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Why re-use?

Many of the things we throw away haven’t always reached the end of their useful life. Something that you don’t want any more can still be used by someone else.

Save money

Buying second hand items can often be much cheaper than buying new and you can often find amazing one-off deals.

Help your local community

Donating items for re-use can help your local community, especially those in need, to buy items at an affordable price. By donating items for re-use you can give items away that you no longer want and know they will be appreciated by someone.

Save energy

Donating items for re-use helps save energy. A lot of energy goes into the production of new items so by re-using unwanted items first we can help reduce the need to produce new ones.

Protect the environment and conserve resources

Every time new items are made, raw materials are used – Extracting (mining, quarrying and logging) raw materials creates substantial air and water pollution. We can help reduced this by re-using items where possible rather than buying new.

Reduce waste to landfill

You can help protect the environment as re-using items reduces the amount of waste sent to landfill. There are over 1,500 landfill sites in the UK, and in 2001, these sites produced a quarter of the UK’s emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

There are many ways you can pass on your unwanted items for re-use, for ideas and inspiration see our pages on:

  • Get selling
  • Donating to charity
  • Giving to re-use organisations
  • What more can I do?
  • Repairing items

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Brought to you by WRAP

The Waste and Resources Action Programme (which operates as WRAP) is a registered UK Charity No. 1159512 and registered as a Company limited by guarantee in England & Wales No. 4125764.

Registered office at Second Floor, Blenheim Court, 19 George Street, Banbury, Oxon, OX16 5BH.