It is 10 am sunny Saturday morning in Rhine Park of Bonn City, Germany. I am seeing loads of people busy for buying and selling goods that are displayed on the table and ground under the open sky or tent. Some have heap of wardrobe in front of them while some are bargaining for kitchen wares at very cheap price. Such shops are in hundreds of number scattered throughout the big Rhine Park. If you have time and patience you can find any things that you are looking for. What else you won’t find here such as toys for your children, wardrobe, antique decorative materials, furniture, and electronic gadgets and so on. The one similarity that I can observe among these items kept for sale is that all of them are used one (second hand) and are meant for reuse. However, the shopkeepers range from small kids to old age people. 
Now I recalled what we used to do with similar items back in home (Nepal). We either stored them in store room or prepared for dumping at the side of road. But the situation is little bit different here. The items that are no longer useful are not meant for storage or dump at dumping site. But they became the selling items in flea market (or reuse market). Flea markets are organized on regular basis at certain places where people come to sell, buy and barter the used items.
The flea market in Bonn is organized on every third Saturday of month in the bigger and greener Rhinaue Park. If you want to sell your items then you have to reserve your place by paying some fee. This fee is used for cleaning and providing some basic facilities such as toilets. So, I am also eligible to set up my shop here. The vendors range from individual person/household to professional businessman involved in collection and selling of such items.
People arrive here one day before the day of flea market. So, it is also a mean of entertainment for people and family. They set up tents, do camp fire and spend some quality time with the family and friends. Then, selling and buying of items start from the early morning till evening in the next day. I observed that nobody feels shy or awkward to sell the used items whatever they have. There are not only a huge number of people willing to sell their items but also people coming to buy such things. Many people are retuning back along with their bags or trolley filled with items that they bought here.
This flea market is a good way of resource mobilization and utilization. It is remarkably contributing to reduce the amount of waste that would have been ended up in the dumping site. It is demonstrating that waste for someone can be resource for others. The flea market is not all about earning money. It is about fun, family togetherness, learning basic skills of business (bargaining and presentation) and reuse of items. As mentioned earlier, people are coming here from distant to spend some quality time with friends and family. They are not bothered about how much sell they are going to do at the market. Small kids and youth bargaining for some cents are ultimately learning the life skills.
The few hours that I spend in today’s flea market is ultimately turned out to good deal for me. I managed to get one carpet at the price of 23 Euros which was quoted as 200 Euro in online shop. I also bought coffee maker, table lamp at very negligible price.
I am dreaming that one day similar kinds of market will be organized in Nepal as well. We need some pioneer for this to happen. We don’t have reuse friendly attitude and behavior. We feel embarrassed to use second hand items. Because of this valuable resources are wasted in junkyard and dumping site. Time to rethink and reuse!
