Swap Market in Copenhagen June 2013

This summer in Copenhagen a new sustainable trend has come to life. It's called SWAP MARKETS and it can be described as a mash up of a flea market and the swapping booth found in recycling stations.
This concept is absolutely ingenious and here is how it works: We all have quite a lot of stuff at home that we don't use or use very infrequently (don't we?). And while it's not broken it may also have some affection value, so we just keep it laying around, cluttering our personal space.
But don't despair! A swap market is the solution for both de-cluttering as well as creating a more stable (circular) economy where we don't senselessly buy and throw away things.
And it is simple: a market is set on a fixed day and location by the volunteer swap market staff. They provide all the physical surroundings; tables, chairs, coffee + tea and even a band! Then you show up with all the stuff you don't need anymore and place it on the tables by category: women's clothing, kids' clothing, kitchen stuff, books, electronics, etc.
And then you walk around and TAKE anything you want or need! It's that awesome!! The pictures following are taken at a swap market in Frederiksberg, where Flaskedrengene who are (very fittingly) playing on empty bottles gave a rocking performance! You might think: how good can they be playing acoustically on just bottles but trust me: they were very good! They covered materials from Toto to Rihanna and it sounded great.
So now if you are curious of when the next market will be or want to participate as a volunteer to be a part of making Denmark a more sustainable place check out their blog.

Flaskedrengene (The Bottleneck Boys) giving it up!

Lots of outdoor swapping booths and perfect weather

There was focus on recycling with an exibition 
inside the premises

Dresses had been made out of recycled materials 
and were auctioned away

Here is my catch of the day: 3 pairs of cool plastic shoes,
 as well as a neck tube made of cotton.
 I am wearing a H&M Conscious Collection SS 13 playsuit.

For my son

For my daughter

Beyond Green Economy - SACRED ECONOMICS Conference in Copenhagen

Sometimes your life is changed in most unanticipated ways. And sometimes you do have a premonition about that there is going to be a life changing event in your life - and you make sure that you are in the right place at the right moment. A moment like that happened to me last sunday when I attended the conference BEYOND GREEN ECONOMY @ Copenhagen Business School.

I have for a while now looked into the Transition movement as well as the concept of Circular Economy. Concepts that looked like the only way out of the economic dead end our world is stuck in today - but as much as I wanted to believe these concepts could work I could not entirely understand how? We can not proceed as before, fantasizing about how more economic growth will save us all, when there are clear limits to growth, as there are in any ecosystem. The Earth is no exception - and we have reached the limits of Homo sapiens' growth curve.

What follows can only be a decline until a stable population size is established. When we look at bacteria in a Petri dish, this is merely a scientific fact. But when we look at the human population the prospects become gruelling. Is this what we want? To try to push the limits, until the limits are pushing us back and we are at the point where truly only the strongest survive?

And who will be the strongest at that point? Real human individuals or the power mastodonts of our age: Corporations? It seems as if the corporations already have won the arms race, for we blindly believe that we MUST work harder, longer and in boring & unrewarding corporate jobs, to buy more and more and more things and services that the corporations produce.

Am I not right? Or who do YOU work for? For you? For food to eat, a place to live, time to spend with your family, friends and with yourself? Or for more and more things and services that cost money? And how are we going to cope globally if money ceased to exist in the form and with the financial banking system as we know today?

If there was a Basic Income guaranteed for every human on the planet, will it not result in chaos and competition (more than the chaos and competition already caused by our global economic system)?

Interesting thoughts like these were ewoked during the conference, and especially during the very inspiring talks by Charles Eisenstein, the author of Sacred Economics.

I realized that I was right in believing in that more spirituality in our daily lives was the answer. I realized that I am so right, in my fight against the separation we have endured - from nature, from our children, from our family and friends, and from our own bodies and spirits.

I feel more at peace now. I believe - more now - that things will be alright.

GREENHUNTER will continue to work actively on the green transition of our consumerism, on the reconnection to our true human nature, and the reconnection to our origin: the Universe. 

Join me in the search for information for a positive future for us. You might want to look into the links posted here, and especially the concepts of: Gift Economy, Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) and read the book Sacred Economics.

CLICK HERE for more info about the conference

Charles Eisenstein - Author of Sacred Economics

Classic Capitalism encourages people to focus on maximizing their profit on every thing they purchase. Gift Economy makes people focus on maximizing the size of the gift they want to give. Think about it - it's basic human nature :) Wouldn't you act the same way if you considered giving a gift to someone?