At this time of year we tend to turn our attention to throwing out things we no longer need, to make room for all the new items we accumulated over Christmas.
We live in a throw-away society, but a Bradford woman is hoping to change attitudes and encourage more people to recycle.
Launched 20 years ago, the Freegle website aims to cut down on waste by uniting people with goods they can make use of for free.
If, for example, someone has something they don’t want and are intending to take it to a tip, they can advertise it free through Freegle and, with a bit of imagination, someone may be able to utilise it rather than it finding its way into landfill.
Vera Scanlon, who runs the site, turned a double bed frame into runs for her pet guinea pigs, and she says the possibilities of recycling are endless.
When replacing her old kitchen, she recycled it in its entirety through Freegle, with everything apart from the cooker going on to be used by other people. Cupboards and worktops were acquired by someone who turned them into shelving and units in a garden shed.
For Vera, Freegle is an extension of the “make do and mend” ethos she grew up with as a child.
She recalls money being tight so she swiftly became accustomed to seeking affordable items through charity shops and creating her own clothes long before the recycling and home-making boom began.
Over the past two decades Freegle has gathered momentum, with 8,500 members signed up so far, and now that Christmas is over and people may be wanting to get rid of unwanted goods, Vera hopes many more will be encouraged to pass on their items for free to those who can make use of them.
Judging from the postcodes of those who post their free items, Vera says the people of Bradford are generous in passing on their unwanted items. The site has already united fridge freezers and other household items with people who can’t afford the cost of equipping a home.
Vera says she can’t believe the amount of items that are thrown away in society and believes the boom in recycling items for free was partly prompted by programmes such as Channel 4’s Homemade Home, in which presenter Kirsty Allsopp demonstrated how reclaiming and recycling helped her to transform a derelict house in Devon.
Vera believes Freegle is a good way for people to avoid dumping potentially useable things in bins and tips, when others who are struggling financially could make good use of them in their homes.
“People just throw things out. It is a throw-away society and that says a lot about us,” she says. “But I think times are changing because there are so many people in desperate need. It has to change, it really has.”
Freegle isn’t the only outlet for re-using and recycling.
Founded in 2004, a scrap store called Scrap Magic, in Eccleshill, enables mainly commercial enterprises to donate surplus materials such as fabrics, buttons, reels, tubes, paper and envelopes for craft activities.
Gift and bottle bags, ribbons, bows and bubble wrap, surplus from festive season will also be welcome too, says Carlton Smith, chief officer of BCEP, Bradford Community Environment Project which runs the Bradford Council-funded scheme.
Carlton says the scheme not only re-uses materials which would otherwise go to waste, it also gives youngsters the opportunity to use their imaginations through craft creations.
“Give a child a video game and there is only one way they can use it – the way the programme is set out – but give them a random selection of objects, it could be a tower, a doll or a cityscape or a racing track. It could be used in 100 different ways, it is much more about cognitive imagination play for children,” he said, adding: “It is free and it is recycling as well.”
And for anyone looking to recycle Christmas trees, Carlton suggests they take them to the green waste recycling sites around the district.
For more information about Bradford Community Environment Project, visit bcep.org.uk. For more about Freegle visit ilovefreegle.org/ about/testimonials.php.
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