Ours is a consumerist, wasteful society. We have a “throw away” mentality. I learned this in a powerful way last year when the Columban Mission Institute moved from Strathfield to North Sydney. Our new offices were smaller than the old ones. We could not take everything with us. We had to select only the essentials. The sorting was challenging, but it was a very good lesson in simplicity. We sorted our bookshelves and files, taking only what we needed, archiving important documents for posterity and shredding what was left. We took our office desks, chairs, computers, books, journals and decorations to our new offices. The rest was for disposal. We tried to donate as much as we could so that the least possible amount of “stuff” ended as landfill.
I invited staff to select items they could use in their homes. For example, with the Institute located much further away, I reckoned there would be more times when I would need a good “office” space to work at home. I already had a desk, but I identified two bookshelves and two wall shelves that I could use. Now my bedroom is neatly divided with storage for books, files and other items. I also put a couple of bookshelves in the garage. Another staff member chose a desk, another a spare office chair, another some shelving, another a couple of filing drawers, and so on. But there was still a lot left over. If no one could use it, it would have to be dumped.
We sought and found other beneficiaries. Unused folders and stationery were made available to students at ACU. Some furniture and unused paper went to a school in Papua New Guinea. Unwanted academic books and journals went to public libraries. St Vincent de Paul took chairs, lounge chairs, dining tables, coffee tables and other items of furniture—anything that could be used in homes—but they were not able to take any larger items deemed “commercial”.
We had a very large table which could seat 8-10 people. We used it for staff meetings and for hosting business and social functions. It had previously been in the Columban seminary. The Rector’s Council used it for meetings. From 1959 to 2001 the Seminary staff trained over 300 Australian and New Zealand seminarians, of whom 96 were ordained as Columban missionary priests and served in 11 countries around the world. The Columban priests said, “Our futures were decided around that table!” We were reluctant to see it go to scrap. Happily, a colleague found someone who needed a large dining table. Now a family gather around that table for meals. I wonder what the future of the children will be and where it will take them? 
As Director of the Institute I had a large, solid, wooden office desk. It had been the Rector’s desk in the Columban seminary. No doubt, many interviews were held across it, letters and documents written and signed on it, and life-changing decisions communicated over it. I was lamenting to a fellow academic that it was to be trashed. He told me that he and his wife were planning to give their daughter an office desk for a birthday present. “Take it and it’s yours,” I said. Now she has a good space for study for the HSC. I wonder what decisions she will make at that desk and how they will shape the career she will follow in later life?
With six offices, most with floor-to-ceiling cabinets and bookshelves, all demountable and modular, and other wall units, we had a lot of used, very good quality furniture. We could not take it. It did not fit the new offices. Those moving in to our old offices planned a different layout, so they could not use it. It was not considered “domestic” so St Vincent de Paul could not collect it. It was destined for the scrap heap.
To throw such an amount of good furniture away was a terrible waste. I considered it a “sin”. I was determined to avoid it if at all possible. I contacted the Salvation Army and sent them photos. To my immense relief, their charity shops provide to a range of customers so they were delighted to accept these larger items of furniture. However, when their truck came to collect, there had been a misunderstanding. They had booked only 5 cabinets and 5 bookshelves, when in fact it was 5 walls of cabinets and bookshelves, each with 5 to 6 modular units, so a total of some 30 modular bookshelves. They wanted it all, but only had space in the truck to collect the 10 items they had booked. Our offices were to be handed over for re-fitting in two days. There was no time to arrange a second collection. I was left with over 20 bookshelves plus other wall units still unclaimed, destined for landfill.
I felt sickened by the impending waste. Since the basic issue was transport, I phoned the Columban headquarters and asked if I could hire a truck to deliver the remaining furniture. They agreed. I arranged a truck the next day which collected most of the remaining units and delivered most of them to the Salvos. But there were still a few left. Determined to salvage as many as I could, I made a couple of trips with a bookshelf in the boot of my car. I put them in our garage where they can be used for storage or whatever. But at least they are not rotting in landfill! 
The experience of salvaging so much from what was otherwise destined for waste provided some great lessons for me. I learned that for the sake of the planet, avoiding generating waste is the first priority. The next priority is to re-use, then to re-cycle. To avoid getting into that situation in the first place, we must not accumulate possessions. We must share what we have with the needy. The Columban Constitutions propose to us “simplicity in lifestyle that puts material goods in their Christian perspective and expresses solidarity with those who are marginalized.” (C.108) St Ambrose teaches: "You are not making a gift of your possessions to the poor person. You are handing over to the poor what belongs to the poor."
Rev Fr Patrick McInerney is the Director of the Columban Mission Institute, Coordinator of its Centre for Mission Studies and the Coordinator of Missiology at the Catholic Institute of Sydney.