envi.info/english: The Scavengers' Manifesto

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

The Scavengers' Manifesto

by Alessio Sciurpa

After “Mongo: Adventures in Trash” of Ted Botha, another book exploring the deeper link between the society and its waste. "The Scavengers' Manifesto" offers eco-minded people a framework for adopting scavenging as a philosophy and a way of life.
Destined to become the bible for a bold new subculture of eco-minded people who are creating a lifestyle out of recycling, reusing, and repurposing rather than buying new.An exciting new movement is afoot that brings together environmentalists, anticonsumerists, do-it-yourselfers, bargain-hunters, and treasure-seekers of all stripes. You can see it in the enormous popularity of many websites: millions of Americans are breaking free from the want-get-discard cycle by which they are currently producing approximately 245 million tons of waste every day.
In "The Scavengers Manifesto," Anneli Rufus and Kristan Lawson invite readers to discover one of the most gratifying (and inexpensive) ways there is to go green.

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European Week for Waste Reduction

Roberto Cavallo

The summer is over. Both the calendar and the weather conditions remind it to us. As I write in my "Less than 100 kilos" when you are on vacation, the relationship with the bin becomes more difficult and this seems to grow fatter and fatter at glance. So, now that we're back to everyday life, we can go back and pay attention to the waste we produce. In a period of continuous increases of any kind, exercises of waste reduction are certainly welcomed to our pocket. So drinking the tap water saves us a few hundred dollars a year, using washable diapers almost a thousand, doing home composting, if the municipality in which we live provide for it means also a waste tax reduction. These are some small every-day actions that we can begin to assess in view of the fourth edition of the European Week for Waste Reduction, which will take place next November, from 17th to 25th. But the entries are already open! Just surf the website www.menorifiuti.org or the websites of various partners of the organizing committee (www.assaica.org, www.federambiente.it). The registration procedure is very simple: just describe the action that will be put in place and send an e-mail to the Secretariat. This year there is also the chance to be rewarded for the action, when particularly interesting or innovative or virtuos, with a special Italian award. Join and spread the voice: there is need for lightness ... and then it is 3 years that Italy reach the second place behind France concerning the number of actions taken during the week, we try to win this year! RC