Forteen days in two jars | Day 8–10–12

Day 8

The second week started with a change: I decided not to use make-up removal pads anymore, because they are a waste that I produce every day. I also decided to eliminate the make-up remover: in the past, it has happened to me several times to replace it with simple olive oil, for example when make-up remover was finished. Oil is more effective for make-up removal because it dissolves the oily components present in beauty products and promotes skin hydration. Also, looking on the web for alternative ways to remove make-up I discovered that cotton pads can be replaced by a microfibre cloth, you just wet it with warm water and wipe off your face to remove all make up residues. This way, I can eliminate the daily use of pads and chemical agents on the skin, which in addition to being aggressive are also expensive.

Day 10

My roommate threw three exhaust lighters into her jar: since they are made from components of different materials and difficult to separate, they must be thrown into the residual waste bin. Jokingly, we thought that it almost never happens that we have to throw a lighter because, usually, they simply get lost. This made me think about the disposable product concept. Nowadays, products are not made to last longer, but to replace others that must be thrown away. Born to expand the user base, lowering its economic and symbolic value, to simplify people’s lives (I think of plastic plates and glasses), they only led to the uncontrolled consumption that sees an object as waste as soon as it has fulfilled its function, eliminating also the affective value that the objects of the past possessed.

In an essay, Diego Viale says: “The throwaway civilization — which is the landing point of consumerism — that is, of a social organization that is perpetuated through the multiplication of the merchandise — finds its premises in an unlimited collection of natural resources as in an unlimited accumulation of waste”.

Day 12

Big house cleaning: my roommate decided to throw away all the scraps of fabric that she no longer needs to make room. She tells me she should throw them in the unsorted waste, but they don’t fit in her jar. I think of an alternative and I am reminded of the Fashion Lab at Politecnico. I have never used it, but I know that, as in other labs, scraps of material are also stored to allow other students to use them.

Therefore, I think the real problem is actually our lack of interest, the thought that the time spent trying to think of a solution (separating the materials or taking them to the appropriate bin) is lost and taken away from other things, because often the alternative to the unsorted waste bin is right under our eyes.