Saturday 20 June 2009

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

7 comments:

Mrs Green said...

what a lovely idea! Great to see recycling really taking off mrs A - you must be so proud for getting this pledge up and running so well :)

Margaret's Ramblings said...

What a great idea. I'll be up to our local chariety shop first thing Monday morning to see if they would be interested in doing the same.

Margaret

Strawberry Jam Anne said...

That is a great idea, children outgrow footwear so quickly. It all helps to save the purse as well as the planet. A x

Compostwoman said...

Hurrah!

Karin said...

Just wanted to say I spotted you in the Co-op magazine. Well done.

Almost Mrs Average said...

Hi Mrs G - It really is great to see an idea rolling out into reality and Heather is brilliant for taking it on board. I hope CompostWoman is just as chuffed :-D

Hi Margaret - that's brilliant. It would be great if one of your local charity shops could get involved too. Do let me know if you get any success :-D

Hi Anne - it is really true and even I'm up for saving money these days :-D

Hi CompostWoman - well, I think you're just as chuffed as I must be. Thanks again for sharing the news about your local Welly and Jelly libraries :-D

Hi Karin - Oh wow. I haven't seen that yet. I must try and get hold of a copy. Did you see Tracey Smith too? I think she was supposed to be in the same issue. Exciting times at the moment :-D

love home|life|style said...

What a blinkin good idea! this week I shall definitely pop in to raspberry rascals and take a peek round...

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