|
ALL AT SEA
Jill Roberson of The Living Rooms, one of Norfolk’s biggest ethical trading outlets, puts her oar in about recycling timber rowing boats.
Last month I wrote about the use of timber in Indonesia – and it is to that country that I return this month.
In the weeks leading up to Christmas, one of our most popular items here at The Living Rooms have been wooden ‘boat boxes’ – shelving units made from a cut-in-half traditional wooden Indonesian rowing boat.
When these arrived in a container in November, we were curious. Why were fishermen cutting their boats in half to make furniture? It hardly smacked of sustainability. So we delved a bit deeper to find out.
It seems that much of the aid which has gone to that part of the world following the tsunami is going in as equipment, rather than money. Which makes a lot of sense – why send cash if there is nothing useful to spend it on?
The equipment being provided tends to be ‘modern’ equivalents of what is needed. So tractors and trailers, for instance, and fibreglass boats. The Indonesians are delighted about this, and you can’t really blame them for wanting to ‘trade up’, even if it does mean replacing the traditional carts and wooden boats.
But whereas in the West we tend to dump old technology when we move on, in the developing world they take a different view. What to do if you are left with a redundant wooden boat because you have a spanking new fibreglass one? Try and re-use it, of course, and what better way than to create a piece of furniture that can be sold in the west, especially if that can be achieved through the ethical trading route, as in our case.
I think we have much to learn here. We do have a tendency to want other people to retain the traditional, and this is a view which is patronising, especially when we are quick to embrace new technology ourselves. But as our landfill sites overflow, shouldn’t we be more intelligent in how we re-use the things we no longer need?
Finally, January is the time for good resolutions. For those of you resolving to buy more ethically in 2008 (and the evidence suggests there are quite a lot of you), can I recommend www.ethical-junction.org, a very useful website which can help you find ethical suppliers right across the country. Oh, and do keep reading Eco Echo, of course!
Article published in Eco Echo December 2007 |
