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Historic Gravestone Preservation to Keep Stories Alive A couple of months ago, I was set up at an event with my colleague Deek. I came back from walking around and he was talking to a woman. He said, "Alex, see if you can guess what this woman does for a living." After having no clues, except for an all black outfit, I guessed a couple of things, but was way off. And then she told me. This was a job that I never had thought about existing, but was completely intrigued by. And after talking with Rachel Meyer for a while, I knew that I needed to interview her for this series. 1. Your business is a completely unique one, as you are surely the first gravestone conservator that I've met, let alone heard of. For others like me out there, could you explain what you do? I am a gravestone conservator. With my business partner, Josh, I own a business that repairs historic gravestones to Historic Preservation standards. We mostly serve Eastern Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire. We typically work on gravestones that date from the 1600s to 1900s. 2. Learning about your work, it's clearer now that this is a role that needs to exist for burial grounds everywhere. It's a great way to keep stories alive and save resources. How did you ever come to decide on this career path? Is there a specific program at a college for it? And like myself, were you into horror movies as a kid? I'm so intrigued and have so many questions! Like a lot of the best things, it happened organically. I was working in museums and was writing a novel. Part of it was set in a historic burying ground. My search for inspiration for my novel led me to a historic site that was so badly neglected that I felt called to gather volunteers to save it. We took a bunch of classes to get qualified to do the work we do. This trade can be learned apprenticeship style and I always discourage people from going into student debt. That said, I studied environmental geology and legal studies in college and it lent itself well to this work. I was into adventure as a kid. Of course I watched the Creature Double Features on TV and I found them kind of artsy visually. Mostly though, it was mystery and adventure for me. Lots of PBS and Indiana Jones. 3. I know you have worked on some really unique projects around New England. Do you have any favorite or more rewarding stories? Alongside our large projects we are hired to do, I have passion projects that I advocate endlessly for and accomplish pro bono. I call it "sending love letters into the world". When I see something in the world that would cause most to pick up a protest sign, I look for ways to use my skills and talents to show that I care. Be it "immigrant" cemeteries or segregated sections. My most rewarding pro bono project is one where I have been going around repairing the gravestones of the African American Community from the 1800s in the Salem, Massachusetts area. So much of this history has been lost and I want to do my small part to help preserve what we have before it is also lost. Gravestones are interpretive objects and just like in museums, can be used to tell stories. I like to make sure we are telling the whole story. 4. So, while I'm certainly a solutions guy, we do have to address the problems. Where do you see the most waste in your daily life? We use our materials so I wouldn't necessarily call it waste in the classic sense. As someone who is aware of her footprint, I am always weighing what is going on in the production of the materials we use though. I don't see a way around using the materials we use but there is sand and peastone for resetting fallen gravestones and mortars for repairing broken ones. I am sure the production of these things isn't neutral. My solution is that I try not to waste it. If we mix too much mortar, I make art out of it. I sculpt and create molds from my sculptures and anything extra goes into these molds. At the end of the season, I both sell and hand out what I make. I have set up a table for downtown trick or treat and have given things to trick or treaters walking by which was very popular and fun. This question reminded me that I need to resubscribe to a carbon offset. I have a question for you. What is the best way to offset your impact when it can't be avoided completely? Thanks for asking. Some things can't be avoided. For me, I just make trades in my life and look at the bigger picture. With my car, I've had to buy new tires for it over time. But, I've kept the same car on the road for 17 years. The car itself is the bigger picture. I think this is certainly a way to look at your work too. Also, here's a great place to learn more about offsets that we can purchase . 5. In your personal experience, how do you think recycling has worked and NOT worked as a solution to waste? I think that unless people really know how to recycle, so much doesn't actually get recycled. I was told of this term, "wishcycling," which I have become more aware of. It means people putting items in their recycling because they want them to be recycled, but it ultimately becomes problematic at the facility. It leads to less being recycled. Ultimately, the waste question needs to come up before you purchase things. 6. How do you think the U.S. could step up the solutions to our waste problem? Have you seen or heard of anything anywhere else? Have you ever opened a dumpster and seen all the waste in them? I know your answer is yes. Years ago, I called Elizabeth Warren's office after the holidays when I noticed the sheer amount of seasonal items going into dumpsters, especially cheap, mass produced things. When you see the level of waste at the corporate level, it is easy to become disempowered. I think the change needs to happen at a level that very few of us feel we have access to. I wish I had the solution. 