dematerialization / de-muh-teer-ree-uhl-ize-shuhn / n. 1 materials that mysteriously appear in shops, are used briefly, then seemingly disappear without a trace. 2 materials that do not matter [Latin de DOES NOT materia MATTER]

On Thursday 1st January 2009, from 11am to 10pm, Resource Work Cooperative created a ‘relational art installation’, titled dematerialization, as part of the Installed Taste art program at the Taste Of Tasmania. Resource staff cleared out one tonne of clothing from the racks of the South Hobart Tip Shop, and trucked it down to the Taste, to give it all away. It was a mammoth effort, but resulted in over two-thirds of the clothing being given away to the public at the Taste. The remaining clothing was trucked back up to the Tip Shop and has also been given away. Thank you to everyone that kindly gave donations to Resource on the day. This was greatly unexpected but also greatly appreciated!

The staff of Resource wanted the public to get some idea of the enormity of clothing that is dumped at the tip. We also wanted people to know where it comes from. Some of the clothing arrives directly from households, some from charity shops that overflow with donations, and some is donated directly to us. We estimate that five to six tonnes of clothing is discarded every week at South Hobart. We sell as much as we can, but sadly, there is far more clothing than people will buy; and even though we regularly give clothing away at our shop, a great deal is still buried in landfill.

So, this year Resource decided to donate our entire stock of clothing from the Tip Shop directly back to the public, rather than seeing so much continue to be wasted. These clothes are valuable, and have used up precious energy, labour and raw materials to be made. If they are buried in landfill all this is wasted, and the decaying material also contributes to our global warming. We need to place greater value on these valuable resources rather than being dictated by ever changing fashions and trends.

For those in the know, who shop for reusables first, thank you for your patronage over the years, for without our customers, Resource would not be able to exist, and all the reusables we salvage would be buried in landfill. Clothing is one of those commodities that there just seems too much of to cope with. If you have any creative and practical ideas to use this surplus clothing please contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , we would be glad to hear from you. Please bear in mind that many great ideas also cost money, and loading up a shipping container to send overseas to poor countries is a brilliant idea, so long as someone raises the money to buy or hire the container and then pay all the transportation costs. Perhaps there are great things we can do with it locally.