Reuse used items to help reduce carbon emissions

Dressing up in the locker room of a swimming pool I frequent, I overheard two men talking about a used-item fair on their residential compound on the coming Sunday. The idea, according to them, was proposed by someone in the community's WeChat group and supported by the property management.

I decided to take a look, not because I needed anything but to satisfy my curiosity. It turned out to be a fair mainly for parents and children, and most of the items on sale were used books and toys. I heard a somewhat shy man saying, "I'm not here to make some money by selling used toys and picture books. We (he and his wife) are here because we want our daughter to enjoy this special experience."

His six-year-old daughter looked very excited while peddling her items. Any "income" she made would become her pocket money, she said.

Despite the fact that the used goods market is now worth more than 1 trillion yuan ($137.97 billion), it is still in its pre-mature stage and therefore has great potential for further development, according to several studies. In fact, some career consultants are suggesting that young pioneers open second-hand goods shops to earn a living.

Due to the years-long struggle to make ends meet, there were few "used items" which our elder generations could share with others when we were growing up in the 1960s and 1970s. Clothes, shoes and school bags used by elder brothers or sisters would be passed down to the younger ones. The only textbooks children would get at the time were of poor quality, and thus would be unusable before the end of the semester.

During my childhood, there were just a couple of shops in the whole of Xi'an, the capital of Shannxi province, buying and selling used "luxury products" such as bikes, sewing machines and fur overcoats. The first time I got my hands on a second-hand item was when I went to study in a US university in the early 1980s.

After completing my registration formalities, I was asked to go to the bookstore on the campus to buy the necessary textbooks. There I saw second-hand (or third-hand) textbooks that were priced a little more than half the original price. As a student from a poor family, I did not hesitate to buy the cheapest ones — and after finishing the course, I sold them back to the store for less than half the price.

During my stay there, I also bought dozens of classical novels and a whole set of encyclopedia from the second-hand bookshops. Visiting flea markets on weekends, too, became a part of my American experience.

After returning to China, my relation with second-hand products ended abruptly. I never saw any second-hand shops in Beijing, although I believe there might be a few hidden in some hutongs.

To many Chinese, it's a matter of great shame to use second-hand items from outside the family no matter how poor they are. They can continue using a bamboo baby carriage passed down for several generations but will not accept used items from other families. This may partly explain why second-hand goods markets, for a long time, were not successful in China.

Things are changing, however. On the campus of a university close to my home, second-hand item fairs are held several times a year with students selling their used books, boots and clothes, even laptops and guitars. I once bought a table lamp to show my support to such a market.

Second-hand goods shops have been increasing in Beijing, with most of them dealing with luxury products such as branded watches, bags and jewelry, which despite having been used fetch relatively high prices. There have been reports of some people opening shops to buy and sell second-hand toys, but no media outlet seems to have followed up those reports, perhaps because they couldn't survive in the market given Chinese parents' mentality of giving their children only the best.

Being forced to spend as much time as possible in air-conditioned rooms to escape the extreme heat as high temperatures break one record after another, we need to do something to help reduce carbon emissions. Reusing used items is one way of doing so and, even if mildly, slowing down global warming.

The author is former deputy editor-in-chief of China Daily.