Waste Not, Want Not
Trudy-Anne Doyle has another name for online shopping – “buying shit by finger”.
If you want to see this Mount Gambier mum-of-four get feisty and the blood rise in her cheeks, talk to her about the world’s rising recycling and waste problems.
Standing atop a teetering pile of broken office chairs, dirty nappies and discarded clothing at Mount Gambier’s Caroline landfill site, a tiny conqueror clad in a second-hand dress, the scale of the problem seems daunting.
“There’s 500,000 tonnes of clothes sent to landfill every year by Australians,” she says.
“The garments are created in overseas sweatshops, we buy it online, wear it once and then throw it out. What are we doing?
“I don’t know what the answer is but it’s sheer stupidity.”
Taking on a challenge not to buy anything new for a year more than a decade ago, Trudy-Ann just kept on going.
The last time Trudy-Anne remembers buying anything new was maternity clothes when she was pregnant with her daughter Eleanor, now 12 years old.
“Hang on,” she pauses. “I bought a tennis skirt for 30 cents from the Target closing down sale last year to stop it going into landfill. Does that count?”
Now, recycling and reusing have become a way of life.
Dressing in the clothes other people discard, Trudy-Anne has become famous for her unique sense of retro, anything-goes style.
As a volunteer three days a week at the Belltower Op-shop, she’s often shocked by the sheer volume of clothing coming in, with price tags still swinging.
Equally galling to Trudy-Anne is the amount of clothing that is deemed ‘not suitable for sale’.
The unwanted clothing is sent overseas to be sorted and sold although as much as 25 per cent is returned to Australia as rags.
The national discard average for op-shops hovers around 14 per cent but Trudy-Anne and the Belltower team have worked to get theirs down to 5 per cent by doing a little washing or spot cleaning here and there.
However, fossicking around in the discard bin is where she finds many of her own treasures, long 1970s pantsuits, perky berets, safari suits, vintage blouses.
“There’s a BIG difference between cool old and dreadful old,” she says.
Anything torn or stained goes to Mount Gambier’s Recycled Runway event, a concept Trudy-Anne dreamed up eight years ago.
Eager competitors are given a bag of unsellable clothes to fashion into something new and then parade their creations down a runway to an appreciative audience.
“It’s jaw-dropping what they come up with. I’m shocked every single time,” Trudy-Anne says.
It’s a fun way to remove the ‘grotty’ aspect of second-hand, she believes.
“It’s nice to think we can put a bit of sparkle on recycling and make it fun.”
Heaven for Trudy-Anne is visiting a virgin op shop, the lure of what unwanted treasures might be tucked away on the shelves and racks drags her in the door every time.
Often, with a reluctant daughter rolling her eyes and trailing four steps behind.
“My kids think I’m kind of embarrassing but sometimes they think it’s cool,” she laughs.
“I think my record is 17 op shops on one trip. It’s my idea of heaven, just thinking what could be in there and all those groovy things.”
Nothing is off limits, even underwear.
“I buy the underwear that comes into the op shop. Often it hasn’t even been used,” she says, matter-of-factly.
At the end of the day, change begins with the actions of one person.
“You sometimes feel like a bit of a loner idiot out there,” she says, “but now there’s plenty of others on board.”
“If we all just looked at what we’ve got, I think there is probably enough clothes here in Australia to last us all for years.”