101 Reasons to Love Estate Sales - #2 Estate Sales Are Good For The Environment

“Nobody wonders where, each day, they carry their load of refuse. Outside the city, surely; but each year the city expands, and the street cleaners have to fall farther back. The bulk of the outflow increases and the piles rise higher, become stratified, extend over a wider perimeter.” – Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

We live in a world where new and shiny is  seen as being better than lovingly used.  But that mindset is one of the reasons we find ourselves living in a time where American's makes more than 200 million tons of garbage each year.  When we when we think of landfills we  often think of plastic, aluminum and paper waste that comes from our everyday use, but landfills are full of everything from old couches to microwaves, they literally are filled with items we deemed un-saveable or not worth the effort to save.

By buying items at an estate sale you are working against that mentality. You are giving a new life to an item that might otherwise have been thrown away or discarded.  There is a beauty in that action, a concern and a compassion for the earth we live on and whether you know it or not, your actions are having a profound effect on the way future generations will live and also on how they will shop.

Just think of all the old furniture, kitchenware, tools, toys and electronics you see at estate sales.  With each purchase you are not only keeping landfills from growing larger, but you are not taking part in the manufacturing of newer items which are not needed.  As you teach your children to value reuse over mass consumption you are helping to shape a better society.  And you thought all your were doing was buying the perfect vintage lamp ;)

Fewer items in the landfill, fewer raw materials used, less energy spent & zero packaging costs - it’s truly amazing what a positive impact estate sales have on the environment and as such they should be embraced by our society..

I had always suspected that one could build an entire house from what went into the landfill, and sure enough, it's true." - Dan Phillips

I love this quote.  Dan Phillips is a man who having witnessed the waste that happened in the real estate business, turned to reusing materials and items in new buildings.  If Dan Philips can build houses from what he finds at landfills, just imagine what you could build with what you find at estate sales.

For a little inspiration check out his Ted talk: