You probably heard or noticed multiple times that a number of the countries making up the European Union are way ahead of the US when it comes to moving to a more sustainable life style. Whether it is Germany or Sweden or Norway or Spain, they all leave us in the dust when it comes to the use of public transportation and greener energy production.
Example: Spain is the number one manufacturer of wind turbines worldwide.
Here is a link to a list of the largest wind turbine manufacturers in the world: http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/large_wind_turbines_generators_manufacturers.htm – Notice this list shows 8 wind turbine manufacturers in Europe and 3, yes 3 in the US and Canada.
You may wonder which sustainability practice we may be ahead of the rest of the world?
Humm… It is called Grassroots Reuse. One thing that is striking in the US (at least it is something I noticed early on) is the practice of flea markets and garage/yard sales. You can look anywhere in Europe, what you will find are permanent “flea markets” where professional recyclers and antique sellers sell their stuff. You will not find flea markets organized by local churches or local groups where anyone can sell their unwanted, unneeded stuff. No garage or yard sales either. It is not that Europeans do not accumulate unwanted stuff – they do. Maybe their accumulation rate is a little slower than ours.
So why is there no or little visible grassroots reuse/recycling happening in Europe ?? I am not sure??
It could be cultural. Could be that most Europeans live in high density towns which makes it more difficult to grab sidewalk space to display the stuff you want to sell off. May be they do not think that anyone else could be interested in their junk? More likely the recycling happens and it may just happen using different channels.
Be as it may, the Philadelphia Weekly Magazine just published a great article by Rebecca VanderMeulen on PhillyFreeCycle. It has stories from PhillyFreeCycle users and interviews of its founders.
Meenal Raval, one of the co-founder of PhillyFreeCycle estimates that the service diverts 456 tons from the city trash collection every year. Here is a link to the article: Less Junk in Your Trunk
