Recycled Market (Get excited!)

Oh boy oh boy oh boy!!!

I feel like a kid on Christmas morning!  I have discovered a new toy — read: “website” — that is a marketplace for buying and selling recycled, upcycled and repurposed goods!  Yes!!!  So many GPP dreams coming true all in one place!

This is me literally jumping for joy. (Don't take this as an example of my dancing skills.)

Ok… calming down time…

(but no, really, when I found this website, I literally said to Josh “Oh boy oh boy oh boy!!!”)

Recycled-Market.com is a new website recently founded by two individuals, Erica and Lester, who are based in Australia.  They were seeking an online marketplace where 100% of the products were reclaimed or recycled.  Unable to find such an outlet, they sought to fill this need themselves.

Here’s their fabulous mission statement:

(directly from recycled-market.com)

Recycled Market is a unique online venue that encourages buyers and sellers to reduce, reuse, redesign, refashion, rework and recycle as much as possible. We are a are global marketplace focused on showcasing stylish handmade and ethically manufactured pieces made from recycled materials. Our aim is to offer a wide range of recycled products, ranging from readjusted clothing, upcycled jewellery, accessories, through to artwork, toys, homewares and gifts, created from recycled or reclaimed material, supplies needed to produce recycled goods, patterns, tutorials, and so much more. Recycled Market showcases independent artisan’s creative, exclusive eco-design.

Recycled Market:

• Promotes and sells handmade, and ethically manufactured recycled products
• Encourages artisans to utilise recycled materials
• Offers consumers the chance to purchase unique products which are friendly to our planet

(If that mission statement was a person, I’d give it a big hug.  Or buy it a drink.  Hm…)

Did I mention how much I love their logo? Yeah, I'm smitten...

If you browse over to their website, you will see that most of the items are rather pricey, i.e., non-GPP friendly.  I attribute most of this to the fact that this is a brand spankin’ new website, so they have not acquired that many sellers… yet.  However, with their smashingly good mission statement and the nudge of a few folks via social media and word-of-mouth (wink), I’ve no doubt that the website will grow, as will the price range (hopefully, for the benefit of penny pinchers like myself).

In addition to the higher-than-I’d-liked-them-to-be price tags, the website also comes with a few other quirks: prices are listed in Australian dollars as well as U.S. dollars.  However, from what I can tell, you simply select your form of currency to make a purchase; there are no other hoops to jump through.

Despite the fact that this website is a little more expensive than desirable, it meets another one of my requirements in that all of the items are recycled, reclaimed, repurposed, re-whatever (they kind of all mean the same thing, and I talk about them a lot here, here, here, and here).

Recycled Market also meets another requirement that I seek to fill as often as possible: it is an opportunity to give my business to some place other than a  big box store or corporation (and you have to admit, regardless of your ideology, you’re probably getting a little disenchanted with a lot of their business practices).  But… breaking away from the discounted prices of a bigger store can be difficult, especially if you’re strapped for cash.  However, I feel that any impact is a big one, so if you can only do this every once in a while, that’s better than if you had never tried in the first place.

(Occupy Small Street, anyone???)

Ok, so check out the website:  Recycled-Market.com, and let me know what you think.  If you like what you see, bookmark it, keep checking back, spread the word, all that good stuff.

And if you like what you see here, do the same things!

(and SUBSCRIBE!)

***P.S.—  I have set a lofty goal of posting every week day … from now on.  Do you think I can do it???  Or will you miss me on weekends?  Or is this more GPP than you can handle?  Stick around.  I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve.