The idea that one person’s trash is another’s treasure — whether it is a dusty DVD player, outdated flat-screen TV or soon-to-be-expired cookies — prompted Ma Yu-ju (馬玉如), 30, to establish a charity Web site six years ago that allows people to donate their unwanted goods to people needing them.
Ma realized that prolonging the use of unwanted household items had a purpose in 2009, when a netizen sent her a second-hand cat carrier for free for a stray cat she had just adopted.
“I just hate to see household items that are still usable being thrown away as trash,” Ma said.
“An old-model DVD player might seem useless to people who watch Blu-ray or 3D movies, but it would be an asset for nursing homes for elderly people, where it can be used to play movies to entertain residents. A time-eroded TV that would be sent to a garbage dump could be a lifesaver for a social welfare organization that is too cash-strapped to replace a malfunctioning TV,” Ma said.
Ma said that on one occasion, a box of wedding cookies set to expire soon was posted on the Web site at 3am by a woman in Greater Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢) and ended up feeding two netizens in the district on the same night.
Ma said her mother’s frugality is another major reason behind her decision to set up the site, because it instilled in her a strong sense of environmental protection.
“During one of my visits to Japan, the hotel where I stayed did not provide recycling services. As a result, I was so reluctant to throw cookie packages in the garbage that I brought them all the way back to Taiwan to put in a recycling bin,” Ma said.
The site hosts more than 15,000 members and has seen a wide range of products given away, including a motorcycle, a piano and a rhinoceros beetle specimen, as well as cloth scraps sent by a company to a woman who wanted to make hats for cancer patients.
In addition to allowing people to get rid of unwanted goods, the site also lets users ask for items they need, free of charge.
The requests list covers everything from diapers and guitars to underwear and a cube of brown sugar — which was sought by a woman with menstrual pains who wanted it to ease her discomfort.
Ma said that more than 2 million items have been distributed through the site since its establishment, estimated to be worth NT$80 million (US$2.53 million) in total.
Separately, convenience stores offer recycling services in an effort to ease the process ahead of next month’s Lunar New Year holiday.
Taiwan FamilyMart Co said people can exchange 500g of used batteries or CDs for either a tea egg or a bottle of Yakult at its nationwide branches, adding that those who bring 1kg of the items can get a pudding or a can of black tea.
President Chain Store Corp’s 7-Eleven chain offers discounts for batteries, disks, laptops, cellphones and device chargers.
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