Dorset Scrapstore

Working with industry to reduce, reuse and recycle, Keith Dear of the Dorset Scrapstore talks through the ways that the store is of benefit to everybody.

Dorset Scrapstore is helping to reduce the volume of materials that would otherwise go straight to landfill. As a registered charity whose aims are to advance the education and social welfare of children and adults in Dorset and to protect the environment, we make a wide range of donated materials available to our members, and we go out into the community providing a variety of craft based workshops.

All age groups are represented in our membership; from toddlers in playgroups and nurseries, through to the retired either as individual members or as part of a group such as the Women's Institute or an arts and crafts organisation. Schools in particular use our services, enabling them, at very low cost, to enhance many of their activities; mainly play, art, craft and drama, but design and technology and other pursuits also benefit.

Our shelves are filled with sticky-backed plastic, card, paper, fabrics, cardboard tubes, foam sheets, fake fur - and lots more things, many not available through other sources. While industry and commerce are our main suppliers, the public is increasingly offering us items.   To widen the variety of what we offer we have "swaps" with some of the other 100+ scrapstores throughout the country. End of rolls, redundant stock, by-products of a manufacturing process, promotional items; these are all accepted and collected free from the donors, provided they are clean, non-toxic and can be made good use of by our members.

Dorset Scrapstore has been in operation for over six years and has two part-time employees. The workforce is augmented by ten regular volunteers whose invaluable contribution of sorting materials, stacking shelves and offering advice and assistance to our members has provided us with stability and enabled the organisation to grow from 204 members in our first year to over 600 at present. Our volunteers have been the backbone for the development of our craft workshops and other outreach work. These are focused on children and families and use our donated materials to promote the   three 'R's of environmentalism while encouraging creativity through making play and craft items. This work is often in conjunction with other local groups such as DEED and Playplus, with the various SureStart centres in the county, or in support of local council recycling initiatives.