June 12, 2007
David loves to point out that "reduce and reuse" come first in the "reduce, reuse, recycle" mantra, so we keep to those two as much as possible to limit our environmental impact. We don't own a car; we use rechargable batteries; we use the library instead of buying books, or when we do buy, we buy used; he bought me an eReader as a graduation present so I won't have to forever be buying, or carrying, books around as we travel; I made the ultimate sacrifice during school and stopped printing out articles I had to read on paper, and just read them on the computer; we recycle everything we can; and we give clothes and household items we don't need/want anymore to Goodwill, so someone else can get another use out of them. Aside from our jet fuel use, we do pretty well, but in terms of reusing, we have nothing on the Brits.
There are secondhand shops on every high street, essentially "main" street, in every village we've been in. Oxfam's shops I had read about researching them for various school assignments, but there are also secondhand charity shops for the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, various animal shelters (local and national), as well as numerous individual shops that benefit specific local needs, often medical, but not always. There are so many shops, apparently, that they've wiped out the nation's supply of secondhand goods. We've seen signs posted in dozens of shop windows along the lines of, Needed: Ladies trousers. Or, Small furnishings in good condition needed. If it gets much worse, maybe the US and UK could get an exchange going whereby people trawl landfills for the perfectly good items Americans throw away and then ship them to Britian for re-sale. Not only would we help relieve the growing American landfill problem, but British charities would make lots more money. Of course it might be easier if US institutions just started the same type of programs. Just think, instead of selling plastic bracelets or ribbons, the American Heart Association could motivate everyone to clean out their closets and houses and make a mint at the same time.
