalent as we become aware of what our society has done to the earth and its resources. By creating jobs in the sustainability sector, we can begin to counteract the damage we have done and work towards a more environmentally friendly future.
But you don’t have to dedicate your life to all things green in order to do some environmental good. By simply donating items that you would have otherwise discarded, purchasing an item from the eco-friendly thrift store or devoting your time to the cause as a volunteer, The Repurpose Project gives every Gainesville resident a chance to contribute in an easy and creative way.
Volunteers fix things like electronics for resale, teach workshops or help with the trash garden that the nonprofit is currently creating. The Repurpose Project truly is a place for people of all skills and interests to come together and contribute to a sustainable future.
“We want to create a space where people can gather, be inspired by what can be transformed into art, make art together and enjoy time together,” Goff said. “Our society spends so much time shopping and looking at screens.”
This quirky and innovative nonprofit proves that new can arise from old without generating waste. The Repurpose Project is not just a business, it is a blissful deviation from the throw-away culture of today.
Repurposing, composting, recycling and more give us the opportunity to give our “stuff” new life. So, the next time you start to throw something away, consider giving it a new shot at life.
All photos courtesy of: The Repurpose Project
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