Goedzak: Because One Man’s Trash Is Another Man’s Treasure
As a blogger, you come across plenty of good ideas every day. Sometimes you come across brilliant ideas. The so-called ‘Goedzak’ is such an idea.
Developed by Amsterdam-based product design agency Waarmakers, the Goedzak is a special garbage bag for items that are still usable. ‘Goedzak’ means both ‘good bag’ and ‘do-gooder’ in Dutch. According to designers Simon Akkaya and Maarten Heijltjes, their concept is a friendly way to give products a second chance and stimulate sustainable behavior.
“Whether it’s that purple vase your sister-in-law got you, or that particular coffee-pad-loving coffee machine (you know the one) that’s been lying in the basement for ages; everybody owns items that are no longer of value to them. Every now and then we throw out these items, while they still might be of value and/or useful to others. These items disappear in grey garbage bags and end up on trash piles. Goedzak offers these items a second chance.”
There’s plenty of nice items on the streets during garbage collection times — a good part of my apartment’s interior consists of furniture that I’ve found this way. The Goedzak has the ability to give special attention to the products that are still useful and invite passers-by to take them. The designers are currently looking for a Dutch municipality to roll out an experiment with the bag to see if it works. There’s only one little problem: taking stuff from the streets is considered theft in the Netherlands and therefore illegal. But still…
10 Comments
Brilliant idea! Is taking things from the street theft? I thought if it was on the street, then it was without an owner and therefore you can take it with you. aybe the law has changed? However, great idea!
Bring things to your local goodwill locations instead.
Love this idea. Not only does it show to people things are still useable etc but its stopd them getting wasted and also wet/damaged.
Also what is the impact if the bags are not collected or taken by a person who wants the goods/ Also impact on charity donation?
Please DO NOT TAKE things to Goodwill, the CEO last year was paid 2.3million last year. Them and Salvation Army are NOT not for prift organizations. Here is the US those bags would not work. Anything left on the sidewalk is considered public property and is up for grabs. Also, why not just place the item out on the curb, I could see it ONLY if it’s raining or snowing. Lastly what are they made of? are we dumping more plastics into the ground once they tare or are thrown out themselves?
Sorry, I think it’s a bad idea.
This is way better than Goodwill. Grimy place takes our stuff for free, then sells it to people who can’t afford it.
@Chris…so…do you have ANYTHING helpful to say? What alternative can you offer?
You could always just list your free items here: http://freempt.com and meet your neighbors in the process.
The bag implies that it is not only ok to take such things, but it is encouraged that people take those things. Think of how much fewer plastics will be thrown away by those who rescue the contents of the bag. It will probably far offset the amount of plastics of the bag itself. BONUS IDEA: Perhaps the people who collect those bags for garbage collection purposes can recycle them.
Goodwill would be an excellent idea if they didn’t turn around and sell stuff at ridiculous prices. A lot of people go in there because they’re poor and they STILL can’t afford those inflated prices!
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