📘 Part 3: Second-hand items

This episode's vocabulary

Throw them out (phrasal verb) – to discard or get rid of something no longer wanted. → I need to throw out these old documents that are taking up space.

Give them away (phrasal verb) – to donate or provide something to others for free. → We decided to give away our old furniture when we moved house.

Tatty (adjective) – worn, shabby, or in poor condition. → The book was a bit tatty but still readable.

Fall to pieces (idiom) – to break apart or deteriorate completely. → My old shoes are literally falling to pieces after years of use.

Pre-owned (adjective) – previously owned or used; second-hand. → Pre-owned cars are often significantly cheaper than new models.

Affordable (adjective) – reasonably priced; within one's financial means. → Student accommodation in this area is quite affordable compared to other cities.

Vintage (adjective) – representing high-quality items from a past era. → She loves shopping for vintage clothing from the 1970s.

Outgrow (verb) – to become too large or mature for something. → Children quickly outgrow their shoes and need new ones every few months.

Wear them out (phrasal verb) – to use something until it becomes damaged or unusable. → I tend to wear out my running shoes within six months.

At a rate of knots (idiom) – very quickly or rapidly. → The company is expanding at a rate of knots this year.

High street (noun) – the main shopping street in a town or city. → Most major retailers have stores on the high street.

Pile-up (noun) – an accumulation or buildup of things. → There's been a huge pile-up of unprocessed applications.

In the long run (phrase) – over an extended period; eventually. → Investing in quality items saves money in the long run.

Off the top of my head (idiom) – without careful thought or research. → Off the top of my head, I'd say about 50 people attended the meeting.

Wind up being (phrasal verb) – to end up or eventually become. → The project wound up being more complex than we initially thought.

Cost-effective (adjective) – providing good value relative to the cost. → Buying in bulk is often more cost-effective for large families.

Environmentally conscious (adjective) – aware of and concerned about environmental impact. → More consumers are becoming environmentally conscious in their purchasing decisions.

Hand-me-downs (noun) – clothes or items passed from older to younger family members. → I wore a lot of hand-me-downs from my older siblings growing up.

Throw-away culture (noun phrase) – a society that frequently discards items instead of reusing them. → We need to move away from our throw-away culture and embrace sustainability.

Make do with (phrasal verb) – to manage with limited or inadequate resources. → During tough times, families have to make do with what they have.

Questions and Answers

Maria: What do people do with the clothes they don't want anymore?

Rory: I think there are only two choices: throw them out or give them away. Probably depends on what condition they're in. I doubt most people would want to give their tatty old jeans to someone in need if they're just going to fall to pieces or let the cold in.

Maria: Why do people buy second-hand clothes?

Rory: Well, lots of people don't have much money these days, so pre-owned stuff is more affordable than anything brand new. And there's a great market for vintage clothes too, so the older variants of various items of clothing might even be more fashionable.

Maria: Some people think it's a waste to buy too many clothes for children. Would you agree?

Rory: How are we defining children here? If it's a baby, then yes, because they grow up so fast, so they might outgrow things before they get a chance to wear them at all, let alone wear them out. Young primary school children, on the other hand, often go through clothes at a rate of knots because they're always falling about all over the place and putting holes in things. So it really depends.

Maria: How do people in your country recycle various items that they don't want?

Rory: Well, we're lucky enough to have a pretty good recycling infrastructure, so usually they can just fling them in a bin and off it goes to the recycling centre. Plus, there's a load of charity shops in just about every high street, so it's probably enough to just drop them there too.

Maria: Should the government encourage people to recycle items?

Rory: Well, assuming it doesn't do more harm than good, then absolutely yes. It's probably a good idea to be less wasteful in general, to be honest, because it can save money and allow people to make better use of things.

Maria: What problems will occur if people don't recycle?

Rory: Well, aside from a gigantic pile-up of waste products, it's probably not great for people's mentality either, frankly speaking. If people get comfortable being wasteful and just throwing things away, then it probably means they'll treat each other and the environment with less respect as well, which obviously, in the long run, isn't great for people. And that's before we even begin to talk about the damage it can do to the environment.

Maria: And what are the advantages of buying second-hand goods?

Rory: Well, apart from not life-wrecking the planet, I think it could be good for people's wallets, since, from a price-point perspective, they cost less than brand-new clothes because there's less investment in creating them. I think older things are generally better made as well, so they might last longer than newer clothes, which, generally speaking, are designed to fall apart faster. Those are just the two I can think of off the top of my head, though. I imagine there are dozens more.

Maria: And what could be the disadvantages of people buying second-hand goods, not brand-new ones?

Rory: The one that leaps out to me is, if you're a child and you're seen to have second-hand clothes, then it could make you stand out in a negative way and paint your family in a bad light, so you might look like you're poor. But that's not really a problem with the clothes, that's a problem with how society perceives people. Even though I just said older clothes might last longer, they also might not last as long, and so you might end up just continually buying more and more second-hand clothes, which fall apart faster. Or second-hand items, which stop working faster. Even though the initial cost is cheap, the cost of constantly replacing them might actually wind up being higher than just buying something new that will last for a long time. But that depends on how much you look after them as well.

Discussion

Maria: Thank you Rory for your informative, logical, well-structured and super-detailed answers.

Rory: And they're not even second-hand.