7. It's funny. I always tell people that reusing is nothing new. It’s been going on long before we were here. Do you have any memories of your parents or grandparents reusing in unique ways? I grew up poor so we didn't have much to begin with. My grandparents were jazz musicians and we would all perform as a family. There were a couple songs that they would perform that really spoke to their generation's experience of things like The Great Depression, when lack was normal and you had to find other ways to be happy. My grandmother used to get dressed up in her second hand costume and sing the song, "Second Hand Rose," to an audience. I still sing it to myself sometimes. I learned when I was young that surrounding yourself with good people and doing what you love are the real riches. 8. Do you have any notable stories about saving money on something because you bought it used instead of new? I buy most things used; not everything but most things. My favorite weekend activity is going to yard sales and finding things to either reuse or make into other things. I love a thrift store, buy nothing group, and side of the road finds. I couldn't do what I do if I didn't know how to enjoy being frugal when needed. To me, knowing how to be resourceful means gaining the freedom to pursue your calling rather than pursuing the grind of consumerism. Saving in this way means being able to be generous to those whose values I align with too. I also have plenty of stories about spending money on reused items (aka antiquing.) One of my new favorite reused scores is the bracket on the new Jenny Slew Park Sign in Ipswich. I got it from our local Ipswich / Rowley Buy Nothing Group and gave it to the sign maker to use with the new sign. This saved the Historical Commission a couple hundred dollars and we had a limited budget so that is good.  It was just installed a couple days ago. 9. Have you ever taken anything out of the recycling bin or trash to reuse somehow or maybe found something on the side of the road? Yes. Our town always has free stuff on the side of the road. I love that about our culture. The New England frugality. I just picked up a box of acrylic paints I've been using and a classical CD I've been playing that I wouldn't have heard of on Spotify. 10. And lastly, what’s the best thing that you ever got used and why? Got a photo? I only buy used vehicles. I'm rather excited about the idea of my new, used van. Perfect for tools and as a mobile office. To learn more about Rachel and her work, head over to the Epoch Preservation website here. To order a One of a Kind REUSE! T-Shirt like Rachel is wearing in her profile photo, head over to the STAY VOCAL One of a Kind gallery .

I recently made the time (and had a lot of space) to organize the archives for the 20 years of STAY VOCAL . And while I started my reuse apparel brand as a skateboard company, one thing that was evident was that reuse was there since the beginning. I also realized that I had some doubles of items and I certainly don't need to hold on to everything that I have. So, I created an Archives Collection in the STAY VOCAL Shop that features Shirts, Bags, Stickers, Patches, Pins and Wall Hangings that range from 2005 through 2018. And as most of these items are from the "Pre-Reuse" era, they will not be made again. Below is a video and photo look at the archives and you'll see what I mean about reuse always being there. This is just a sampling too, as I have so many stories and could go on and on and on. Well, enjoy the archives and leave a comment if you have questions!

You can't reinvent the wheel, but you can reuse it! Today, I’m launching a new interview series. The goal is to show you how reusing is the more effective solution for our waste problem, by connecting you to people from all walks of life. The people I feature will vary, because I strongly believe that reusing is for everyone, and that we are all in this together. The short series of questions will give you a look at who that person is and learn some unique things about them. And the interviews will show people how reusing is effective, easy and fun. To kick off the series, here is my interview with Lyndsay Dean, AKA The Vegan Potter. Two summers ago, I brought The REUSE! Box Truck to Compassionfest in Hamden, Connecticut. The event organizer had told me that she put me near her friend Lyndsay because she thought we would get along because of a shared passion for bettering the planet. Well, "get along" turned out to be an understatement. Over the past couple of years, Lyndsay and I quickly become good friends and cohorts, doing numerous events around New England together. I even helped Lyndsay and her husband work on their house for a day. And recently, Lyndsay figured out a way that I could enjoy one of her handmade mugs, even though I don't buy "new" mugs. And that's one of the things you'll learn here. Enjoy! 1. In the age of mass produced, cheap kitchenware, you make some incredibly unique, durable items. How do you do this?    Every piece I make is individually hand crafted from stoneware clay. Stoneware is a fairly durable clay body when crafted with longevity in mind and handled with a bit of care it can last generations. I’ve been making pottery for nearly 3 decades and many of my early customers comment that they still use their mug or bowl or serving piece that they bought before I was in a retail space and I was making work in my parents garage back in 2000. All of my work is intended to be used everyday and become part of the home. The worst thing I could hear someone say is “I’m too afraid to use it so I have it on the shelf.” I want my work to become part of the fabric of everyday life and I think having hand crafted things enhances our lives in so many ways. Connecting us, 2. What was your inspiration to get into pottery?   I always loved 3D art and I never felt that I was good at drawing. I grew up the daughter of a fine furniture craftsman and I spent countless hours watching my Dad sketch custom furniture and then create it in his woodworking shop. I was fortunate enough to go to a really amazing high school called the Norwich Free Academy in the town where I grew up. They had a robust art program where I took everything from photography, airbrushing, and metalsmithing which I really latched onto (again because of it’s dimensionality). But when I decided to take a pottery class in my senior year, I dropped it the following week because I didn’t like “getting dirty." The instructor, who years later became a bit of a mentor to me, called my parents who were taking an evening pottery class with her and told them I dropped her class and encouraged them to get me to reconsider. Needless to say, I finally found my way to working with clay again about 4 years later in Montreal, where I went to college for English and Creative Writing. I believe strongly in “Divine Timing” or fate, or whatever you want to call it because once I took my first pottery class (I think it was around 1998), I was 100% invested before I could even figure out how to center clay! I knew I had found what I wanted to do with my life and the rest was just YEARS of practice and figuring out how to make a living at it and honestly I’m still doing both of those things! 