Wearing environmental awareness on their sleeve - Haaretz

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Tue., August 28, 2007 Elul 14, 5767

Israel Time: 22:52 (EST+7)

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Wearing environmental awareness on their sleeve

By Goel Pinto

An article posted on a wall in the Kiryat Tivon store Second Thought: Center for Alternative Consumerism, implores the writer's wife to stop wasting money on frivolous purchases. Adam Baruch's "Don't Buy This Bra" espresses the second-hand shop's guiding ideology.

Any clothing, household items and children's toys that Second Thought is unable to sell are passed on to a non-profit organization for disadvantaged people. Four women, including two teenage volunteers, wait on customers at the counter. On any given weekday morning, the store is packed with interested buyers. Some come to browse, others to buy a toy or a shirt for NIS 10. Most arrive with plastic bags packed with used items, which they leave at the store. The store collects a total of five tons of clothing every month, and a truck also delivers the apparel on a weekly basis to a recycling plant.

Yael, 60, enters the store with several bags full of items that used to belong to her parents, who now live in an old-age home. "They never threw anything away," she says. Yael says she shops in the store for herself, her children and her grandchildren. "People bring nice things to the store - just as I do. I find clothes from the hippie era that you can't find anywhere else. I've been wearing these clothes all of my life," she says.

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Second Thought differs from other second-hand stores in that it recycles clothing that some consider unwearable, based on the belief that the textile industry pollutes the environment. The apparel is passed on to local nonprofits and organizations that assist Palestinians. Thus, the store at once promotes an ecological agenda and contributes to the community.

Hagit Rosenberg, manager of Second Thought, is a member of the Link environmental group. "If you recycle used clothes among family members, why not within the community?" she asks.

Some Kiryat Tivon residents object to the store's policy of donating clothes to Palestinians in the territories. "Some people started arguing the minute they heard we sent some clothes and other items to the territories," Rosenberg says. "They even threatened to stop buying from us. I invited them to do just that. Irrelevant political arguments don't interest me."

Measures to simultaneously protect the environment and help the community have been adopted around the world. American "Swap-o-rama" events, in which participants exchange clothing and sew new items from discarded material, have been imitated in Israeli "Recollection" get togethers.

Shtayim (Two), a second-hand store on Shenkin Street in Tel Aviv, follows a similar policy. Owners Monica Adler and Daniela Lebensart send some of the often tattered clothing they receive to young designers, who transform them into new, lovely and fashionable creations. "The designers breathe new life into recycled fabrics," Adler says. "We also sell wallets and jewelry produced from old, reprocessed material."

Artist Brigitte Cartier, currently designing the visitors' center at the Hiriya landfill and park, also produces clothing and furniture from discarded objects. A few years ago, Cartier, who immigrated to Israel from France 11 years ago, began producing raincoats from the plastic bags distributed in supermarkets. The project failed. "I only sold to foreign buyers. People here apparently only associate those bags with garbage," she says. But she did not give up. She started to produce new clothing and other items from discarded furniture and fabrics found in the streets of South Tel Aviv.

"Ecological awareness is like a religious conversion," she says. "You walk around Florentin [a South Tel Aviv neighborhood] and see gigantic bags full of remnants that garment cutters toss out. I take them and make new things. People throw things away without thinking. Now that I work in Hiriya, I see what they throw away."

Rosenberg agrees. "People consume insane quantities. Most of us have much more than we need. We only wear three pairs of jeans but have 20 in our closets. People abroad understand that this comes at all of our expense. Only here, there's no real ecological agenda: Green areas are neglected and there's no awareness of recycling. I believe that I am responsible for what I leave behind."

Like Cartier, Rosenberg buys no new clothing, save underwear. "There isn't a single mall that enjoys my business. Everything I wear is second-hand."

Shtayim customers do not simply donate clothing but receive store credit in exchange for clothes they bring in. Shtayim owners Adler and Lebensart were attorneys before they opened the store: They realized, years ago, that there was no need to buy new products "when you can reuse things that are already available. We knew we could continue to consume but that it would not make us happy."

The merchandise at Shtayim and Second Thought is similar, but the ambience reflects its big-city location. Shtayim's wares are trendier and more design-conscious.

"Our taste in fashion defines the store's look," Adler says. "We select items that suit our taste, which is more fashionable. Many of our customers buy the clothes because they are trendy and because they want unique items. Others come because of the low prices. The ecological aspect is minor."

Even if their clientele is not motivated by ecological considerations, the owners employ environmentally sound practices: They send unsold items to the Economia Center, an ecology education and recycling center in Rehovot, and sell fabric bags to replace non-biodegradable, plastic shopping bags. "The demand for these bags increased last year," Adler says. "To our joy, many other shops, like health foods stores, have contacted us recently to produce similar fabric bags." But Adler's environmental optimism is unusual for this field.

Rosenberg says, "There are not many stores like ours because people have a hard time relating to something that is not primarily motivated by money. When people understand that this sort of business involves a lot of work and meager profits, they are simply afraid to take it on."

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