A Welly Good Idea

Today I dropped into Raspberry Rascals, a gorgeous boutique in Bury St Edmunds, which sells pre-loved clothing for children.

It's such a beautiful shop and thanks to the quality of well chosen stock, it's hard to tell that the range of clothing, books and toys is mainly second-hand.




I normally spend ages in the little boutique browsing for bargains for the children, but today's visit wasn't to shop, it was to drop off a pair of old wellies for a Welly Swap event that's taking place next week.



The owner, Heather Bream, is a huge supporter of recycling and has organised the Free Welly Swap to enable customers to drop off old wellies that are still in a wearable condition and to take another pair if they find a size that is suitable. If it is a real success, she will continue the idea throughout the rest of the year too.



The idea came from a discussion we had about a month ago. Heather had been pondering how she could support Recycle Week and do something helpful for the local community. When she asked if I had any bright ideas, I agreed to get my brain into gear and have a ponder too.

Then out of the blue came a wonderful comment from fellow blogger, CompostWoman, who provided inspiration on a blogpost that I'd published about my old wellington boots. She made reference to Welly and Jelly libraries that allowed parents in Herefordshire to swap items that their children had outgrown.

Heather loved this idea and is now excited about launching her own welly exchange next week and in doing so will hopefully save lots of boots from landfill...

... or at the very least protect them from gardening enthusiasts like me reusing them as plant-pots.

So thanks to CompostWoman, Raspberry Rascals and the power of talking rubbish. As a result of sharing great ideas, here's another opportunity that will hopefully help the local community waste even less next week.

For those who live in Bury St Edmunds, Raspberry Rascals is located on Langton Place, just off Hatter Street. The shop is open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. More information can be found at www.raspberryrascals.co.uk.


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Are any of your local shops doing anything to support Recycle Week? It's always worth asking around, and if you find out anything exciting I'd love to know the gossip. You might even be able to help them with ideas. Who knows what can happen when like-minded folk get together.

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Updated with new photos 20:35, 20/06/09