3. I know that you've been able to involve reuse into your work in some unique ways. Can you tell me about that and how else reuse might be involved? I’ve always felt very strongly about reusing, as many things in my studio practice as possible. I ran a community pottery studio for 17 years and we went through hundreds of tons of clay in that time. Clay is a manufactured product that comes from mining materials out of the Earth, mixing them in various ways and mass producing potters clay in factories. I am driven to reuse as much clay as possible because it is not a renewable resource. From the plastic bags and elastic bands that the clay comes packaged in to the cardboard boxes right down to the clay itself, everything gets a new life in my studio, often many times over. When a pot cracks or dies in the making process, it begins the process of recycling which means I first dry it out completely in order to rehydrate it. The rehydration is done using water that I use for throwing so that is also being reused. Once the clay is a wet slurry I scoop it onto a plaster table where it sits to dry out for a few days and is then put through a machine called a pug mill that churns it into a useable material again. I can then throw or hand build with the recycled clay and I’ve done that for my entire career. It then gets stored in the reused plastic bags with reused elastic bands.    A few years ago after having a discussion with you about how I could make something that you’d be willing to use that would be entirely recycled/reused products, I began keeping a separate bucket to wash out all of my glaze brushes, containers and palettes. That bucket has become ‘mystery glaze’ and at the end of the year, I sieve it and mix and it has become part of the 100% recycled clay and glaze mug collection.   Here’s a partial list of other things I reuse in my studio: Dry Cleaner plastic: (I have people bring it to me because I don’t personally dry clean my clothes) used for covering pots after throwing them. This type of plastic is incredibly thin and flexible and makes the least amount of marks on the wet clay and for some reason provides the best “damp” environment for pots.  Paint Brushes : I’ve collected so many watercolor and acrylic paint brushes over the years mostly from folks giving them to me when they no longer paint and I use them for glazing and painting my pots.  Plastic jugs from vitamin powder to glaze containers : they get new life when I mix up new small batches of glaze or colored slip 5 gallon buckets: All of the drywall compound buckets from an initial studio build back in 2006 are still in rotation for larger batches of glaze  Glass jars from vitamins or other foods: these become storage for small tools like alphabet stamps  Old Kitchen tools: from rolling pins to cookie cutters, spatulas to whisks they ALL become part of the making process in the studio   4. So, while I'm certainly a solutions guy, we do have to address the problems. Where do you see the most waste in your daily life?   Growing up, my Dad was always a stickler about shutting off lights and turning off the water and I’ve very much become that way throughout my life. Water usage is by far the biggest waste I see on a daily basis. I’m always disgusted when I see people watering their grass and although we don’t live in an area of the country where we have water bans on a regular basis, I think the ways in which we waste water are outrageous.    Garbage collection day is always a very telling visual. Every week as I drive to work and pass each house with it’s garbage can, recycling bin and most recently compost bin on the sidewalk, it’s really alarming to consider just on one little neighborhood block the vast amount of waste that is created in just 7 days. 5. In your personal experience, how do you think recycling has worked and NOT worked as a solution to waste?   I think ‘recycling’ became the tag word to end the worlds waste problems back in the 80’s but all that did was give us a false sense of security that we were doing our parts to rectify the damage we’d done. In reality I know only a small percentage of the recycling that is actually put out on the curb actually gets recycled and the REAL issue is our consumption but ALSO companies continuing to ‘over-package’ products which just creates more waste. For instance a glass jar of vitamins might come in a small cardboard branded box, WHY do we need that extra layer of waste?    My biggest pet peeve is the organic section in the grocery store. Most often, it has small bundles of produce packaged on foam plastic trays wrapped in plastic wrap!  I cannot resist expressing my disgust to the folks who work in the produce aisle anytime I see this and I refuse to buy overpackaged products like this whenever possible. It really feels like we are moving backwards in many instances.   I also think the greenwashing comes in the form of language like when I was a kid we called it the town Dump, but now they are called "Transfer Stations." I think this type of language can be incredibly powerful in manipulating people’s minds when they picture the garbage situation in their very own town. 6. How do you think the U.S. could step up the solutions to our waste problem? Have you seen or heard of anything anywhere else?   This is the kind of question I really don’t have answers to, as I have not done the research nor do I have the knowledge of how things already work. I try to consume as little news and politics as possible because I feel it’s just as bad for my mind as consuming animal products is for my body and spirit. Suffice to say, I do think that real change happens from a grassroots efforts and consumer demand FIRST. We as consumers need to make good choices with our dollars and if we all switched away from plastic wrap , plastic bags and paper towel usage for instance, what would happen to those manufacturing companies? Making changes in our own homes and businesses can be just as powerful in my opinion.  7. It's funny. I always tell people that reusing is nothing new. It’s been going on long before we were here. Do you have any memories of your parents or grandparents reusing in unique ways?   My Dad is the King of saving things for reusing or repurposing years later. From nuts, bolts and screws to wood scraps, fittings, electrical wire and everything in between, if you need something, you ask my Dad FIRST. More often than not, he has something that will work OR he can figure out a way to manipulate it to make it work for the intended purpose. He learned this from his Grandfather who lived to be 103 in his own house in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. My Great Grandfather filled his garage with well organized stacks of magazines, buckets of tennis balls (the strays that would roll across the street from the neighboring tennis courts) containers of used nails, screws, and an endless array of parts and pieces for anything you could imagine. He prided himself on not buying new, but reusing what he had saved and my Dad is exactly that way. 8. Do you have any notable stories about saving money on something because you bought it used instead of new? The very first pottery wheel that I ever owned, I bought used from a woman who had saved it because it belonged to a potter friend of hers. It was a motorized kick wheel which is a manual version of the modern day electric wheels and it had a huge tractor seat and you had to kick a heavy metal disc to make the pottery wheel spin and then you could engage a foot pedal to keep the wheel going at a single speed. I had that wheel for the first two years I was making pots in my parents garage.    Years later a friend of mine was offloading his home studio equipment and I was able to get a really large electric kiln, a potters wheel and stool and a large heavy duty slab roller for rolling out flat pieces of clay as a package deal. I never would have been able to afford any one of the items new and I estimated that I saved myself well over $10,000. I resold the wheel recouping some cost but the kiln worked great for me for nearly a decade and the slab roller is still in use in my studio today nearly 2 decades later. 9. Have you ever taken anything out of the recycling bin or trash to reuse somehow or maybe found something on the side of the road? My husband and I make it a point to peer into any dumpster that’s on a job site or road side to see if there's anything worth salvaging. I’ve certainly acquired the odd outdoor patio chair or coffee table from folks who put free signs on things outside their house over the years.  10. And lastly, what’s the best thing that you ever got used and why? Got a photo?   The kiln I purchased used was by far the best thing as it helped me make more money in my business over the decade of using it.  To learn more about Lyndsay, her pottery, and maybe even visit her retail shop, head over to The Vegan Potter website here. To order the "I Seed Change" T-Shirt that Lyndsay is wearing in her profile photo, head over to the STAY VOCAL Shop .

My friend's mom has been repurposing and giving new life to furniture for years. And she's always been a sense of reuse inspiration for me. One of her biggest projects was converting a junky shed in the backyard into a 3-season work and sleep space. With a small fireplace or heater, it could easily be a great tiny house for a longterm guest. The house is decorated with all sorts of reclaimed and repurposed furniture, antiques and even some vintage tools.

I recently was at an event with STAY VOCAL and got into a conversation about movies with another vendor. He was telling me how he doesn't stream any movies, but instead goes to one of the only remaining videos stores in the Boston area called The Vu. Hearing his passion for the store got me thinking about something that I am reminded of a lot: I really miss video stores! Sure, streaming is cheaper, convenient, and it offers endless choices, but video stores brought way more value. The weekend would come and you'd go out with your family or friend to the store after dinner. You'd walk around talking about movies, laughing at funny covers, flip potential winners over and read what they're all about. Then you'd decide upon a few and maybe grab some snacks. Depending on the person working, you might have a great conversation about the movies you rented, upcoming releases, life, etc. And how about that excitement at the counter when the new release that was out of stock was in the "Just Returned" section? These days, it's just click and watch. We gain convenience, but we lose connection, communication and community. And honestly, with more choices and more streaming services, it just adds more confusion. How many times have you endlessly scrolled trying to find something and you just end up watching your favorite show or movie again? It's OK for us to admit that not every innovation will be better. I've felt this way for a while, which is why a video store was one of the places that I had to film for REUSE. Because You Can't Recycle The Planet. The image above is from when I was filming at Videoport in Portland, Maine. Rental is a major component of reuse. In addition to the ones I listed above, the benefits of rental include less resources used when items are shared and businesses can be created around rentals. In the future, I'd like to see video stores make a comeback. Maybe they don't have to have all of the current movies, as streaming does prevent a lot of waste and packaging. But like many public libraries already do, they could be a place to share all of the millions of DVDs, videos, laser discs, and coordinating players that are already in existence; keeping those items and films alive for future generations. What is your favorite thing about a video store? Got a favorite memory?

As I wrote about in my previous posts about recycling, people still focus on it, yet this supposed godsend to our waste problem has failed. But before we can move forward, we have to look backward. The concept of waste around the world is nothing new and solutions of what to do with it have always been there. It's just that these days, the amount of waste is astronomical, especially in the United States. The U.S. is the number one country in the world as far as the amount of waste per person, per day goes. The average American creates 5.69 pounds of waste per day. Hooray for being number one? One thing I always say is that the reuse solution that I've promoted through my brand and movies is nothing new. My parents and their parents grew up reusing. It was common place. Words like "single use", "disposable", and "recyclable" simply did not exist. Items like bottled water, fast fashion, and particle board furniture did not exist. People used things until they were worn out. Items were repaired. Clothing was mended. The earliest thrift stores were open over 100 years ago. And during World War 2, there were numerous campaigns for households to donate "waste" to be reused for various war efforts. But in the years after the war and as the U.S. economy grew, the 1960's came along and the use of plastic exploded. The disposable society that most of us have known for years was born and the concept of throwing things away became the norm. People began to love the convenience of just being able to "toss-away" their waste. (I find it interesting that this coincided with the era of peace and love for our fellow humans.) In the 1970s, people began seeing that all of these "conveniences" were filling up the landfills. "Away" wasn't as far off as they thought. Many cities began burning trash, but inevitably, people saw the pollution that was being created. Curbside recycling programs began popping up as a way to appease that convenience for single use items. People also began seeing the economic benefit of taking things out of the waste stream. In the 1980’s, recycling began taking off and being billed as the number one solution for the waste problem. For people who wanted to help combat pollution and save the planet, recycling was the action of choice. More and more communities started recycling programs and it became part of curriculum in schools. I was one of the students that learned about it. As the 90s and 00s continued, the idea of recycling being the godsend continued. Bins became much more widespread and the norm in schools, public buildings, airports and even city sidewalks. A lot of companies began boasting that their products were made with partially recycled content or how their products could be recycled. But then came the 2010s. People started seeing behind the curtain and realizing that recycling wasn't what it was cracked up to be. By focusing on single use as much as possible because "it can be recycled," the mantra seemed to be "make make make," without realizing that you can only recycle so much. With overwhelming amounts of recycling, companies in the U.S needed to find solutions for the recyclables, so they started shipping it overseas. But inevitably, other countries got fed up and China even put a ban on importing the U.S.' garbage.  In 2017, China officially banned the importing of 24 types of solid waste. Just because something is recyclable, doesn't mean it will actually be recycled. As time went on, more and more people realized that there were simply a lot of myths around recycling. A recent study found that only 5-6% of plastic is transformed into new items and since recycling began, less than 10 percent of plastic has ever been recycled! Personally, I have been seeing the recycling myth for years. I used to be a big time Dunkin' Donuts coffee drinker, but then I looked into their styrofoam cups. Their website used to boast that they were recyclable. The only problem was that there were only a handful of facilities in the entire US that recycled styrofoam. So, the majority of the cups ended up in the landfill. Recycling was a great idea in the 70s. They had a problem with the the influx of single use trash and they needed to figure out a solution. But as time went on and our recycling centers started filling up, the real problem became apparent (again). The real problem is making too much single use, disposable products. And recycling is just perpetuating single use. We've tried recycling for years and the experiment didn't work. On the small scale, individuals don't recycle everything that's recyclable. On a larger scale, some places say they recycle, but they actually don't. After 50 years, the US has only gotten up to 23% of the waste that we make being recycled. And now we can't send it off to other countries. Do we need any more signs that we need to be accountable for our waste? The real solution to our waste problem is one that was already here and if we’re going to continue to be here, that solution needs to come back in full force. Why recycle and hope for the best, "wishcycling", when you can immediately know the impact that you're making with reuse? There are a lot of easy reuse alternatives for things normally recycled and in my next and final installment of this series, that's what I'll be talking about.

As I wrote about in my previous post, "Recycling Is Overrated: We've Been Misled," I grew up recycling because I thought it was going to solve the waste problem. But I also grew up with a dad that saved all sorts of typical recycling and waste to use "someday." I didn't really understand it at first, but I certainly benefitted from it. My first skateboard ramp was actually an old door leaning on top of wooden railroad ties. It wasn't until my adult years that I finally understood the benefits of reusing. In 2003, I started my company STAY VOCAL (originally VOCAL) as a skateboard and apparel brand. At the same time, I was also a touring merchandiser for rock bands. I was not only selling shirts at concerts around the world, but also ordering everything. And in 2004, one order changed everything. I received a batch of shirts for one of the bands and it was printed incorrectly. It was just a minor error, but understandably, the artist wasn't happy and didn't want to sell them. And when I called the printers about the problem, that's when I found out what happens to misprinted shirts. Those 144 brand new, never worn, shipped from California to Pennsylvania T-Shirts were going to be shipped back to California to be shredded and turned into rags. And that's when a lightbulb went off and exploded in my head. I'm a solutions guy, not a problems guy. So, I quickly figured out a better option and ended up buying the shirts at a discounted price and having my brand's patches sewn over the original design. After that incident, I started seeing the waste problem everywhere I looked and I wanted to use my brand to create the solutions. I used to drink coffee out of disposable cups, so I started making STAY VOCAL travel mugs. I used to get plastic grocery bags, so I created a line of canvas reusable bags. And of course, I made more and more reuse shirts. At the beginning of 2008, I made the decision to switch STAY VOCAL to an entirely reuse apparel brand; no more skateboards; no more new items. Thinking back, this made complete sense. Reuse had been part of the brand since day 1, as I raised the money to buy the first batch of skateboards by printing on thrifted shirts and selling them at concerts. Shortly after this decision, I entered a best small business idea contest for my brand and I won! As people were starting to take notice, I knew that I was on to something. Because of my first hand experience with waste and reuse solutions with clothing and accessories, I was starting to look at all waste in a different way. But I was also looking at recycling in a different way. Just because a plastic water bottle was recyclable, why wouldn't I just reuse a glass one? It would save me money, time, and resources too. Around that time, I came up with the slogan, REUSE! Because You Can’t Recycle The Planet. I couldn’t understand why people weren’t talking about reuse as a solution more than recycling. Why was there so much emphasis on recycling instead of reusing? When we recycle, we're wasting energy, time, money and resources. When we reuse, we're just using something again. I thought it was a no-brainer message that was not getting enough attention. A few months later, I designed a graphic for the slogan and the first series of REUSE! T-Shirts quickly followed. The REUSE! in bold letters is for emphasis and the open letters in the rest of the design is to represent that recycling is not the complete solution to save the planet that we had been told. Since that time, I've made thousands of shirts with REUSE! Because You Can’t Recycle The Planet. on it. The slogan's message became a core component of the talks that I do. In 2015, I released my first documentary film with that as the title. But all these years later, I'm still seeing the same problems with waste and recycling. And in many ways, they've actually gotten worse. So, how did we get here? Why are people stuck on recycling? How and why is it not working? What’s it going to take to get people to see the easier and more effective solution? Because the fact is, it wasn't always this way. And it doesn't have to be. Talk to you next week.

On a recent visit to the recycling center, I was looking around at all of the people putting their paper, plastic, aluminum, and glass in the right bins. These people were surely feeling good about the choices that they were making; doing something good for the planet and keeping things out of the landfill. But the whole time I was wondering, "How much of this is actually going to be recycled?" If you grew up anytime between the 1990s and now, you surely have heard that recycling was the solution to our waste problem. Instead of people throwing things to that magic land of "Away," recycling would actually do something with the waste. The waste would be broken down and made into new products. But unfortunately, as we have learned more and more with every passing year, recycling has not been the godsend it was cracked up to be. But through that same time, and for hundreds of years before, there was a waste solution with a positive impact that could be immediately seen. And if we're going to want our planet to endure for hundreds of years more, it has to increase exponentially. And that solution is reuse. Before anything else, I want to define the two terms "reuse" and "recycle". Many people tend to consider them one in the same, but this is something that I always try to clairfy for people. And like I exemplified in my first film, there is a simple and drastic difference. Let's look at that difference a little closer, though. I always use a glass bottle as an example because that's what I've been using for water for years. I think in terms of juice bottles, but for this example, you can pretend it's soda, beer, whatever you prefer. So, if you have a glass bottle, here are the steps for recycling it: Put the glass bottle in the recycling bin. A truck will come pick the bin up. The truck will drive the contents back to the recycling center. Machinery will break the original bottle down. Machinery will turn the broken down glass into that same glass bottle again. The bottle will be filled with liquid and a new label will be put on. The bottle will be put in a package and shipped to a store. Now, let's look at the steps for reusing a glass bottle instead. Wash the empty glass bottle Use it again Repeat Isn't the difference clear? With reusing just one bottle instead of recycling it, you're saving a lot of time, natural resources and money; for both you and others. Now, before I go any further with this 4-part series on recycling (yeah, I have a lot to say), I want to say that I am not "Anti" Recycling. I am just "PRO" Reuse first, especially when it comes to the mass amounts of stuff that's already here. But I can only reuse a piece of paper so many times and sometimes my glass bottles break. Like many of you reading this, I grew up thinking that if there was excess paper, plastic, aluminum, or glass, it was best to put it in the recycling bin. But I also grew up in a house, where little beyond that was thrown away. There may have been loose screws, old chimney pipes or broken desks, but my dad saw potential. He always had plans on how to reuse things. And that was a message that really stuck with me. But I didn't realize it until I came face to face with a worldwide waste problem in 2004. Talk to you next week.

When we give tours of The REUSE! Box Truck Tiny House, there are some specific things that Deek and I like to show and numerous "tour favorites" that people always comment on. This is why we created a map handout that shows the layout of the truck and our top 50 reuse features. We don't expect everyone to do all 50, but maybe they'll see a few them that they incorporate into their own lives. It's always fun to see before and after photos, so I thought I would showcase some of the more notable truck features and what these items used to be. And I also wanted to address the benefits of each. Wardrobe Original Use: Canning Cupboard Benefits: Storytelling: This was a food canning cupboard, dating back to at least the early 1900s. It's also the first item we found, months before we had the truck. Large amount of storage for my clothing, accessories and a whole lot more. I can use the door to project TV, movies or video games on Kept out of the landfill, as this was heading for a dumpster at a house that was being renovated Prevented a furniture piece from being manufactured with non-renewable resources Cost: $0.00 Kitchen Sink Original Use: Cooking Pot Benefits: Storytelling: This was my grandmother's pot and it keeps memories of spending time with her in her kitchen alive. Unique, durable kitchen sink I can hide the dirty dishes with the lid! Prevented a new sink from being manufactured with non-renewable resources Cost $0.00 Coat Hooks Original Use: Maple syrup spiles to tap maple trees Benefits: Storytelling: This is a fun reminder of the state where we first showed the truck before it was done. Unique, durable coat hooks Prevented new hooks from being manufactured with non-renewable resources Cost: $2.00 for 4 of them Closet Slide Outs Original Use: Skateboard decks Benefits: Storytelling - These were my personal skateboards and the one shown is a team board from my friend's shop in my hometown Easy way to access items in a deep closet Keeps broken skateboards out of the landfill Cost $0.00 Food & Spice Storage Rack Original Use: Ladder for a performing arts theater Benefits: Storytelling: This ladder was used for theatrical productions for over 50 years at the long-closed movie theater in the town where the truck was built. Unique storage for dry goods and spices Kept out of the landfill, as this was sitting unused in a building for years that will most likely be demolished Prevented a new rack from being manufactured with non-renewable resources Cost $0.00 Clearly, there are some great stories behind these items and the benefits for the planet are obvious. Plus, the total cost for these features was $2.00! Two Dollars! To see more about these and a lot more features in the truck, here's the trailer for the feature film about it and various viewing options. P.S. For any of the literally thousands of people who have toured the truck, if you have done any similar features in your own life as a result, please leave a comment. We'd love to hear about it. Thanks!

