The latest swap shop, held at Tilling Green Community Centre on Saturday, May 17 saw a record percentage of items being taken away by visitors. All donations are weighed as they leave the building, and of the 557 kg brought, 77% was taken away by visitors to be reused. This represented more than 1,000 individual items. Of the remainder, 75 kg of stock was given to charity shops, 26 kg was recycled, and 26 kg was waste.
Since the swap shop started in 2012, more than 20 tonnes of donations have been brought to events at Tilling Green and St Mary’s community centres. Not only does the swap shop reduce contributions to landfill, it also provides an opportunity for unwanted object to find new homes where they will be valued.
Free shopping at swap shops is held up to six times a year and alternate between Tilling Green and St Mary’s centre. Attendance overlaps quite a bit between the two venues, but the events are quite different in terms of style and objects brought. The Tilling Green Centre is a much bigger venue and has parking, so some people can bring and take large volumes of items. It also has a footprint among younger people and families, so it is common to see a lot of children’s clothes, books and toys. Given that children grow out of these things quickly, it is great to have an opportunity to pass on items that are no longer needed and pick up replacements from others in the community. I particularly enjoy seeing young children fill up bags of toys and books with whatever they choose to take.
The swap shop is free to attend and people are very welcome to come and take things even if they haven’t bought anything. In fact, this is warmly encouraged as we want to minimise what we have to dispose of elsewhere.
The last time I was at the St Mary’s event, I spoke to a couple of tourists who had wandered in and couldn’t believe that they were allowed to take away whatever they wanted, free of charge. I did tell them of course to make sure to spend some extra money in Rye to support our economy and they were very happy to agree to do that.
If people are able to, a small cash donation is really helpful as although we are all volunteers, we do need to cover event costs, such as a hall hire fee.
The next swap shops will be Saturday, October 18 at St Mary’s Centre and November 15 at Tilling Green Centre. Entry is from 9:30am and items can be brought in until 10:30am – we’re then open until 11:30am for people to take things away. In terms of what you can bring, we do not allow, legally, any electrical items. Also please don’t bring dirty, broken or dangerous items or anything too big to carry away by hand.
Please come, bring your friends and some bags to take away your new goodies!
There will be a special ‘back to school’ swap and repair event on Saturday, August 9 from 10am – noon at Tilling Green Community Centre, with the focus on re-using school uniforms and equipment. Repairs will include sewing and stitching, as well as bike repairs.
Further information is available at https://www.transitionrye.org.uk/activities/recycle-swap-shop/
Image Credits: Mike Pepler .