Charity shops and circular economy

THE new Mission Shop opens at the end of this month.

It has been an exciting time at the mission with the annual Food Bank Drive on October 22 and the fitting out of our new shop, which is destined to open at the end of October. Thank you to the community for coming out and donating groceries and household items to stock the food bank shelves and to the Rotary Club of Wanganui South and the volunteers from Wanganui Collegiate School for making the food bank drive possible. I was impressed by how people responded to media promotion about the drive, which has been an annual Whanganui event for more than 20 years. Several people told me they were shopping especially for the food drive and how much their children wanted to support it. We have been fortunate to receive a lot of support from volunteers to fit out the new shop and to receive financial donations for fixtures and fittings. City Mission Trust Board member Robert Scott has volunteered his time to project manage setting up the new shop which is located at 163 Victoria Ave. We are excited about the new venture but it is still a little sad to see the old shop close. It had a certain charm and many people enjoyed working, volunteering or shopping there. Change is never easy. The food bank and administration remain for the time being at 62a Taupo Quay. At present Whanganui seems to have an ever increasing number of charity shops, so why is the City Mission continuing to operate one? Firstly, we anticipate realising a good income for the new shop. Whilst we are extremely grateful for the support we receive from the community and from our funders, we want to be able to better support our clients, so that we can fulfil our objective "to be an advocate for those people who are disadvantaged or unjustly treated" and we need additional income to do this. We believe that a bigger store, in a more commercial location with better street frontage will help us to do this. Secondly, we support recycling and the concept of the "circular economy". This is an alternative to a traditional linear economy (make, use, dispose) in which we keep resources for as long as possible, extract the maximum value from them whilst in use, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each item's service life. The old adage "one man's trash is another man's treasure" is very true. Much of what is bought new and then no longer needed by the purchaser could be used by someone else.
I remember when my own children were small, how quickly they grew out of clothing. In the United States 12.7 million tonnes of unwanted clothing, shoes and other textiles are disposed of annually, with 85 per cent of unwanted clothing sent to landfills with only 15 per cent being sent to charitable or other organisations. Ten million tonnes is sent to landfills. In 2006 New Zealanders sent a total of 3.2 million tonnes of "waste" to landfills. While much of what is sent to landfills is organic waste, or discarded packaging including paper, glass and plastic, a significant proportion is clothing, electrical goods, furniture and household items, things that someone else might have been able to directly make use of. So before you throw something out, consider if someone else might be able to use it and donate it to a charity shop. Not only will another person get the benefit of it, the charity will gain some income from it and you will be contributing to the circular economy.