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sharing-station.mdwn

Background

I live in one of the 2 poorest neighborhoods in this city. Some streets are decorated with trash all the time, especially around the huge waste containers. Buildings are very old here and look bad. People leave things they don’t use, especially food, on the street every day. And every day people walk there and take the food. People send hands into the trash all the time, looking for food or clothing or other things they can use.

Some of the waste containers have been replaced with new ones recently. These new ones allow to separate organic waste from the rest, which is good, but it makes it much harder for those poor people to reach the waste inside and find food, and there’s often a lot of trash around the containers, taken by the winds to fill the streets.

There are also problems not specific to this place. We’re trashing the planet. Making a lot of Stuff that quickly gets thrown away, buying much much more than we really need. See [[Story of Stuff|storyofstuff.org]] for more info. They have videos I recommend very much.

The Idea

I started a small “stuff sharing station” at the corner of the street, close to some waste containers of the older kind and a paper container (for recycling). There are cardboard containers standing in a line, are above them I put signs which assign kinds of items. There’s a container for shirts, a container for shoes, a container for bottles and so on. I’m gradually adding more.

The concept is simple. You bring things you don’t need, and you take things you need.

Recently I found a chair (the office kind you can use with a desk) near the trash containers, which seems old and dusty, but otherwise perfectly valid. My girlfriend and I took it home, cleaned it a bit and I’ll probably be using it instead of my current chair. And that chair will go back the community, hopefully in the same way I got this new chair now.

This event with the chair, and watching the Story of Stuff videos recently, have inspired me to start the sharing station.

Good Results

I’m getting a lot of attention, most of it very positive. People like what I’m doing there, and they are bringing stuff they don’t need. The boxes are getting filled.

Peoplw also brought some food. Perhaps I’ll add a container for food too. But it has to be clearly visible. If food is wrapped and not visible enough, those who need it won’t see it at all.

Bad Results

Boxes get emptied, partially or fully, but I’m not sure people taking the stuff are really the ones who need them. Some people, possibly from the [[!wikipedia Bedouin]] villages, tend to steal these kinds of things, even cars and large metal containers (for selling the metal). Do they pick up the stuff too? I don’t know.

Some people have been telling me it won’t work. They think people will be selfish and ruin the whole thing, taking all the stuff for themselves.

The worst thing is that someome has been destroying my work. The first time, they just took away the containers, so I brought new ones. Someone told me it was the guy who cleans the street early in the morning did it. So I woke up one day in 6 AM, took my guitar (I just play some chords) and went to sit in the sharing station and see if anyone comes. I also put a large clear sign with huge text size, asking the city employees who take care of trash not to take away the containers I put there.

In 7:30 AM I went home, ate breakfast and went to job-just-for-money. An hour or two later due to a certain incident, I visited home for a few minutes, and on the way there I passed near the sharing station (I do every day) and it wasn’t there anymore. Someone not only took the containers, but also made effort to tear off all the signs I made.

I looked in the those waste containers standing nearby, and all the things were in there. All the containers and all the signs. I didn’t have time to fix everything, but I put the containers back to where they should be, and put the signs inside the containers for now, until I tie them back to be above the containers. I already had a plan to tie them in a better way, so I’d probably take them off eventually to put new ones, but I’m worried. Someone is intentionally doing this, and they don’t read signs, or can’t read, or just ignore them for some reason.

I can’t guard the place all the time. But I have to find out who did it and talk to them.

I got much much more positive feedback than negative feedback, and it motivates make to keep doing this even if I have to fight these cases of people ruining things and taking stuff they don’t really use personally. Poverty and cultural gaps and presence of weak or oppressed minorities causes a lot of selfishness. Also there are people who walk in the streets all day, taking people’s old furniture and electric devices (like laundry machines and TVs) for selling. For them, some stuff put freely on the street, like this chair I may put there, can be a source of income and they may decide to take the selfish route and just take the stuff they find for selling, rather than free giving or personal use.

I’ll have to solve these problems and get these people’s cooperation. There’s also some old abandoned small building near the sharing station, which I could try using if the place grows. Like a free-as-in-freedom tool and stuff giving and lending library. If people can participate and arrange for constant presence of a “librarian”, it will help protecting the things against selfish actions, and hopefully allow the poorer and less poorer people to meet and talk.

[See repo JSON]