Every few months, I go through the ritual of clearing all the old newspapers and magazines from my storeroom. And then, selling them away. It’s quite a stack, you know.
But I think I’ll do something different this time. Instead of selling them, I’ll be donating them to the Tzu Chi organisation in Penang. After all, they are collecting old newspapers for recycling. Whatever they earn from this project goes towards their kidney dialysis centre and other activities which benefit the people of all races and religion here.
If you are thinking of doing the same, that is, recycling your old newspapers too, here are the collection centres where you can take them to, if you are in Penang. There are various around the state.
But seriously, in the first place, I don’t know why there is so much old reading material lying about the house.
Newspapers, I can understand, because I subscribe to them in order to catch up with the news. My family reads them too. But I’ll be dashed if any of us can claim to have read the newspapers page by page. I don’t.
Magazines. I subscribe to the financial magazines like Smart Investor and Personal Money. Sometimes, off the shelf, I may buy a photography magazine or a computer magazine or a music magazine. I’ve actually stopped myself from buying too many because I know that I will not read them through and through. Even those two financial magazines are not read completely.
A good rule of thumb which I must adopt in the new year is to read what I buy and to buy only what I read. Recycling is a good effort but in the first place, we should not be chopping down trees for the paper. This is being done in excess and frankly, we are not doing enough to save the environment.
I’ll be seeing all of you in the new year. Until then, cheers!