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Welcome to The Leek Log, an opportunity to share news and views on business, leisure and community activities in Leek and the Staffordshire Moorlands.
If you have something to tell others about, let me know either by commenting on the blog or emailing me at david@davidcliffe.com

Saturday 28 November 2009

Charity shops prove how 'green' we are

On seeing the new Donna Louise shop when we were walking in town today, my companion commented that Leek must have more charity shops per head of population than any other town in the country.
And yes, quite a few folk have been moaning on about the number of prime locations which charities are taking in the middle of town.
But surely isn't this overload of cast-offs a good thing? Doesn't all this recycling and re-use prove just how green we all are in Leek?
By filling our shops with secondhand stuff - clothes, paperbacks, whatever - rather than new imports shipped across the globe, aren't we showing that here in the Moorlands we're not a throwaway society and care that little bit more about the future of the planet.
OK, few of us have actually asked for any more charity shops, but they certainly seem to be well patronised, showing that there are plenty of us who are quite prepared to choose used as well as new.
Taking it a step further, a new retro boutique, The Closet, has opened above The Passion Pit salon in St Edward Street and they certainly have no shortage of cast-offs to plough through. (Those folk have made an excellent job of using that fine building - congratulations).
And round at Leek College, art & design students have just finished a project transforming secondhand stuff from the Dougie Mac shop - it's called upcycling amongst the fashion-conscious (such as myself) and Vivienne Westwood is mad about it, apparently.
So charity shops are cool after all.
Leek's long been famed as a mecca for antiques (recycling,restoring,re-using) - perhaps we should be proud to be the capital of charity shops, too.

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