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2. RE-USE

Last updated 3 July 2009

"Re-use" is second in the slogan Reduce-Reuse-Recycle. Things you don't want might be very much wanted by someone else! It's obvious really, reusing things in the "Story of Stuff" avoids having to use brand new resources and lots more energy to make new things again and again. In May 2008, CAWAG produced a Quick Guide for Charlbury giving some ideas about reusing things.

  • Twice a year, on a Saturday in March and October, CAWAG organises a "Bring & Take" in the Memorial Hall in Charlbury where you can bring along things you don't want and take away anything you fancy FOR FREE!! Come to the CAWAG stall at the Charlbury Farmers' Market on the second Saturday in December where we have a special Christmas theme - ideas for a greener Christmas and a special Bring & Take for Christmas decorations where you can bring along your old decorations and take away anything you fancy for free.

  • Twiggy's Frock Exchange BBC2 showed a series of programmes in October 2008 where women swapped clothes some recent designer clothes, some old treasured clothes now vintage, some old styles revamped for today. A variation for our normal Bring & Take. The first Frock Swap in Charlbury was held in May 2009 in the Cornbury Suite at The Bell with proceeds going to the Romanian Foyer Trust - we plan to have them every three months - the next one will be September 2009. Another word for this sort of event is a Swishing party. In the UK we throw away a staggering 1 million tonnes of old clothes and textiles each year. Over 7.5 billion articles of clothing go into dustbins each year, with most ending up as landfill - don't throw it away - swap it! Borrow Neal Lawson's book All Consuming: How shopping got us into this mess and how we can find a way out from the Bookshare library for a fascinating insight into our turbo-consuming society.

  • Visit Vinspired aimed at promoting recycled fashion among young people. Download a Fashion Favours fashion kit showing how to customise clothes and upload photos of your creations to their website. Visit JunkyStyling for timeless, deconstructed, recut and completely transformed clothing.

  • There are several Freecycle networks set up in the county that you could subscribe to: Chipping Norton, Witney and Oxford. You will be emailed with items that are available and you can contact the supplier if you find something that you need. No money changes hands. There is also a UK site (www.2recycle.co.uk) where both wanted and offerred adverts can be seen directly on the site organised by location.

  • Take books to book banks so that books can be re-read by someone else. 

  • Borrow a book from CAWAG's Bookshare Library.

  • The My Zero Waste website has a great page with suggestions about what to do with books to get them back into circulation.

  • Furniture can be used by others, the Oxford Council for Voluntary Action need furniture to distribute to people on benefits and low incomes. Although furniture can be collected from you, it is preferable to take it to them when it is open, so you need to contact them to arrange when.

  • Take clothes and bric-a-brac to local charity shops. There are several in Witney and Chipping Norton. Some charity shops (Oxfam and many others) are organised to sign you up for Gift Aid and then track the sale of your items and reclaim the income tax on the value of the sale - this is a marvellous money earner for the charity and is no bother to you.

    Oxfam's Tag your Bag

  • Re-use items such as bottles, jars, shoeboxes, etc. for storage purposes.

  • Consider using salvaged and reclaimed materials such as wood and bricks when doing any building work or DIY projects. George Marshall's Yellow House in Oxford is an inspiration for reusing materials and creating a very environmentally friendly home.

  • Use your bath or shower water for your plants and garden. The less water is used, the less water that has to be processed, the less energy that has to be used during that processing, the more water that will be left in our rivers and, hey, the huge new reservoir south of Oxford might not need to be built with the huge savings in building materials etc.

  • Recycled timber can be bought from Oxford Wood Recycling Unit 46a Milton Park, Abingdon.

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