In an effort to fight the "throw - away culture" and promote reuse and repair, the city of Berlin has taken the unique step of opening its own secondhand department store.
This isn't your grandma's thrift shop (旧货商店). It resells perfectly good items that would otherwise be thrown away. A pun (双关)on the German words for "department store" and "conserving house", B - Wa(h)renhaus sells a wide variety of products. Far from simply selling old items, the electronic goods have been fixed by expert technicians and come with year's guarantee. And, to reach more secondhand shoppers, the store was set up right in the middle of the famous Karstadt department store.
With the success of its first six - month trial run, the city plans to open four more similar operations in other parts of Berlin. By 2030, it hopes to have at least one location in each of Berlin's 12 districts. Since 2008, the city has reduced average annual household waste by about 25 pounds per resident. It also recycles about 49% of its mineral construction waste. Currently, the city estimates (估计) that 8% of abandoned electronic goods and 6% of huge items thrown away can actually be reused.
"Three years ago, we started collecting all kinds of used goods," city spokesperson Dorothee Winden said. "The goal is to give these things a new life with somebody who can use them."
