An Interview with rePurpose Volunteer Member Amy Parker

Today we highlight a special person rePurpose is very grateful for: Amy Parker. 

Amy has been a Whidbey Island resident for three years. She has been a dedicated rePurpose volunteer member since January 2025. 

Amy’s Commitment 

Amy has been dedicated to zero waste living for much of her life. 

Before Whidbey, Amy lived on Bainbridge Island in the Grow Community, a net zero living community, where she explored several zero waste habits including composting and using solar panels. After moving to Whidbey, she wanted to find a group with similar principles. 

Amy met Joan Green, one of our co-founders, at a rePurpose open house at the Coffman Building on the Whidbey Island Fairgrounds. Joan invited her to join rePurpose as a volunteer member, which incurs a $0 per month fee, to help her find community through volunteer work. 

Now, between her memberships at rePurpose and The Compost Collective, Amy has fully eliminated trash pick up services for her household of two. These days, all she brings to the transfer station is a bag of used kleenex every three months. 

Amy has achieved this by changing habits in her everyday life after seeing the sheer amount of materials collected at rePurpose. She thought there must be a better way. She now buys household cleaning products in bulk and uses refillable containers. She is also more conscious about using containers and bags she already has instead of using single-use packaging at the supermarket. 

Finding Community 

When asked what keeps her coming back to volunteering with rePurpose, Amy shared that she initially wanted to build community, and she found it with rePurpose. 

“Capitalist culture is designed to put the responsibility for dealing with waste streams on the consumer. This is very isolating and frustrating and can cause learned helplessness. There’s so much. How can one person deal with this? One person can't.”

She argues that The Great Man Theory – the notion that one person arises from the masses and singlehandedly shapes the course of history – is not true. Meaningful change has to be a collective effort. Amy has been sustained by having a community at rePurpose that works towards dismantling the systems that intentionally isolate us.  

In the end, it’s all about compassion 

Zero waste living is about respecting the Earth and each other through our shared humanity. Amy emulates this by having patience and compassion for people as they join rePurpose and learning about waste management. 

“If I'm working with folks at a drop off [event], I’ll reassure them that we are all imperfect humans, and it’s a constant learning process. Someone may say [the appropriate bin for this item] has changed [since last month], and I say ‘yes it’s a system in flux. There are many moving parts that are out of our control, and we have to give each other grace.’” 

For Amy, being a volunteer member with rePurpose is a constant reminder to make space for others’ humanity in the hopes that other people will return the favor. 

Become a rePurpose member or join us as a Volunteer Member today to contribute to positive change in our community!