By Mary O’KEEFE

The total generation of municipal solid waste – garbage – generated by Americans in 2018 was 292.4 million tons or 4.9 pounds per person per day. Note that Americans throw out more than 12 million tons of furniture per year and that amount has grown 450% since the 1960s, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. 

We are a society that thinks, “If it breaks throw it away and get a new one.” Go to any landfill and you will see a lot of sofas, tables and just about everything else you can imagine. The term “throwaway culture” has been used for quite a long time. It is the practice of throwing out something after a single use. 

“Before the days of instant orders, overnight shipping and mass production, people created clothes and other items that lasted for years. Nowadays, you can find everything you need in a single click or tap on a screen. It might make life easier but there is no doubt that it is much worse for the planet,” according to the article “Throwaway Culture Is Drowning the U.S. in Waste” in earth.org.

I grew up with a dad and uncle who could make and fix everything. My dad was a mechanic and welder and he also took classes in engineering. I would work on cars with my dad and loved working in his shop; however, it was my Great Uncle Jess that I really liked working with. 

Uncle Jess was a carpenter. He made tables, chairs and lamps and repaired bikes and clocks … just about everything. 

I loved working on old clocks that people would bring to him to repair. It was such delicate work and it tested my concentration; if I looked away for a second a spring could break. I absolutely loved the feeling of accomplishment when something was repaired. 

As I have written before there are times when it is important for us to take a step back from what is happening in the world. Stepping back allows us to recharge and prepare for what we will be facing in the future. 

One of the ways I like to relax is to repair something that broke instead of throwing it away. I have found my soul mates on the TV show “The Repair Shop.”

“The Repair Shop” is a British series that began in 2017 and continues today. For a while it was on Netflix, but then it left … which broke my heart. Now there are ways you can watch including via a BritBox subscription or through Roku Live. The series highlights these restoration experts who are such amazing artists. People come in with their broken and tattered items – all of which evokes a memory for me. Then these experts take these items and repair them. Sounds like a simple thing, right? Oh my, just wait. 

In an episode I watched over the weekend, a man came into the shop with a handheld light that was once his grandmother’s. He had never seen this lamp lit; though his grandmother had passed he remembered her stories. She was a pit nurse, who traveled into the mines when a miner was hurt, sick or died. She traveled with this little oil lamp that would help lead the way. 

The man shared this story and then added why it was important for him to have this lamp repaired. When he was young, his parents got divorced and instead of the kids going with mom or dad, the siblings were split up and sent to other relatives. He said he was lucky to be sent to his grandmother but then added “Can you imagine?” referencing sending away a young child.

There were a few tears (more actually from me than him) as he shared this story. The restoration artist listened to this story and was fascinated by the lamp, which he had never seen before, but he was also so empathetic to this man’s painful memory. 

Then we saw the artist begin to work on the lamp. He took the entire thing apart. Other artists stopped by to see what he was doing and he asked one who knew electricity to help. 

This is common – the artists collaborate and admire the items that are brought in. They really become part of the item they are repairing, and understand the meaning of the precious memories attached to the items. When the lamp was repaired, the man who had brought it in was obviously moved – remember this is a British show so don’t expect a lot of emotion – but there were signs of how much these items meant to both the people who brought them in and the artists who repaired them. 

The fact that there are people who not only know how to restore items but enjoy it so much is truly uplifting and inspirational. And you learn a lot … like how to get glue off wood without damaging the surface or what type of brush to use on what surface. 

I also like to see people finding ways to save stuff instead of just throwing it away. I also like to see how things that were made 100 years ago seem to outlast products made today. 

I am so inspired that I feel confident in refurbishing a desk Uncle Jess made and repairing a table my great, great uncle carpentered over 100 years ago.

Today our temperatures should reach the high 80s and be mostly clear with a low of 61. On Friday we will again see temperatures in the 80s, with wind gusts up to 15 mph. The marine layer will be moving back in, maybe as early as Saturday but definitely by Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. This will bring slightly cooler temperatures and some drizzle, according to NOAA.