A review by rachelb36
Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale by Adam Minter
5.0
Where do things go after we give them away? Books, clothing, electronics, furniture, and more: Minter explores the secondhand market (my favorite!) in this book.
I loved that he spends time looking at the consumer side of things in this book, because it will help readers realize that even the small things we do (buy, sell, give, toss) add up to make a huge difference. Hopefully all the knowledge in this book will inspire more people to reduce and reuse!
The information on clean-out businesses in the U.S. and Japan was very interesting to me. Minter also covers Goodwill International, Bookoff, and other companies around the world who shuttle and sell used goods to the people who can use them.
It was discouraging, however, to see that so much of what is donated is still landfilled relatively quickly. I was especially annoyed with the employee of Empty the Nest (a clean out company with a thrift store, supposedly committed to reusing and reselling as much as possible) who trashed perfectly good tchotchkes and asked, 'How many more times are we going to send them through the reuse cycle?' The answer: As many times as possible! That's pretty much the whole point of the reuse cycle!
The book is informative, fascinating, and important! It's also the perfect length. I would recommend it to anyone, especially in the developed world!
Note: There are a few instances of profanity.
I loved that he spends time looking at the consumer side of things in this book, because it will help readers realize that even the small things we do (buy, sell, give, toss) add up to make a huge difference. Hopefully all the knowledge in this book will inspire more people to reduce and reuse!
The information on clean-out businesses in the U.S. and Japan was very interesting to me. Minter also covers Goodwill International, Bookoff, and other companies around the world who shuttle and sell used goods to the people who can use them.
It was discouraging, however, to see that so much of what is donated is still landfilled relatively quickly. I was especially annoyed with the employee of Empty the Nest (a clean out company with a thrift store, supposedly committed to reusing and reselling as much as possible) who trashed perfectly good tchotchkes and asked, 'How many more times are we going to send them through the reuse cycle?' The answer: As many times as possible! That's pretty much the whole point of the reuse cycle!
The book is informative, fascinating, and important! It's also the perfect length. I would recommend it to anyone, especially in the developed world!
Note: There are a few instances of profanity.