ARISING from Disruption #6 Helen Barry, War on Waste Weekly, says we are resilient, we can adapt and change with the needs of the times. She’s trusting her instincts. lowering her expectations and knitting at night. Helen reckons as a result of this pandemic disruption, companies will be more agile and processes will be overhauled to make things more cost effective and efficient. Maybe more people than ever will continue to work from home or be self employed. Notes from this conversation are below.
What Helen Barry said:
So far we are going OK during the pandemic lockdown. Our life has changed a lot, the kids are off school and childcare, I’m now working from home with family here and my husband’s business in hibernation. We are adapting and trying to look at the positives.
My career was as a magazine journalist and after I had children, I was inspired by the ABC documentary War on Waste to think about how I can make a difference. I created an online magazine and website to educate people about small changes they can make to help the planet. That was 18 months ago and along the way I learned how to make my own soap, which is a joyous thing that gave me another creative outlet. My business is making soap which I sell through waronwasteweekly.com.au website. I was hoping to pivot into hand sanitizer, but red-tape around insurance and product standards made that difficult for small makers. I’m looking at new products – such as a harder bar for hand soap and a bar which splits in two. Money is tight now and making things go further and last longer is good – and it’s a good way to reduce waste too. We are bringing ideas into this new situation. And while we are not taking our plastics back to supermarket as much as before, our philosophy of less waste remains the same.
Was interested in reducing our waste as a family – reducing one thing each week – composting, recycling plastics, no single use products more reuseable things. Now we are just keeping things as simple as possible. If I have eggs, milk, flour, fruit and vegetables – can make do with that. Don’t need specialty items to make life complete. In wartime, rationing was a huge thing. This is first time my generation has experienced this toilet-paper fiasco, and resources are tight. We don’t want to waste anything, even more so than before. It is a wakeup call – we don’t really need much to get by.
I had grandparents who were very self-sufficient – always composting and reusing thing. I remember grandma telling me about dresses made from flour sacks, being aware that things were repaired and not thrown away. They didn’t have the throwaway culture that I grew up with in the ‘80s that if something broke you just threw it out and got a new one (or you put in a drawer and thought you might get to it). Learned that value of appreciating and looking after things. At times like this, when supply chains are cut and we can’t get hold of things in quite the same way, you can’t just have whatever you want immediately. This is re-educating people to value what they have and make it last a bit longer. This has given me more reason to be self-sufficient than before. Before, I was just worried about the planet, now I’m worried about the planet and my own family’s health.
Tips:
Just take it one day at a time, lower your expectations, some days we don’t get very much done. Routine has gone out the window, days are dictated by how we are feeling or what the weather is doing. We don’t actually have to achieve anything in this period, let go of that idea, focus on surviving. All we need to do is survive and help as many vulnerable people in the community to do the same.
Daily routines are my husband takes two children out for bike ride so I can get some work done. I work in short sharp bursts instead of doing whole days, grab snatches of time. Trying to be kind to myself, saying this is OK, don’t have to be perfect and do it all right.
Changes:
This will reinforce the slow movement. We really need to slow down. The most important thing right now, is get to grips where we are at and lower our expectations. It’s two-fold: think about where we are now and take it day by day, rather than being overwhelmed about when we are going to get out of this situation. On the other side, we will appreciate gathering more. After spending a lot of time being online, we will find going outside and reconnecting with people a more joyous experience than ever before. Appreciate things more because been denied them for so long.
It has made us more focused on living locally, supporting smaller local businesses in our own community. After this, perhaps big global supply chains will be a thing of the past. Hope get back into more local manufacturing, making and valuing things that are handmade and crafted. We don’t need to buy something from China that is sent over on a ship and takes weeks to get here, when we buy something from two suburbs away. We were removed from things, things that came from other places and magically appeared in shops – we had no idea of where they come from.
Fashion is going through a revolution now, as people are becoming more aware of these things. Being told NO, you can’t go shopping, it is only essentials now and that really does make you more resourceful, being told to only shop local. It makes you think about what you can do, adapt your own clothes, get out the sewing machine and not waste money. It is time for people to consolidate what they have and be more resourceful.
Live locally, and family becomes the centre of the home again. Who would have thought Australia’s children would all be home and being home schooled? Women are buying flour and making bread – it is quite a wonderful time in a lot of ways. It is reconnecting people with what matters, and the simple things in life really are the things that give you the most joy. You don’t need a Louis Vuitton handbag to feel complete.