Why Drop and Swap’s signal a Shift in Economy and Community

“One person’s trash is another person’s treasure”

I’ve heard this all my life - especially as a child, but I had always been doubtful about whether those older people telling me this warm platitude / proverb actually believed it. Yes, I grew up sometimes watching arts and craft shows on the TV, doing papier-mâché, or sometimes learning about how cardboard paper towel or toilet paper rolls and other materials could be cut, folded, glued, and painted into earring holders, or any other number of crafts… but it all seemed very… scraped together. Artsy, rather than really focused on much beyond a positive outlook, and not applied fully to “recycling” type thinking. It felt to me as improvised and honestly, not super grounded. But not anymore! What I didn’t appreciate is that this platitude was allegorical, the word “trash” represented all those items that the original owner no longer needed, but because of our one-way landfill system, there was no where else for those objects to go.

To show our community - Ottawa - and most especially and hopefully for me, the younger generations - what we mean and that we mean it, we keep thinking big, and we keep on showing up! We’re organizing another Drop and Swap, with support from local volunteers, and with full support and partnership with the City of Ottawa. Before telling the details about the event, I first want to explain a bit why this isn’t just an isolated event, and what principles guided us to organize, volunteer, and take our hope and passion to our community.

OSEAN is a group of volunteers; the outcome of humans converging around a few key values: robust community, environmentalism, and grounded practices. Drop and Swap - though not our idea - is inevitable from this foundation. More specifically, Drop and Swap focuses on circular economy, repair and waste diversion, and strengthening community.

For most objects today, we buy from the store, we use it, sometimes we resell or gift some items, but most of it goes is thrown into the garbage when we’re done with it.
This is a straight line: production ——————→ trash.
Dressers, treadmills, and more, lots of us simply throw things out when we don’t use them anymore, because that’s just ‘where it goes’. However, we can all appreciate that upgrading my dresser doesn’t immediately make my old one useless, it’s just no longer needed by me. This is where the concept of “Circular Economy” comes in.

Raw materials are designed, then produced, then sold, then consumed, then reused / repaired, then collected, then recycled. The key of “circular economy” is adding the steps after consumption, as well as having recycling as the primary stream for end of lifecycle items.

Beyond just recycling our bottles to make more bottles, circularity looks at the whole chain, and looks to keep things that still have value from being considered trash. This can be reselling online, or gifting to people known to us, or donating to a local non-profit. I think these habits are becoming more prevalent in most people’s lives, and I’m thrilled and applaud everyone who takes these steps! I’d like to particularly commend those who do these extra steps with the intention of care for their community!

The idea of a circular economy hinges on a very simple fact; the Earth is finite (and we only have one!). We do not have endless resources, and while trees can be planted and grown, other materials like aluminum or oil (and byproducts like plastic) can be exhausted and used up. Not in our lifetimes perhaps, but certainly in the future. Basing our economy on continuous creation of waste in a planet that cannot grow any larger is a foolhardy path; that same path is also covered with ugly litter strewn about, stinky and expensive city dumps, environmental harm, and negative human health impacts from all the things we throw out.

Reuse and repair is the key step after consumption, and it’s where we’re focusing for the Drop and Swap. OSEAN promotes repair cafés and “buy nothing” groups frequently. Reuse can be repurposing or changing something, such as a cardboard roll to hold an extension cord, or giving it to someone else when you get a replacement, like giving an old toolset to a neighbour when you get a new one.

And being neighbourly is the strongest part of this endeavour! I understand that I just said “give your old tools away for free” and for those of us who know the price of a good tool set, it’s a tough sell. But it’s not for free! The support, trust, connection, and solidarity built through these actions will enrich your life much more than whatever you could’ve gotten off FB marketplace. Perhaps I don’t know how to fix a lawn mower, but my neighbour might - and because of sharing freely, we have the connection and mutuality that I know they would want to help me. (Oh! And they have the tools needed, too, because they still have my old tools I gave 2 springs ago!)

As OSEAN is a volunteer-run group, and we particularly stress replacing money-exchange as a mediator for all interactions with reciprocity and relationships, we are hope to lead the way through example, with our second Drop and Swap event. This event will be April 25th at the RA Centre, 2451 Riverside Drive. The cool free shopping part will be from 10am until 2pm. The awesome “dropping/giving away part” starts the night before from 5-8 pm and continues on Saturday from 9 - 12 pm. We have a comprehensive list of items which we accept. Click here to see the list and learn more about the Drop and Swap

If you want to learn more about reciprocity and building relationships that take us away from a consumer economy and towards a more gift economy, we highly recommend reading The Serviceberry and Braiding Sweetgrass by Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer

Drop and Swap at the RA Centre, 2451 Riverside Drive, on Saturday, April 25th.

Please ensure all items brought to the Drop and Swap are functional, clean, and meet the criteria in the accepted items list.