Weve caught the swapping bug! Sustainable Bury launches its first Swap Shop

L-R: Pippa, Fiona & me: Some of the founding members of Sustainable Bury, at our very first Swap Shop. Photo credit: Sandy Jackson. 

Ive been to several Swap shops or Give & Take days organised by Transition Town groups around Suffolk. the last one being being held by Sustainable Bungay in September.  I must confess that when I left that event, I was both quite jealous that Bury St Edmunds didnt have such an occasion to get the good town-folk out swapping, but also very much inspired to do something about it.

After all, in Bungay, what I witnessed was not just a great way of motivating people to declutter their unwanted items and let someone else take them home for free, but there was also a fantastic vibrant community spirit.  

Now left to my own devices, that inspiration might have remained a pipe dream due to competing priorities.  However, my visit to Bungay coincided with the gathering of like-minded folk in Bury St Edmunds - mainly in a pub - to organise a new Transition Town community group called Sustainable Bury.  As we were planning our events, I mentioned how much Id love to bring the Swap Shop idea under our umbrella.  All it took was someone to suggest enthusiastically that we should run one just after Christmas and Bobs your uncle, the first community event for Sustainable Bury was born!  Such is the power of team-work.

The posters went up, leaflets were distributed and we received some great mentions on Radio Suffolk and excellent coverage in the Bury Free Press, but it was still quite nerve-wracking yesterday morning as we got ready for our big event.  Would the good folk of Bury St Edmunds turn up?

Setting out the tables at the St Johns Centre.

Thankfully, yes they did!

Including Kim, one of Bury St Edmunds entertainment organisers.  I never did find out whether she took those funky specs home, but I really hope she did!

The idea was that people could drop off items that they no longer wanted and take anything away that they wished, for free!  If they didnt have anything to bring, they could simply leave a donation at their discretion.  Any items that were left, we simply pledged to donate them to the charity shops, dotted along St Johns Street.

As with any Reuse event, the swap shop featured a real eclectic range of stuff.  I loved these little Saki cups.

And this unopened Body Shop gift pack was certainly a great find for its new owner.

As was this Past Times tea cosy. proclaiming "Where theres tea theres hope"!  That might become my new mantra.

Im really pleased that for our first event we had around 30 people, perhaps even more.  To be honest, we were so busy listening to all the great feedback from the visitors who dropped by that it was really tricky to keep count.   In fact, the feedback that we received was so encouraging, we have decided to bring forward plans for our next Swap Shop, which we will now run in April.

Im now looking forward to the Swap Shop becoming a regular event that supports the Reuse infrastructure in Suffolk, in a way that is truly fun and brings the community together.   For those who struggle to get stuff into town, it would also be wonderful for satellite events to be hosted by community centres and schools in the the surrounding estates and villages and I would certainly be happy to help get those rolling.

However, Sustainable Bury is not just about encouraging reuse and reducing waste, there are other great plans on the cards too.  There is a real wealth of ideas coming through, so if you have time, do check out this great piece by the Bury Free Press from yesterdays event, which also features a video of our members, sharing some thoughts about what theyd love the group to achieve.

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Sustainable Bury really is in its infancy, so while we wait for its website/blog to be created, more information can be found at the Facebook page or by following @SustainableBury on Twitter.   If you are local to Bury St Edmunds and would like to get involved,  please do get in touch via Facebook/Twitter, email me or alternatively leave a note below and I will be pleased to pass on your details to the team.  The next planning meeting is this Tuesday, 15 January, 7.30pm at the Fox Inn, in Eastgate Street.  All are welcome.

More information about Transition Towns can be found at www.transitionnetwork.org.

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Swish shwop swap or drop or make do and mend

With a solid infrastructure of car boot sales, clothing agencies, charity shops, recycling points, give & take days, passing onto friends or a night out swishing, there are many solutions to getting rid of unwanted clothes today.  Youd think our society would have this thing sorted wouldnt you?

Wrong!


According to TRAID (Textile Recycling for Aid & International Development), over 1.4 million tonnes of clothing still end up landfill each year, much of which could be worn again.

Now this makes me bloody angry!

When you consider all of the labour, the resources, the energy and the effort thats gone into making a product, which is simply discarded as rubbish when there is so much more that can be done with it, it highlights a major problem with our society.  A society that is either unaware or one that doesnt care.

So it was with interest, that Ive been following the huge campaign that has been launched recently by M&S and Oxfam, promoting Shwopping.  Unless youre a hermit in a loincloth, tucked away in the farthest corner of a deep cavern, its been hard to miss it, especially as its been fronted by one of the UKs most wonderful actresses, Joanna Lumley and has hit print, broadcasting and social-media alike. The message is simple. Stop chucking so much into landfill because thats bad. M&S will make it easy for you to recycle instead, passing it onto Oxfam for reuse, resale or recycling. The idea is that next time youre shopping in-store, take in something old and drop it in the Shwop Drop box before you buy something new. 

Claiming this is the start of a fashion revolution, it is unsurprising that the campaign has been met with a whole whirlwhind of controversy, with some great commentary from columnists such as the Guardians Deborah Orr, TriplePundits Raz Godelnik and blogger Keith Parkins, all delving a little deeper beyond the campaign gloss.  M&S is really putting itself on a pedestal for what could be deemed as profiting from simply selling emperors clothes, when the more environmental alternative is to buy less.


We will never win the battle of waste and resource issues with constant consumerism, but despite this, I think that M&S really does have a huge role to play with its current campaign and in terms of how it can be developed further.

From an educational perspective, the retail giant is able to reach an audience that may never be turned on by less sexy council leaflets, or that feels too proud to enter a charity shop, even to drop something off, or cant be arsed to take something to a recycling centre because theyre simply too busy getting the buzz from the next purchase.

If youre looking for any anecdotal evidence on this, people like that really do exist.  Ive been there, and am just glad to have snapped myself out of it shortly after the turn of the century.

In my bubble of optimism I hope that the Shwop idea will be the start of something greater, not least because I hope it will reach out to an untapped opportunity for clothes recycling and that other stores will follow the lead in raising awareness in their own socio-demographic corner of the retail sector.

But I also hope that M&S will develop this further and use it as a platform to educate customers and kickstart discussion - and action -  and look at ways in which it can work closer with the community.

I have already witnessed the perfect model for this at the campaigns Shwop Lab in Spitalfields this week, where I had the chance to chat to eco designer Gary Harvey, whilst he was busy designing a dress made from donated denim that would have otherwise been landfilled.

Passionate about good design and quality materials, his position is clear, in that fast fashion has transformed the clothing industry with merchandise that is so cheap you can pick up a pair of jeans for just four quid.  He worries that as a society we have lost respect for clothing. 

He is also concerned about the social injustice of a trade, which in many areas has taken people away from their communities into enforced labour with poor conditions of pay as well as health and safety.  Hes not on his own in this worry. Lucy Siegle, author of the book To die for, has conducted a tremendous amount of research in this area, which has highlighted some stark realities of the fashion industry.  Id recommend you watch her very short video, which provides a brief insight.

My discussion with Gary Harvey highlighted another issue, in that we have lost our creative and practical skills for making and customising our own clothing. Even altering an item of clothing can be beyond our capabilities.  As a society he wants us to get up off our backsides, have a go at making something and stop making excuses.  I could only nod and blush, having rejected many a blue skirt in my local charity shops this week because the hem was far too long.  I was beginning to wish that Id already had this conversation last week.

"Its not difficult," he told me. "If you make a mistake, you just fix it."

My visit to the Shwop Lab gave me access to an informed perspective, which despite being open to all of M&S customers, the majority wont see it. Yet, with a full agenda of debate and insights in conjunction with Oxfam and the Sustainable Centre of Fashion, it is a fundamental part of the campaign launch

If M&S really wants to influence its customers and start creating a deeper fashion revolution, every store in this country should host a version of the Shwop Lab,  raising awareness of the issues that exist in the fashion industry and illustrating what the company is doing to address them.

It may be a little leftfield, but I would also love to see an instore Oxfam pop-up shop with good quality pieces, which can be bought there and then, to introduce shoppers into the idea of reuse. 

I really hope the Shwop campaign will create a much wider debate about our relationship with clothing than has ever been tackled before.  Its certainly made me look again at my own buying habits, which have had the odd moment of weakness lately.  Inspired by Gary Harvey, I am also going to attempt to overcome my fears and laziness and try and work some magic with my sewing machine, which I will need to drag down from the loft.

Meanwhile, Ive got one last plea to M&S.  Please, I beg you to stop including those damn belts with your jeans.  If I want a belt Ill buy a good quality one, and probably so will the thousands of people who also probably take them off after the first wash and never wear them again.  I know I could shwop it, but I dont want it in the first place.

It may be a very niche idea, but just imagine the impact it could make.  To bastardise one of the most famous sayings, "Thats one small belt for a woman, but one giant leap for mankind".

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Neighborhood Clothes Swap for Genesis Shelter

We are so lucky because we have so many great families in our neighborhood that we love to spend time with! Lots of little boys of different ages & sizes. So, lots of the "Boy moms" got together with clothes their kids had grown out of and we all swapped. Everyone pitched in a dollar for items they wanted to buy from each other. Meanwhile our kids played together in the playroom. At the end of the a.m., our kids had fun playing, we were taking home some new clothes for our kiddos for only a $1 each, and then we used the money to do some back to school shopping for children staying at Genesis Womens Shelter. A Win for Everyone! Loved it! Now its time to do one for all the girls!

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