The ease with which we used to purchase things overseas is quickly changing due to the pandemic and climate change.
Many consumers are starting to think more about how and where they spend their money.
It's a good time to consider what it really means to buy sustainably and locally.
Three Newcastle businesses producing and selling predominantly home-grown products are Mick Ritter's Round 2 Timbers, Jess Hodge's Resourceful Living, and Herb Urban, owned by Jared Lawlor.
Of the three, Round 2 Timbers has been around the longest, beginning in 2010.
"There were two guys, Jason Davin and Justin Moon, who got the initial idea and started to try to recycle a bit of timber, and I guess it's grown from there," Ritter says.
Ritter, a traditional furniture maker, bought in and gradually took over.
For the past eight years Round 2 Timbers has operated from Clyde Street in Hamilton North. The business employs 10 people and is continuing to grow. Ritter reckons they're almost too big for their current location.
Round 2 Timbers pay for timber people dump in their driveways. The timber mostly comes from the Hunter Valley, Lake Macquarie and the Central Coast.
After it arrives, Round 2 Timbers sort it into sizes and quantities, removing nails and metal (by hand), and then putting it through a metal detector. Next the wood goes to the workshop. They have their system down to a fine art and even have a flow chart to describe it on their website.
"The more development, the more that gets knocked over, that's our supply and our market. For everything that gets bulldozed, we inevitably make something to replace it, whether it's residential or commercial," Ritter says.
In a year they probably process 200 cubic metres of timber. They have plenty of work, and what they do is not something a lot of businesses pursue as it's incredibly labour intensive.
Some people think that because it's recycled it should be cheaper, but that isn't the case. It's all naturally seasoned timber with unique characteristics. It's more reliable and lasts longer than kiln-dried timber.
"It's two different business models, but the timber that can't get used in furniture, we have to use it somewhere. We can use most of everything that we get," Ritter says.
Because they only use recycled timber from the Hunter region, nothing they sell ever comes straight from an old-growth forest or a wildlife habitat.
"Not everywhere has forestry practices like Western countries," Ritter says.
"A lot of timber in Australia that comes out is called Pacific maple. That basically means it's ripped out of a forest in Asia somewhere, legally or illegally."
He buys more wood than he should. His thinking is the more they take, the less that rots or burns or goes to landfill.
"It's a finite resource. It's going to get more and more scarce, so I keep buying - to everyone else's frustration," he jokes.
Down the road at a factory in Beresfield is another local recycling endeavour, Resourceful Living. Founded by Jess Hodge and her husband Geoff, the business recycles plastic from the region and turns it into colourful furniture.
During lockdown, Hodge had noticed that getting items from overseas had become challenging. She saw how slowed supply chains affected consumers over the past 18 months. Her background is marketing, but she started considering where and how things are produced.
"My husband and I are really conscious about our waste and trying to be as eco-friendly as we can. One thing that really got me was how much plastic we throw away," Hodge says.
The two were looking for a recycled coffee table and the only options they could find were old park benches made of recycled plastic. She began to think about alternatives.
"I was like, 'It'd be really cool to have a piece that used to be shampoo bottles or used to be wheelie bins'. That's how the design started," she says.
Geoff's degree in materials engineering came in handy.
Resourceful Living uses HDPE (high density polyethylene plastic) which is often found in cosmetic, laundry detergent, shampoo and conditioner bottles, milk crates and garbage bins. It's cleaned before it arrives, then sorted and shredded.
Hodge's father, David Wiedermann, an electrician, helps them build a sheet press, which she calls a giant sandwich press. It melts down the plastics and then they cut it into designs.
"All our offcuts get shredded back and straight back in. We essentially don't have any plastic waste whatsoever," she says.
"My aim is to be able recycle multiple types of plastic and use them for different sorts of applications."
Along with the factory, they're building a showroom.
"All the plastic we use has been something before. We're not half doing some recycled with brand new plastic," she says.
"I can point out every colour and say 'That used to be a L'Oréal foundation cream bottle' or whatever."
Jared Lawlor operates garden design business Herb Urban out of an Islington workshop that showcases his thriving edibles and ornamentals.
He started the business four years ago and creates gardens for shopfronts and cafes on Beaumont and Darby streets and in homes throughout Newcastle.
He wants to make it easier for different people to easily access fresh, local food. It's more than just local food though; he thinks about sustainability in everything he does.
When possible Lawlor tries to manufacture his planters and growing systems locally and at a high standard, which costs more.
"They're the right prices to support myself and other local businesses," he says. "I could make them at less cost, but the cost gets placed on other people in other countries."
Lawlor's background as an electrical engineer has broadened his perspective on what sustainability means. Working in Australia's industry has taught him that this country does actually have high environmental standards.
"The reason something is cheaper is because, in other countries, the environment or people pay for it," he says.
Lawlor's latest creation is a bespoke piece of engineering he calls "The Balcony" which grows 12 plant pods and harvests produce using sensors and cloud farming technology. It allows people with apartments and smaller homes to easily grow food. He designed the blueprint with Grant Niddrie of Nidd Design, manufactured it in Cardiff with a company called Hydro Laser Cut, and hired a Central Coast team to do the powder coating.
Lawlor knows it's complex and not always easy, but he believes if enough people prioritise local manufacturers and enterprises, we can transition.
No business is perfect, and constantly thinking about where everything you buy comes from can be exhausting. Maybe with some forward thinking now, citizens can use voices and votes to create sustainable, close-looped systems like Ritter, Hodge and Lawlor strive for.
