"Waste Not, Want Not is a proverb we have all heard as a child probably to encourage you to eat your dinner. The proverb means, if you use a commodity or resource carefully and without extravagance you will never be in need (Credit: Oxford Languages). This old saw has its origins from 1576 (The Paradise of Dainty Devices by Richard Edwardes."
1800s-old bistro glasses are still around and still beautiful. They are still providing.
Why is that? They are fragile, but they are strong.
I have had mine for over 20 years, and we use them daily.
Water, juice, wine, flowers… they do not hold grudges.
Strong puppies.
How many washings and wars have they endured?
Buy old – Recycle things by keeping them – using them – seek old things – they have proved they last.
They keep on giving without taking anything.
No extra resources are needed.
No shareholder's profit margins.
Vintage.
Second hand.
Salvation Army.
Antiques.
Garage sales.
Your storage unit.
Things are there to be used and reused.
Do we need anything new?
Bandaids, toilet paper, medicine, to name a few…
Did you know you:
In 2021, there were 14 billion cell phones; the average person changes their cell phone every two years
80 Billion Clothing produce a year…
What happens to "throw away clothing?"
Two billion Tee-Shirts per year?!
"In early September, department store retailer Galeries Lafayette opened Le(Re)Store, a 500-square-metre permanent space dedicated entirely to circular fashion — in no less a location than its iconic Paris flagship on Boulevard Haussman." And other major department stores in Paris followed suit.
Vintage, second-hand clothing stores are abundant in Paris.
Stacks of antique linen.
Dinner napkins,
Bed sheets,
Tableclothes,
Dishtowels..
I use them. They are easy to find.
I could go on and on about waste, and so could you.
Recycle, re-use, remake.
Yann saves all scraps of paper, especially envelopes. He used them as scratch and note paper.
What can we do to change our wasteful habits?
I buy old. But that is not enough. I have to do more.
Please, share your habits to change the world's waste.
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