My year of buying nothing
Rob’s goal is to practise a zero-waste life – and he’s decided 2017 is the year when he doesn’t buy a single new thing
SO WHAT did you decide to do at the start of this year when it was resolution-making time? Stop smoking? Give up that nightly glass of wine? Do more for charity? Recycle? Well, good for you – but chances are whatever you planned pales in comparison to this guy’s mission.
Rob Greenfield is so determined to leave the world a better place he has vowed not to buy anything new for the whole of 2017 – his aim is to reduce the amount of waste he puts on the already pollution-clogged planet.
The US adventurer and environmentalist started making waves last year when he created a suit out of trash to demonstrate how much waste one person generates in a month.
For the whole of September, Rob (30) added each day’s waste to his suit, tacking everything from cereal boxes to cooldrink cans, plastic bottles and magazines onto it and wearing the suit every time he went out to demonstrate how much rubbish the average American generates.
Now he’s going one step further in his quest to make Earth a better place – by showing it’s possible to meet your needs without buying more stuff.
“It’s easy to just run out to the store or go online and buy anything we need because we live in a society that has made shopping so convenient,” he says. “But the problem is all this stuff causes real environmental destruction.”
Rob is the first to admit the challenge is probably easier for him than it would be for most people. He’s been simplifying his life for the past five years and has already drastically reduced his needs and consumption.
“I own fewer than 111 possessions and practise a mostly zero-waste life,” he says on his blog. “Because of this I already buy very little stuff and I’m happy and comfortable this way.”
But that doesn’t mean buying nothing new for an entire year isn’t a challenge. “Nothing new for a week would be easy. Nothing new for a month would take a little preparation. But nothing new for a year is uncharted territory for me.”
So far, so good though – Rob got through January, February and most of March without buying anything new at all. “Buying very little new and buying absolutely nothing new are two different ball games and it’s been a great challenge so far,” he says on his blog. “It’s really forced me to stick to my beliefs.”
Anything second-hand is fine but he won’t accept anything new anyone might give him as that has the same environmental impact as if he’d bought it himself and toiletries are “a grey area”. He allows himself to buy essentials such as toothpaste and soap. “But I keep them to a minimum and will seek ways to find
these second-hand too.”
Food has its own rule. “I can buy new food, but not new food accessories. However a good portion of my food does come from dumpster diving so a lot of my food will actually be food that was wasted.”
Not for the fainthearted, this.
HE USED to be a beer-chugging university student who wanted to make pots of cash. After earning a biology degree Rob worked as an advertising sales agent and says he intended to become a millionaire by the time he was 30.
Then, in 2011, he “woke up” to the impact humans are having on the planet and set about transforming himself from an environmental nuisance into “a dude making a difference”.
“We live in an era when it’s so easy to have no idea of how any of our daily actions impact our community, humankind, other species or Earth as a whole,” he says, chatting to YOU from the United States.
Six years ago he started his own marketing company for environmental issues, The Greenfield Group, and in 2013 he cycled 7 600 km around the US to raise awareness of ecological issues.
During this trip he used only 610 litres of water and generated just 900 g of trash. Up to 70 percent of what he ate was leftover food. “I’m always looking for ways to get people to think about how their actions affect the world around them,” he says.
Last year he hit on the idea of the trash suit. “I thought, what better way to bring attention to how much trash we create than to wear it on me everywhere I go? No out-of-sight, out-of-mind mentality is possible that way!”
For a month he “lived like the average American”, eating takeaway meals, buying plastic bags every time he shopped and not recycling anything. Because most Americans waste roughly 20 percent of the food they buy, he did the same.
“The suit got really stinky so I stored it in the freezer then weighed it every few days and replaced [the food waste] with dried rice.”
He also cleaned the trash so the suit mostly contained metal, cardboard, plastic, dry food and glass, he says.
Rob now uses the suit to raise awareness, especially at schools, and feels his campaign was a success. “Countless people told me they were inspired and began making changes in their lives so they don’t create so much trash,” he says.
“But there was also a fair share of people who just didn’t get it and thought it was absolutely stupid.”
ROB last showered in 2013 and prefers to wash himself in the ocean or use natural water sources. He also doesn’t own a car, travels mostly by bike and doesn’t have a credit card or retirement savings plan.
He’s not a rich kid who lives off his parent’s money, he says. He has an ecofriendly house in San Diego, California – which he calls the Teeny Greeny – in someone’s backyard. He doesn’t pay rent for the property and instead pays his landlord by doing odd jobs. He doesn’t have electricity in his house and survives by keeping his expenses to a minimum and making money from his marketing company.
He had a vasectomy when he was 25 because he “refuses to support the pharmaceutical industry” when it comes to contraception and also feels birth control isn’t only a woman’s responsibility.
“What I do is extreme. I’m not trying to get anyone to do what I do, but rather to practise moderation in their lives.
“We can all do so much – from carrying a reusable water bottle and ditching bottled water to bringing our own reusable bags to the store, composting our food scraps and yard waste rather than throwing it away and eating our food and not wasting it.”
His girlfriend of the past two years, Cheryl Davies, practices holistic medicine and is also involved in environmental activism. “My friends and family support me fully,” Rob says. “People seem to be attracted to people who are deeply passionate about what they’re doing and have a true sense of purpose in life.”
And they don’t come more passionate or purposeful than this.
‘I’m not trying to get anyone to do what I do, but rather to practise moderation’
EXTRA SOURCES: ROBGREENFIELD.TV, ROBGREENFIELD.TV/ BLOG