The DIY movement utilizes numerous rhetorical strategies to encourage the community to participate in this resource-saving lifestyle. First and foremost is the movement's extremely open handed rhetorical position. DIY is all about inclusiveness and welcoming new members into the community because the more people who are re-purposing instead of purchasing the better off we all are as a global community. The movement is therefore frequently supported by statistical analysis of the contributions of DIYers to the world's reduced carbon footprint. In this video, for example, Generation T author Megan Nicolay says "I think t-shirt refashioning is important because textiles are often overlooked in the green movement that we've seen over the past few years. You think about your recycling bins, you have glass, you have cans, you have paper, but is there a bin for fabric? no, there isn't." And in this video she says "There are actually some really crazy facts about how t-shirts are made.The amount of energy, for instance, that goes into the production of just one 3 oz. t-shirt could power a standard light bulb for six days. Not to mention pesticides. The chemicals that go into growing the cotton for just one t-shirt...3 pounds! 3 pounds of chemicals. It's good to know where your t-shirts are coming from, where your clothing is coming from in general so you can be making active choices about it."
We all know that wasting perfectly good materials is bad because then new items have to be made from raw materials which not only cuts into our natural resources but requires other natural resources to power the production. DIY encourages everyone to at least attempt to make what they need with things that they or others no longer use, and they provide them with the tools to do it with.
The other strongly open-handed aspect of DIY is the fact that these online communities are largely just huge ongoing conversations about how, why, and what has and can be done DIY. Every new forum post and tutorial comment contributes to the incredible wealth if information and inspiration that is just waiting to be utilized by you to make your home and the world just a little bit better.
