Terrific for Terra

https://refreshglass.com/

If you are anything like me, this is the time of year you suddenly realize you don’t have enough flutes and glasses to properly toast in the New Year. Why add to the already burgeoning mounds of recycling or, God forbid, landfill? The cool company Refresh Glass (refreshglass.com) creates pretty and eco-efficient drinking glasses from rescued wine bottles. Cheers!

Open Your Home

    I think that once the pandemic is truly over, it's time to start thinking about treating ourselves to vacations. The gift economy is a really helpful concept for the budget-conscious, and it can help you, too. It may be time to reexamine everything you thought you couldn’t do and see if there is another way. Vacationing is a good example- you can trade homes and explore what you could not afford before, while offering the same in return. This free accommodation exchange will give you a really unique and much more personal view of a new place as well as a way to connect with people who live there. The idea is not new; Servas International (servas.org) was founded in 1949 and is recognized by the United Nations as a hospitality network. Check out the wildly successful and well organized CouchSurfing (couchsurfing.org) and Hospitality Club (hospitalityclub.org). And take time to look around the web; there are many similar, smaller initiatives online catering to the budget traveler or people wanting to take a volunteer vacation in another hemisphere.

Participate in the Gift Economy

    Free markets are one of the ways that people have figured out how to cooperate when finances are uncertain. It is one of my absolute favorite examples of a gift economy, where people come together with items to give away or share. The Really Really Free Market (reallyreallyfree.org) is a great prototype. No money exchanges hands. Participants simply bring their offerings and display them communally, but also social distancing, of course.

    People also bring their expertise and talents to share: lawyers, musicians, jugglers, gardeners, ecologists, hairdressers, tarot readers, and cookie bakers are all there enjoying this unique marketplace. It provides as much diversity as the market economy, and for free!

    The Really Really Free Market website lists 34 regular free markets happening in states across the US and another ten or so worldwide in places like Pertgh, Australia. Your city could be next.