The Caring Materials Economy
A circular economy is a wonderful idea, but as I found out recently, it can be about so much more when the reuse of materials becomes an expression of love and compassion to someone in desperate need. I recently met two wonderful people, Damian and Sonja, while on our regenerative house renovation journey, who were seeking bathroom fixtures and fittings to help an elderly man who was the victim of elder abuse.
Our house is ripe for demolition - aged, dilapidated and a long way from the spacious turnkey single-family residence that is the expectation of most buyers. We have chosen to retain almost all we can of the wonderful old California bungalow, representing not only embodied carbon but the embodied heritage and culture of 1920s post WWII Melbourne. In our quest to demonstrate a regenerative contribution to the community of life, human and non-human - we are using the Living Building Challenge framework and are targeting Core certification. This means that we must divert at least 80% of the construction waste material from landfill. Now it turns out that we don’t generally have the physical infrastructure or materials tracking in place to adequately divert waste from landfill for a single-family house renovation. The bulldozers and excavators we see rapidly demolishing older homes clearly lack any capacity for discernment and their operators don’t exhibit much consideration of materials circularity. So we have come up with our own bespoke process of painstaking disassembly, weighing and contribution to the best reuse or recycling processes we can find. Although construction hasn’t yet begun, we have so far demolished 24.3 tonnes of material of which 98% has been diverted from landfill. This has included donating 10 different items to new homes through Facebook Marketplace which is where Damian and Sonja became part of our story, and our house project part of theirs.
The original bathroom
Dismantling
Weighing each item
A wonderful elderly man called Fred, who I have never met, is the victim of callous and long term elder abuse, which in its final stages resulted in his house being partially stripped, against his will, leaving him without a working bathroom. Damian is a community nurse and recently became aware of poor Fred’s predicament. Despite alerting the relevant authorities, it became clear that the social system was failing Fred and that any support and care in the short term, would rely on the quick and caring actions of others. Fred’s bathroom was completely stripped bare and without rapid resolution, Fred would find himself in a retirement home, bewildered, bereft and unhappy. Damian, supported by his wife Sonja, resolved to step in, giving of their own time, to lift Fred out of abuse and poverty. They were overjoyed to find our Facebook Marketplace listing which includes all the items they needed for Fred including shower base and screen, toilet, sink, handrails and all the associated fixtures. We had made a considerable time investment to disassemble each component, hoping it could find a good home. Damian and Sonja arrived at our house on a recent Saturday morning. For a good while we just shared stories, me of our house journey and they of their journey trying to help Fred. It was clear that this donation of materials was bigger than all of us – it involved someone’s life and their right to a healthy and hopeful future. When all was loaded up and they headed off, we were all a bit emotional.
The concept of a circular economy can sometimes seem abstract and intangible. But when we can attach compelling stories of regenerative meaning to our materials, their value is far more than economic. Our donation of materials was a small positive action in support of the incredible work being done by Damien and Sonja to bring love and support to Fred. But it does make me wonder how many materials from our residential demolitions are we carelessly discarding in landfills that could have been used to change lives?
Thank you Damian and Sonja