The three Eco r's and your Old Jeans

By now most of you should be familiar with the the three eco r's.
Well I forgot one (the first) and had to look it up! Anyway here they are.

1. Reduce: Simple, use less stuff. Turn of your taps when you brush your teeth, flush your toilet less, turn off lights when you are not using them and DON'T leave all those electric items on stand-by like TV's and DVD players that you ONLY use to watch good wholesome Islamic programs. Turn them off at the plug! Borrow stuff instead of buying it. Read the news on-line rather than buying a paper, print less. Drive less, walk and use public transport more. You get the idea!

2. Reuse: Get a big bad from Lidle for your shopping and take that instead of using endless plastic bags. If you do get plastic bags, use them again when you go shopping (Tesco's even gives your more points on your reward card) or use them as bin liners instead of buying bin liners! Got old stuff? Don't chuck it, ebay it, or try gumtree or kijiji where you can sell it or just give it away, or donate it to charity (although as a Muslim you should give your best in charity, not stuff that you wouldn't take yourself! Still, it's better than waste!)  Also get a compost bin. All those scraps of food, onion, fruit and veg peelings can be fed to it to make some nice rich compost for your garden. About 35% of household waste is compostable. Then you can grow something and follow the Prophet's (saws) advice to plant something, even if you know there is one day left for the world to end! Every creature that eats and benefits from what you have planted will earn rewards for you to reap on the day you meet your Lord, and you know you'll need all the hasanaat you can get!

3. Recycle: You all know about that. You do, of course, RELIGIOUSLY recycle every can you can, and bottle and bits of paper..at a bare minimum the stuff they actually collect outside your door! You'd be amazed at the extent of stuff that can actually be recycled. For example printer cartridges! Staple store's have containers for that. Some recycled facts: For every ton of paper you recycle 17 trees are saved! Recycling a ton of plastic can save upto 2,000 gallons of gasoline!

Here is another enviro-fact. If every person in the UK recycled just one item of clothing each year the amount of processing water saved would fill an average reservoir, according to Mike Stables, who when Britain's last Clarks factory closed down he got hold of the company's canvas shoe making equipment, hired some of the ex-workers and set up recycleyourjeans.com. 

Now one of the very sad but inevitable things in this teporary life is having to say goodbye to those nicley worn oh so comfortable jeans. Now we know that the Prophet (saws) said that old clothes are part of faith, but jeans that are so ripped that they don't cover your awrah properly just have to go.  But where to! Well, now you can send in your old jeans and for forty five squid they will be transformed into a pair of Kalahari sandals! Mashallah, I love it. The web-site refers to the founder as an eco-warrior, so you could do a bit of eco-jihad and get a pair made up! My sandles are well worn out, and I'm due for a new pair. There's just one problem though, they only do women's sizes at present. Anyway I think I already recycled my old jeans :)

Comments

[Umber Malik]

Masha'Allah what an excellent post! I thoroughly enjoyed reading that post soooo much alhamdulillah! If you dont mind I may actually send it round as an email also! I checked out that recycle your old jeans site it looks so cool and I think I may have to give it a try! Subhana'Allah just today I thought to myself that I had wanted to get some sandals just like those! Jazaka'Allahu khayr!

[Abū Ilyās]

I think I'd feel guilty spending £45 on a pair of sandals though (I could probably buy 9 pairs for the price) but it's a clever idea nonetheless.

One extremely wasteful practice that I've noticed in Saudi Arabia is when a person goes to the masjid for salah, or shopping in the local baqalah, and leaves his car with the engine running (I assume they lock the doors though) for the entire 10-15 minutes that they're away from it. This is so that upon returning their vehicle is still suitably cool from the AC.

I think it's illegal in the UK to leave a car unattended with the ignition on but it seems a widespread practice over here.

I wonder how much harm to the environment/waste of resources happens per salah in KSA from this cultural anomaly?

ARGcomment: hmmm...it sure is hot there though! I do feel a little bit sypathetic. Perhaps better shaded parking areas would help reduce such waste.
As for the shoes, I'm sure these are quality shoes, and you'll have the added benefit of being assured that they have NOT been put together in some sweatshop by a thirteen year old kid working fourteen hours for barely enough money to feed herself and the child she's pregnant with after being forced into sex by the manager....cheep goods come at price! Try not feel guilty about that next time you put on your I got these for a couple of quid sandles. That is definitely a post in the making!

[Abū Ilyās]

Good point, I hadn't thought of that.

[M. S. M. Saifullah]

There are some things which I would like to add. Firstly, the issue of leaving the car running on a hot summer day for going for salah.... well, it takes more energy to cool the superhot interiors of a car than to cool the car continuously. In the latter case, the thermostat will regulate the temperature. One can use similar principle in heating the houses in the UK during winters.

Secondly, the world was more eco-friendly about 20+ years ago when I was a kid. For example, the stationary was expensive then. We used to reuse the unused sheets of paper in a notebook by making a notebook out of it and use it for taking notes and doing home work. All it required was a nail, hammer, a strong needle and a thick thread. When the unused sheets of paper were torn neatly from various used note books, they were roughly divided into sets of 200 pages. After arranging them neatly, a hammer and a nail was used make three holes through roughly at 1/4th distance from the top and each other. The thick thread was passed through it once and tightly knotted after going through all the holes. A thick paper was pasted to hide the knot and it served as the cover. Viola! there is a notebook to serve you for another academic year.

Thirdly, we often forget that the rise of the age of excess and access to cheap goods came with the advent of shifting of manufacturing jobs to China, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, etc. Here everything could be made so cheaply that it would take more money to repair a torn shoe or a sandal than to go and buy a new one! Once people get hooked up to the "excess", it is much easier to feed the habit. What it requires is simply "setting" the age of (or in) a commodity, i.e., a running shoe would last for 300-400 miles of run or digital camera would last for roughly 10000 clicks before some part gives up its ghost. "Setting" the age of a commodity is done via simulations which are quite reliable and rarely the commodity breaks down within the warranty period. "Setting" the age of a commodity is also connected to reliability. If the products are reliable up to 5+ years of their use, the companies are going to be bankrupt in no time. These days products are not made reliable. All this means we have lots of (excess) waste and hopefully will give birth to a profitable(!) recycling industry which is hopefully green(!).

[Umm Maymoonah]

Its very tempting NOT to recycle sometimes especially when you live in a small terraced house and don't drive. My house is full of back bags with fabric (I sew) and a big black ugly box without a lid that my daughters always got her hands in.

But its worth it.

Ebay's great I try not to buy brand new clothes unless its underwear etc for my baby - a lot of second hand clothes are good as new on ebay.

ARgcomment: The harder it is the more reward, inshallah!