As I wrote about in my previous posts, recycling is an overrated solution to our waste problem and this is not a big revelation. People have been seeing this for years. It's just been heightened recently, especially after China's ban on importing recycling from the U.S. Like writer Katie Klear stated so well, "your recycling bin at the end of the curb is not a golden miracle for the Earth or a way out of the climate crisis." Fortunately major organizations like Green America and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are on board that reuse is the more effective solution. As I make sure to point out, I’m not saying that we should not recycle and that I personally do not recycle. What I’m saying is that we should look to reuse existing items first and whenever possible. Reuse is a 2 for 1. You're using something again that's already here and reducing the amount of things that need to be made. With reuse, we don't need to figure out what to do with all of the stuff in recycling bins. We don't need to wish-cycle and hope things actually get recycled. Why spend all of this time and energy with recycling, when we could be knowing the impact that we’re making by reusing. And listen, I get it, single use items are convenient. Use something once, toss it in a bin and forget about it. But I'll say this until the end of time: our planet is not single use and that's the most convenient thing that we all share. So I go back to the same position. So, I want to look at some of the most commonly recycled items and share reuse alternatives or how to avoid them in the first place. These ideas will not only save resources, but also time and money. Some of these may seem like no-brainers, but we're all at different points in our journey. And let me know in the comment section below if you have some solution ideas. Cardboard Boxes - It's amazing how many essentially brand new boxes are just recycled, when they could be used multiple times; especially with so many purchases being made online. If you ship packages (or know someone who does), flatten them and store them for personal use. I once saw a store in California that was just used boxes. Imagine if every city had a leave it and take it area for boxes at the transfer station? And here's an example of an online shop for used boxes geared towards moving. Food Packaging (Paperboard boxes, Plastic containers, etc) - A lot of food packaging is mixed paper and plastic and hard to recycle to begin with. You can avoid a lot of this packaging by buying things in bulk and / or at refill shops. Here's a list of refill stores in the United States. Farmer's Markets and the produce section of grocery stores are other great places to avoid packaging with healthy food too. Glass Jars - Buying items in bulk will avoid acquiring more of these. But if you buy items in glass jars, why toss them in the recycling bin, when there are endless amounts of uses: canning foods, storage containers, bulk food purchases, etc. I've even used jars as fun "gift boxes." Paper - Use both sides of sheets of paper before you recycle it. Save scrap paper for personal use, like printing in-house, note paper, drawing, etc. Paper or Plastic Bags - The majority of plastic bags are never recycled and just become landfill. This is why paper bags have become popular again. Sure, paper bags are better than plastic bags, but they're still single use bags that don't have to be made. Reusable bags are always the best option. And you don't have to go out and buy new canvas totes. Use any bag. After all, you're just bringing things home to put in your fridge and cupboards. "Paper" Coffee Cups - Most of these are not actually recyclable, as they have a thin plastic lining inside them. You can avoid these by bringing your own travel cup and at most shops, you'll get a discount too. If you're drinking coffee inside the shop, ask for an in-house mug. Most people would agree that drinking out of a ceramic mug is more comfortable than a paper cup. Plastic Bottles - Unfortunately, the majority of drinks these days are in plastic bottles. You can avoid these by bringing your own bottle/cup/jar to refill at water stations and soda fountains. In most cases you'll save money, especially when it comes to water. And the more we call for change, the better. Our cohorts at Story of Stuff are currently leading a "Bring Back Refill" campaign to change just that. Now, I know what many people are saying. "A piece of paper can only be reused so many times." "Jars break." "I don't have a refill store near me." For all of those reasons, I agree that we cannot be perfect with this. And again, I'm not saying that we should never recycle. I just know that my place here is to encourage reuse as much as possible and in as many different ways as possible before it gets to that point. The more we reuse, the less congested recycling will be and there is a possibility of recycling actually working. As individuals, we have so much untapped power when it comes to bettering the planet. With reuse, WE are in charge. We don't have to play the guessing game of recycling. WE use something and WE can use it again. WE see first hand that WE are doing a good thing for our planet. That is an empowering feeling for us and reuse is an effective solution for our waste problem. Thanks for hearing me out on these past few posts. Here's a fun, quick video I made to show how reusing is better. And as I mentioned above, let me know in the comment section below if you have some solution ideas. Cheers.

