Work and Play Scrapstore (WaPS), the London-based re-use charity which promotes artful re-use of of donated surplus/waste materials, has had a bumper planet-friendly year! Here’s General Manager Sascha Taylor with the details.

For the financial year 2018/19 WaPS diverted 51.4 tonnes of waste away from landfill or incineration, which represents a year-on-year increase of 25% compared to the previous year (2017/18) when the charity rescued 40.75 tonnes.

Furthermore, signs are that 2019/2020 will be an even better year as already, some 26.8 tonnes of waste have been saved from landfill/incineration in the period January-May 2019, compared with 21.4 tonnes for the same period the previous year.
 

WaPS continues to increase its carbon reduction year on year by making fewer collections in spite of the large increase in materials rescued. WaPS has encouraged more green-minded donors to use ‘reverse’ logistics’, that is delivering items in their empty vans when returning to their base location.

WaPS collects scrap and waste from local businesses in order to protect the environment and to benefit the community. It educates the general public on how to up-cycle and re-use waste materials through outreach work such as bespoke workshops, tours, tutorials and worksheets as well as general communication to its membership.
 

Events coming up in the next few months include:  

• June 15th 2019: Selling haberdashery items and oodles of beautiful crafts hand-made by volunteers at the Camberwell Arts & Crafts Market.
• June 27th 2019: Summer-themed messy arts and crafts with childminders and tots at the Early Years Centre at 1 Siward Road.
• July 2nd 2019: Community weaving with Smallwood Primary School and Children’s Centre to decorate the school hall.
• Throughout June and July 2019: WaPS is hosting many groups of corporate volunteers, including Marsh, City and Guilds, Tideay, Frank Hiurth and LexisNexis. 
  WaPS’ artist partners Jayson Singh and Weavie Stevie will be running free arts sessions outside the Scrapstore for local residents on Hazelhurst Estate, WaPs members and any passers-by
• Autumn 2019: WaPS will commence coffee and craft sessions with free crafting opportunities for our isolated local residents.
  A programme of re-use demos and workshops will run through the winter months.

All these activities happen with the enthusiastic gang of 30 volunteers that help sort, cut, fold, pack, and generally re-purpose the mountains of donated goods. Corporate volunteering is an additional source of manpower for us and we always need more volunteers!  Do you have spare time to help us?

For further information contact:

Sascha Taylor
General Manager
Work and Play Scrapstore
13 Blackshaw Road, London SW17 0DA

Telephone: 020 8682 4216

Website: http://workandplayscrapstore.org.uk/home 

Open: Tuesdays and Thursdays each week.

You can find our more about the Work and Play Scrapstore on their website and can also follow them on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

This article would not be possible without the support of our fantastic Community Partners. Click here to find out more.