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How to Buy Nothing By Embracing the Gift Economy

How to Buy Nothing By Embracing the Gift Economy

Gifting economies foster social bonds, strengthen communities, encourage responsible decluttering, and prevent new items from entering the waste stream. On this episode of The Sustainable Minimalists podcast: The benefits of joining your local Buy Nothing chapter (instead of a Buy/Sell/Trade group); tangible ways to embrace gifting in a capitalist society, too. 


How to Buy Nothing By Joining a Gift Economy

 

Have you ever heard the popular saying, “Nothing in life is free”? Thanks to Buy Nothing groups, this platitude isn’t *exactly* true.

Gifting has been around for almost as long as humans, and such economies rely on relationships—not personal gain—to spread love and share resources. And although market economies have pushed gifting aside in recent centuries, gifting is making a comeback in a big way.

The benefits of Buy Nothing groups are many; the drawbacks are few. Such groups foster social bonds, strengthen communities, encourage responsible decluttering, and prevent new items from entering the waste stream.

My guest this week is Jennifer Lansdowne Rockenbaugh. Jennifer divulges the ins and outs of joining a gift economy; she outlines her extensive volunteer experience with The Buy Nothing Project, too.

Here’s a preview of today’s episode:

[12:00] Is intrinsic privilege associated with gift economies?

[15:45] 2 ways to embrace gifting in a capitalist society

[20:25] The fundamental differences between your local Buy Nothing group and a Buy/Sell/Trade group

 

Happy listening!

 


 

Want more episodes like this one? Check out #104: Eco-Friendly Communities and Why We Need Each Other.

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Gifting economies foster social bonds, strengthen communities, encourage responsible decluttering, and prevent new items from entering the waste stream. On this episode of The Sustainable Minimalists podcast: The benefits of joining your local Buy Nothing chapter (instead of a Buy/Sell/Trade group); tangible ways to embrace gifting in a capitalist society, too. 

Gifting economies foster social bonds, strengthen communities, encourage responsible decluttering, and prevent new items from entering the waste stream. On this episode of The Sustainable Minimalists podcast: The benefits of joining your local Buy Nothing chapter (instead of a Buy/Sell/Trade group); tangible ways to embrace gifting in a capitalist society, too. 

Gifting economies foster social bonds, strengthen communities, encourage responsible decluttering, and prevent new items from entering the waste stream. On this episode of The Sustainable Minimalists podcast: The benefits of joining your local Buy Nothing chapter (instead of a Buy/Sell/Trade group); tangible ways to embrace gifting in a capitalist society, too. 

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Fossil fuels power our modern lives, and yet fossil fuels are also powering global warming. Because many of us lack the self-sufficient skills necessary to survive an extended power outage event, we are one thing and one thing only: vulnerable.

We have become over-reliant on the very thing that's destroying our planet. On today's show: Imagining the ways in which modern life, interpersonal connections, well-being and more would change in a hypothetical, fossil fuel-free world.

 

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Hello there, I’m Stephanie. I live a crazy, beautiful life as a full-time wife, blogger + mother to two spirited daughters. I’m on a mission to simplify eco-friendly living so as to greater enjoy life’s sweeter moments.

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