When it comes to reuse, something that I talk about is how it helps us avoid wasting time. (i.e. Reusing water bottles takes way less time than recycling them and making new ones.) But I recently had to accept that I wasn’t avoiding wasted time in all of my work. This past September, I celebrated the 20th anniversary of my reuse apparel brand, STAY VOCAL. And as I’ve said to many people in recent months, it took me 19 years to realize that it’s my side gig. Back in 2008, after my first speaking engagement about reuse and my brand, I knew that I wanted to be an edutainer (even though I didn’t know the word at the time). While waiting to speak in that high school auditorium, I watched as students literally fell asleep while someone was trying to teach them something with monotone explanations, charts and facts. I knew that I needed to do something different, and I thought back to my years of touring with bands and how they would engage the audience. I incorporated some unique tactics into my talk and began by screaming, "WAKE UP! There is only one planet and you can't recycle it!" Upon receiving a room full of attentive students and teachers clapping, I was hooked. Since then, I've grown to love sharing ideas in fun ways about the benefits of reuse solutions. (We hear the doom and gloom problems enough.) And over the past 15 years, I’ve created numerous things to do just that: The REUSE! Documentary, The REUSE! Box Truck and The Box Truck Film. With STAY VOCAL being my baby and first fun reuse solution though, I always went back to it as the focus. But the brand never got me to that educational or financial point that I needed it to. And sometimes I felt trapped. It’s taken me a long time to realize and truly accept that I’m not meant to make an impact one shirt at a time. It’s things like my movies, speaking engagements, and collaborations that have made a bigger difference. I still 100% believe in the brand and by no means am I calling it quits. I just know that I can't put the same time, energy, and money into the brand that I have since I created it in 2003. I’m stepping back from focusing on creating new STAY VOCAL designs, but will work with other brands, musicians, organizations, and individuals to print their shirts on rescued garments. As I say all the time, “the more we work together, the more positive change we can create.” Last year, I decided to test out not prioritizing STAY VOCAL and focused on setting up screenings and events. And well, it was the the most successful and impactful year that I've ever had. And it's funny, the shirts did well too, as I always bring a shirt selection with me to events. It's a great way for people to learn about wasted resources and take instant reuse action. So, I've decided to hone in on the "edutainment" piece. And to help with that, I've created the key piece of the puzzle that's been missing. Through all my years working with reuse, I’ve never had a true hub for the different work that I do. I sometimes wouldn't know what website to send people to or what to call what I do. But after taking a deep dive into who I am, what I truly want to do and what I'm best at, I now know the answer. I'm a reuse edutainer and I help people escape the waste. I hope you'll take a look around my new hub and find a way to get involved. Cheers.

Over the past 14 months, I've been cleaning out my childhood home in Massachusetts and trying to find new homes for so many different things. Some things, like collectibles, are really easy to find a home for. But some things have a value that not everyone can see. Enter the pile of scrap wood. For many, this was just bound for the dumpster. But having built a house with all used materials, I knew that someone would be interested in it. I tried selling the wood at an online estate sale that I hosted, but there were no takers. And since I wasn't in a rush to get rid of it, I tried my luck on Facebook Marketplace. Sure enough, I got a bite almost immediately. When Mitch Delorey came over to pick up the wood, I asked him what he was going to be doing with it. He told me that he repurposes furniture and makes custom pieces with old wood. So knowing that, I asked if he might be interested in an old broken dresser from the attic that even I thought wasn't worth rescuing. Mitch thought different and he ended up getting that too. During my time cleaning out the house, I've connected with dozens and dozens of people who find uses for used things. And now I knew one more. It feels so good to know that all of these items that have been sitting for years will get another life and become something special to someone; not just end up in the landfill. Just like so many things in life, it all goes back to communication; something I'm a huge believer in. (There's a reason I named my brand STAY VOCAL after all.) The more we talk to each other, the more we can work together and the more positive change we can create. Communication is how we build community, which is exactly what I have been doing with all of the reusers, upcyclers, repurposers and restylers in the area. If I had just sold Mitch the scrap wood and moved on, I might never had known what he does for work. And let me just say that Mitch has become a huge help in cleaning out the house for the past 6 months! We've been able to clear a lot of room and make some money and he's been able to acquire plenty of materials for his projects. Most recently, Mitch purchased a few industrial work tables from us. To see these get another life was pretty great for me. I've had quite the history with these tables. When I was little, I had my G.I. Joe Aircraft Carrier on one of them. When I started skateboarding, I used them as the platform for a ramp that I made in the basement. And in my adult years, they held my STAY VOCAL T-Shirts. I look forward to seeing what they'll become next. You can check out Mitch's work here.