Heather Dowling
We all know that Christmas creates waste. You only have to look around the floor on Christmas morning at the piles of wrapping paper and torn packaging to see that.
But along with Christmas waste, we also create Christmas junk. The Australia Institute found that over 50% of Australians receive unwanted Christmas presents. As people get wealthier, the more unwanted gifts they receive. So what do people do with them?
There are a few options available.
Unpack the issues...
Possibly the easiest yet most shame-able option is in the art of regifting. While the term surfaced on Seinfeld in the 90's, the practice was happening way before then.
In America, the concept has gained so much momentum that Dec 17, 2009 is National Regifting Day.
If you are going to regift though, there is important etiquette to follow.
Remember to change the card and don’t forget to make sure you know who gave it to you in the first place. The last thing you want to do is get caught.
Once you’ve finally made the decision to regift, let it go. As the savvy minds at regiftable.com say, “ask yourself if you can keep the secret. Never feel guilty about regifting once you’ve done it.”
Instead of leaving them on the shelf for all eternity, too racked with guilt to get rid of, why not pass them on to some one else? Someone who might actually use the darn thing.
Emma is a mother of two with zero tolerance for clutter. While she says regifting, “is just weird”, she thinks it’s totally acceptable to pass the gift on to some one else who might appreciate it.
“What good is it if it’s just going to sit there? If you’re going to use it then use it, but if it’s going to sit there in your cupboard then donate it to someone who will use it,” she said.
The most common forms of regifting would be passing on unwanted items to friends, or leaving them in the op-shop bin. But recently, a new way of offloading unwanted items has emerged.
All too often we receive an item of clothing that is just not going to work for us. They’re either too big (are you calling me fat?) or too small (thanks but really?) or just absolutely the wrong style or colour. Events held by groups such as The Clothing Exchange, originating in Melbourne in 2004, are able to combat this dilemma by hosting ‘clothing swaps’. People bring their unwanted clothing and add it to a pile, from which they then take new (to them) items of clothing home to keep.
And it’s not just for women’s clothing. The Clothing Exchange also holds events for kid’s clothes and books.
Swaporamarama is an international event which was recently brought to Perth, WA. Founded by Wendy Tremayne in the USA, rather than just swapping clothes, the event is set up to allow people to individualise items at the same time.
The idea behind Swaporamarama is that you bring items which can be worn, or can be used to refashion. You then take your ‘new’ items to a workshop where someone on hand will be able to guide you through individualising or completely altering what you have found.
The Perth event was made possible by Sandra Bryans, a local sewing instructor.
“I have been concerned for a long time about the issue of over supply of garments, and the problem of casual disposal of otherwise usable products.
I’ve never been able to work out where ‘away’ is when we throw stuff away,” Sandra said.
“I’ve been in the fashion industry a long time and know factually that we produce a lot of cotton, and we use a lot of land, and we use a lot of fossil fuels to produce synthetics.”
While events like Swaporamarama are a way for people to free themselves from unwanted gifts, it’s also a way to refashion them into something more your style, or to create something new for your bestie, ready for next Christmas.
The basic thread which runs through these events is that we all consume too much, and that finding something new to us, doesn’t have to be a brand new product creating more demand for unsustainable practices.
Perhaps though, if we truly want to reduce the amount of unwanted Christmas gifts received this year, we could always give less and more appropriately.
Are you game enough to regift? Share your regifting stories.
Is there a moral difference between regifting and simply passing something on?
How do you really feel about Christmas consumerism and waste?
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