Metal straws, segregated waste, and cloth bags, everyone has a different way of doing their part in protecting the environment on a personal level. Prashant Shah from Pune, however, decided to do something more, not on a large scale, but more at a community level. He started a charity store. Born out of an urgent need to take immediate efforts towards conserving the environment, the RCube charity store had a simple goal: to give a second life to anything that can be salvaged. The store operates in an uncomplicated fashion: people come in and donate whatever they can, be it clothes, toys, books, gadgets, or even furniture, and the store sells these items at heavily discounted prices to people who need them. Items that are not in good condition are sent to be recycled into other utility items. What prompted Shah to start this venture is the alarming rate has been leading to overconsumption. The immense environmental costs of fast fashion are something most people, even the environmentally conscious ones, seem to disregard. Seeing people around him purchase without once stopping to reconsider whether it necessarily pushed him to ideate a creative solution to this problem. “The R in RCube stands for Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle,” Shah explains. “We want people to realize just how many resources go into manufacturing a single product, any product, and how important it is to respect that. We want people to take efforts to reduce their consumption by purchasing only what is necessary.” People buying from the store come from all sections of society and the store welcomes them all. As long as people choose to buy a second-hand product over something new altogether, the store has already done its part in helping the environment. “It’s easy,” Shah says. “All you need to do is wait a month before you make a purchase, and if you still need it, then buy it. But if after a month you think you don’t need it now, you never needed it in the first place.” Owing to rent and management costs, the store has not been able to make a profit yet.
25 Jan 2022
Yukta Patwardhan
