Recycled; Transformed; Made New.

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Written September 2018

Receiving someone else's cast-offs, sorting, cleaning and presenting them for resale has become big business for the charitable sector in many parts of the world. Even in our High Street in Bromley, South London, there must be a dozen or so Charity Shops. But in Madras/Chennai of the early 90s it wasn't clothing, but paper.
The electronic era was just on the horizon and banks were still heavily reliant on paper for their accounts. They trusted The Salvation Army to ensure confidentiality in the process of disposal and were willing to pass on out of date records for recycling. 

A cycle rickshaw would do the rounds of the banks involved and deliver bags of paper to a Salvation Army centre where a dozen or two elderly and often disabled 'workers' were based. Some had 'graduated' from the free feeding programme and their meagre income added a measure of dignity. Shredding and compacting into bales was the task in hand. The workers chatted away as they worked. There was a vibrant sense of community. 

A dealer would collect the bales. The paper would eventually be pressed into fresh, clean sheets of paper to be re-used. Income was being generated at several levels. It seemed like a winner all round. Yes, there were opportunities for misconduct and misappropriation, but generally things worked well. This was small scale recycling; but there was also transformation of people's attitudes and self-worth. 
Dignity was being discovered. The paper was being made new, people were being made new. And finance, a necessary ingredient of all charitable work, was being generated. 

But with the growth of the computer and the advent of electronic banking, the supply of paper dried up. It was a small project, and just a few people might have benefited, but, sadly, the project has been discontinued. 

But when a project ceases, we need to look to the one who makes all things new, if only for fresh ideas as to how to achieve the same or similar objectives in the world of today. 

He still wants to make all things new!