Maria: Do you feel band 9? Yes, you should. Because Rory gives really detailed, direct answers with examples, you follow his ideas. We keep talking about second-hand items, so used items, not brand new ones. And usually, people do something with the clothes they don't need anymore, so they throw them out. Clothes, they, dear listener. My clothes are expensive, okay, or cheap. So, my clothes are cheap. It's crazy, but clothes, it's they. So, like, what do people do with the clothes they don't need? People throw them out. Or give them away. So, you can give away clothes, or you can throw clothes out. Rory, you said, like, tatty old jeans.

Rory: Tatty just means in a bad condition. It's also a word for potato in Scotland.

Maria: Tatty, old, in bad condition. And yeah, we usually say, like, tatty old jeans as a collocation. And if such clothes fall to pieces, then people usually throw them out. So, very often, our old clothes fall to pieces. Like, they're so old, now we've been wearing them for ages. Like, our favourite shirt, and it falls to pieces. People don't have much money, so pre-owned stuff is more affordable. So, pre-owned stuff, second-hand stuff, or clothes, right? So, pre-owned. These clothes had an owner before. More affordable, more reasonable, so cheaper. And second-hand clothes are more affordable than anything brand new. So, we talk about second-hand versus brand-new clothes.

Rory: Well, they might be more affordable.

Maria: And also, you can talk about vintage items, vintage clothes. This is, like, such clothes are also second-hand, but it's vintage, you know? Maybe it's from a famous brand, like a vintage dress. It's beautiful, second-hand, but yeah. And you can say there's a market for vintage clothes, which are pretty expensive and fashionable.

Rory: Well, they can be.

Maria: You can also say that buying second-hand items is good for people's wallets. A wallet is a bag where you keep your money. Usually, men keep their money in a wallet. And the second-hand items might be made better. So, perhaps, they are better made, because it was ages ago, and the materials were much better. Yeah, there is a belief that if we talk about clothes, materials itself were much more, I don't know, durable. And such clothes might last longer.

Rory: They might.

Maria: Or it might fall apart. Yeah, fall apart if it just gets destroyed. So, last longer or fall apart. Clothes could fall apart, or different gadgets could fall apart. Rory, you also said that, like, when I asked you about the disadvantages of buying second-hand items, you said, like, the one that leaps out to me is...

Rory: Yes, because that was the first thing I thought of. I know it's probably not the most obvious thing, but it was for me.

Maria: Yeah. So, the one that pops up is... Or the one that I'm thinking of now is... Or the one that leaps out to me, so something that I'm thinking now, is... So, a nice one. And if people buy second-hand items, they might replace them all the time. They have to look after them carefully, take care of them. And another phrasal verb is stand out. So, if children wear second-hand clothes, they might stand out in a bad way. Like, everybody will notice that they're wearing old clothes, and people could laugh at them. So, they will be visible to everybody in a bad way. So, they might stand out in a bad way.

Rory: Possibly. It depends on how snobby you are.

Maria: Babies outgrow things very quickly. So, a baby grows every day, every hour. So, a baby outgrows things. That's why, like, what's the point of buying new clothes for a baby when, like, tomorrow they will not be able to wear them? If you wear out clothes, what happens?

Rory: They have holes in them. They start falling to pieces. You can wear out clothes, that's the most obvious one. But you could also wear out machinery as well if it's used so much that it starts to be less effective or stops working completely. And you can feel worn out, which is when you work so hard that you are tired.

Maria: And some questions could be about recycling. What do we do with things we don't need? Clothes or electronics. So, we recycle different items. We encourage everybody to recycle. Like, how do we recycle items, products, second-hand things, stuff? And Rory has a very good recycling infrastructure in his country. So, here I can fling, fling what? Fling recycling items into a bin. So, you throw things you don't need in a rubbish bin, fling or throw, and off they go to a recycling centre. Maybe you don't have it in your country, or you are free to lie. Dear listener, just steal Rory's answer. What are charity shops, Rory, in your country?

Rory: Charity shops are shops run by charities. So, you go to them, and the money you spend goes to the charity. For example, I think next to my house there's a British Heart Foundation shop. So, the money I spend there goes to the British Heart Foundation, and they spend that money on helping people is the idea. But unfortunately, there have been lots of scandals in our country where the money has been going to the CEOs of charities because they get paid a very high salary, which is not so great.

Maria: And can you just give away clothes or you just buy things from a charity shop?

Rory: No, there are other things as well. I've seen sets of glasses, for example, and books in addition to clothes, although the range is limited, of course.

Maria: You buy these products, you can't just give away your products?

Rory: Oh no, you can give over your own things as long as they meet certain requirements.

Maria: I can leave my stuff, right?

Rory: Yeah.

Maria: Maybe in your country you have charity shops, where you can buy things, or you can give away things. The idea is to be less wasteful. So, when we recycle items, we are more sustainable, more environmentally friendly, and less wasteful. If we don't recycle, what could happen?

Rory: Lots of trash.

Maria: So, a gigantic pile of waste. Gigantic means enormous, large, very large. A gigantic pile of waste. We say like a pile of rubbish, a pile of waste, like a mountain of rubbish. So, if people don't recycle, we'll be covered with trash and rubbish. And if there is rubbish everywhere, people might treat each other with less respect. So, there is rubbish, people throw things away in the streets, and they'll treat each other with less respect in the long run.

Rory: Maybe. I feel like people who embrace waste more generally are probably not very nice to other people compared to people who do try to waste less. It seems like they would just value the planet and people and life in general more. Maybe. I'm not really an expert in human psychology when it comes to waste.

Maria: Lovely. Thank you very much for listening. We'll get back to you in our next episode, okay? Bye!

Rory: Bye!

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