The psychology of green-ness or "We're all class-less now, right?"

Although I have not always been as green as this (and its never enough is it!) I do remember always having it at the back of my mind.

Yes, even though I was a child of the decedent, wasteful 80's, in a household that, for a while at least, treated eating out and having takeaways as the norm rather than the exception, and credit cards took regular hammerings, even then I had an inkling that all was not as it should be.

(I should just point out here that my parents are now some of the greenest people I know!! love you mum!!xx)

Call it common sense maybe, but I began to despise waste, even when money was no real issue in my very early married years, I still saved leftovers and went to charity shops.

But then I began to realise that many people were not only apathetic to this mind set but openly hostile.

For example. About six months after my eldest son was born a neighbour announced she was pregnant. Naturally I went over to congratulate her and took a bag of baby clothes that Ollie had out grown. These where, for the most part, brand new clothes that had been worn once or twice. Anyone with babies know that clothes in the 0-6 months range only get a chance to be worn very briefly.
Well when I offered her the bag you would have thought I'd offered her the severed head of her husband.
She literally recoiled, mumbled that she wanted new clothes for her baby and that was pretty much the last I saw of her.

I had considered this an isolated incident but it happened more and more. People would give me a wide berth if I mentioned a love of charity shops, as though maybe wearing second hand clothes I was carrying some sort of poor disease they could catch.

Typical charity shop fayre ;)


When Kim happend to mention to his ex-boss about something he had brought in a charity shop (it may have been a jacket that was being admired at the time) She sneered and said "You'll never catch me in a charity shop!"

A woman was quoted in the newspaper, in a feature about vintage clothing (and charity shops) that she "...wouldn't shop in charity shops and would leave that to people who were too poor to buy new clothes."

And THAT dearies, nails it on the head!

Never mind that by buying goods at a charity shop you are... a) grabbing a bargain b)Donating money to charity, and c) keeping said good OUT of a landfill.

No no no, never mind all those reasons, the BIG one is that people don't want OTHER people to think they are POOR. That they can't affored to buy new.

The terror of appearing less than affluent surely stems from this idea that we're now all "middle class", that mother need never slave over a boiling pot of terry nappies while father cycles to his job down t'pit.
Now, of course, EVERYONE is entitled to a 50" TV and a 2 year old car and 2 weeks in the sun a year. A brand new mobile, 3 wardrobes of clothes they didn't need and don't wear.
We own this time kids! Lets throw some money at it and be happy!

It doesn't stop at an aversion to charity shops though. It means people would rather drive 2 miles to work than ride a bike. That they would rather throw away a perfectly good jacket than get the zip fixed, that they would rather struggle to pay the heating bills than turn it down and put on another sweater and pull a blanket over their knees on the sofa.

Its this stupid keeping up with the Joneses that is eroding not only the planet but any common sense we may have had in past generations.

I'll make a pledge if you make it too!

I solemnly swear, that should I win the lottery, I will STIIL cycle and buy charity shop stuff and use Freecycle/Freegle.

What about you?