There is no local provider for a lot of the things I have been researching, such as ingredients for making soap, so from this experience I realise that it would be beneficial for there to be some kind of ‘on-the-ground’, local support network to assist people to disconnect from their everyday consumerist behaviour.
I have an idea to create some sort of local community, as a co-op or some such structure, to help people with ingredients and with workshops etc., all in the one place. It could even be an outlet of handmade products as a local producer, acting as an alternative to the corporate economy, aiming to be waste free, chemical free, as well as providing a non-commoditised experience.
The proposed name for this community is RELEASE (Relationally-Ethical, Locally-Experienced, Aesthetically-Social Economy. Unfortunately, ‘Release’ has been used since the 1960s in Britain providing services to drug users. Rather than using this name then, an alternative could maybe be “Refill”.
Meanwhile, whilst I am getting on with my own personal transformation by gathering information on materials and recipes for homemade cleaning and personal care products, I am researching possible non-profit structures, such as a co-op. It would be good also to involve the PSST art collective, out of whose activities much of this alternative-consumption theory originates (we make things rather than buying them).
I can also see the need for some sort of interactive website with a database.