When I was at school, we learnt how to 'Keep Britain Tidy' with the TidyMan …
… and these friendly creatures taught us to make good use of the things everyday folks left behind.
It then grew into the slogan of the 3 Rs – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and this symbol was seen everywhere:
Today, campaigners have extended this into the 6 Rs:
Reduce
Rethink
Refuse
Recycle
Reuse
Repair
It is important to read these in this order of importance. Wherever possible, we need to reduce what we are consuming and rethink our practices. Valuable resources are being used up and for many things, we could find a better solution.
I will talk more about refusing tomorrow, so will leave that one for tonight, and I have already spoken about making sure you are recycling correctly – check out the ‘Recycle Right’ blog.
The last two – reuse and repair – make me think of my dad! Any of you who know him, will be well aware of his amazing ability to make and fix anything. He also has a fantastic ability to take things apart and reuse these parts when others might just throw them away – he is a WOMBLE!!!!
He has made plant containers out of pallets, a table from a door that was full of wood worm and some absolutely amazing Adirondack chairs from salvaged oak.
We have fallen out of love with fixing things - possibly for the following reason. I was really upset many years ago when my stereo system with CD player broke (shows how long ago it was). I really liked it and didn’t want to get a new one as dad had purpose built a shelf the same size in my bedroom. When I took it to the shop, the guy informed me it would cost £102 to fix the broken part. The whole stereo system had only cost me £89 in the first place! With this dilemma, it is hard to justify fixing something rather than buying new.
But there is hope. I have seen a few tailors popping up in different cities and many are really reasonably priced – they could turn your jeans into shorts, take in (or let out!) suit trousers or patch up the hole in your kids jumper.
Charity shops are a good way of reusing items that we might no longer want or need. My nana used to like nothing more than taking us out to find a bargain of a Saturday morning. In addition to these, there are now vintage shops and nearly new baby shops. Many items look untouched and it is far better to reuse these than buy new.
Where there is a way to fix it, do try or break it apart and refashion it into something else. And if that is not possible then find the best way possible to recycle it.
And if your kids have never heard of the Wombles, click on the picture below and let them watch this for their ipad time. Tell them it’s retro vintage!