Sunday, 10 November 2013

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #36 Repair your Handbag

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #36 Repair your Handbag


A couple of weeks ago I went to a local family business that sells handbags and suitcases to see if they could make a copy of a favourite handbag of mine. It was 30 years old and had been repaired so many times I’d lost count. Sadly it was beyond repair and even more sadly the family business has stopped making bags because of cheap imports.
Anyway, we struck up a conversation about the state of things, and I was shown out the back to see the huge number of bags that had been repaired that week. Unfortunately I also saw a large number of suitcases that were ready to go to landfill. One thing that has come from the GFC is that people are having things repaired rather than replaced. Before throwing away your old handbag or suitcase, see if it can be repaired.
P.S. I still haven’t thrown away that old bag. Because it was made of kid leather I have given it to my bookbinder daughter to use the best parts of the leather to bind a book.

No comments: