A SMALL not-for-profit business has turned unwanted artificial Christmas trees into new ones and saves more than 750 shopping baskets worth of waste going to landfill each year.
Scraptastic, in Bradford Road, Shipley opened in 2018 and has been on a mission to curb our throwaway culture for the past four-and-a-half years.
It is owned by Jenny Dunbar, 42, and she is helped by volunteers, Lynn Whiles, Lucy Ball, Marie Hallam, Daphne Rowbotham, who are all in their seventies.
One of the Community Interest Company’s (CIC) initiatives is to take in broken and unwanted plastic trees – bought for the festive period – and piece them together into full decorations for someone else to use.
Owner, Jenny Dunbar, 42, said: “Artificial trees have a place, if they’re reused enough then they’re okay for the environment.
“What tends to happen is the trees’ leg gets attacked by an animal or they get a bit wobbly and end up in landfill.
“If we get enough in we can mix and match legs and recycle them.”
Ms Dunbar collects the donations in the cupboard under her stairs and starts to take stock of what she has in November.
The team manage to make around 15 to 20 trees from the bits and bobs they have donated, with prices ranging from £2 to £20, with the money raised used to help running costs.
But one large creation – standing at six feet – went for £40 last week.
Ms Dunbar said: “We take the top off one and make smaller trees.
“Any bits that can’t be used, branches, we put them in the scrap section and people can take those to make wreaths.
“It stops perfectly good parts of trees going to landfill.”
It is playgroups and schools that often purchase the recycled decorations, according to Ms Dunbar, although the most expensive one this year was for someone’s home.
Throughout the year, Scraptastic will also take in waste resources from businesses that otherwise would be thrown away.
But the not-for-profit organisation reuses it and also takes in leftover materials, such as pipe cleaners and tissue paper, and creates craft packs for people to buy.
Ms Dunbar said the amount they have accepted has fluctuated due to the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns but that overall Scraptastic has saved more than 750 shopping baskets full of business waste from going to landfill each year since opening.
She said: “A lot of people are paying more to buy things and they just don’t need to.
“Everything is getting more expensive, we’ve got to be more conscious.”
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