First off, thanks to all the readers who made phone calls to New York State Assembly members yesterday. You really did make a difference in getting diesel fumes out of kids lungs. And by the way, if you live in New York State, and you’d like to help some kids by dialing a couple of numbers, click here.
Meanwhile, apparently “reuse” is all the rage in Germany. My wife Michelle took note of an article about it in the Wall Street Journal because, as you may know, part of the No Impact project is not buying anything new–except underwear and socks (you can read about that rule here).
The idea behind the rule is that over-consumption contributes to our planet’s environmental ills.
Anyway, I’m tired and need to go to bed, so I’m doing the lazy thing by giving you the first few paragraphs of the WSJ article:
Why shop till you drop when your neighbors are throwing away perfectly good stuff?
Sven Brylla has been furnishing his apartments for years with discarded furniture, wood and fittings snagged off the streets of Berlin.
In his kitchen stands a fridge so old that it predates electricity. Meltwater from a metal icebox once ran between the panels of the wooden cabinet, cooling its contents. Now it’s his cupboard.
His kitchen table is a gnarled old workbench. He found his favorite armchair at a garbage dump. His revolving inventory of street junk has included 20 vintage radios and half a dozen prewar bicycles made in the USSR.
In many other countries, dumpster divers like Mr. Brylla would be written off as eccentrics. In Germany, he’s just a normal 36-year-old graphic printer brought up to look down on wasting money on new things when sturdy old stand-bys are there for the taking.
Read more…