Utilizing Hand-Me-Downs: A Foreigner’s Initiative to Maintain Vietnam’s Cleanliness
An American expat who is well-known for his efforts in cleaning up Hanoi has been collecting second-hand items and selling them to raise funds for environmental protection activities since 2019. The project aims to raise awareness about the importance of fixing, recycling, and reusing old items instead of throwing them away. The shop is located in a three-floor house on Lac Long Quan Street in Tay Ho District, Hanoi, where young people have come up with projects to revitalize the city, reduce waste, and study the reuse of second-hand products to protect the environment. The small shop is filled with a wide range of items that are neatly arranged. “At the beginning, we had more foreign customers visiting the shop, but now we have more local customers,” said Tran Nguyen Ngoc, a part-time employee and teacher at the shop. Every day at 9:00 am, Ngoc classifies and arranges items while receiving donations from residents across the northern region. As the project gained popularity, more