THE NEIGHBOURHOOD RAG-AND-BONE MERCHANT

Maybe you don't know of any. It is even possible that you have never heard of them. But up until not that long ago every kid in the neighbourhood knew where the rag-and-bone yard was.
Tradition, the spirit of thrift and common sense made rag-and-bone merchants specialists in making a profit out of all the things that everyone else would throw away. There were many of these professionals in every city. Children went to them with the things that were lying around the house, either unused or unusable. This included everything from an old iron that had stopped working, to an empty Champaign bottle or old newspapers and magazines. In exchange, they would be given a few coins to buy sweets from the nearest shop. It was an exercise in waste evaluation, with the sweetest of rewards.

One of the jobs of the rag-and-bone merchants was repairing the small domestic appliances that came into their hands, putting together pieces from different broken-down appliances. Then they sold them at affordable prices. They also collected glass and took this to the bottle or jar making factories, an early version of what we now know as mass collection in selective recycling bottle banks. They did the same thing with newspapers and magazines or cloth from used clothes and old rags (which is where they get their name from).

At present, and after many years in which these rag-and-bone merchants were on the verge of extinction, they hope to regain a place in our consumer society as pioneers in the art of recycling and recovery of waste materials. This way, neighbourhoods are helping to recover one of the most effective businesses that provide a service to the surrounding community. For this reason, if you are fortunate enough to have a rag-and-bone merchant's in your neighbourhood, you should consider yourself lucky.

But times change, and these specialists have known how to adapt. In some cases they work in waste management for large companies. Others have formed distribution chains for second-hand goods, this being an alternative recycling market. Some also collect all kinds of objects that we throw away and fix them up so that they can be reused, like the rag-and-bone merchants of a by-gone era.

We hope to encourage you in setting up support and participation initiatives through neighbourhood associations in the area, street or block where you live, in order to collaborate with these new rag-and-bone merchants. By doing so, you will be fulfilling two tasks: supporting a mutually beneficial initiative and contributing to the recovery of waste materials. And remember: before you throw a large object into the rubbish bin, call the Town Hall first and ask for the telephone number of the scrap merchant in your neighbourhood.