Making Use Of Anything – Send Less To Landfill And More To A Good Cause.
Written by Cathy Benwell | Founder | A Good Thing
In their personal lives and at home, Britons have long been engaging in the sharing or circular economy: giving things away to neighbours, donating things via local Facebook groups, and passing things on via neighbourhood message boards. For years when my children were small I delighted in rehoming outgrown baby equipment via a brilliant local Yahoo newsgroup.
But it’s only fairly recently that UK businesses have begun to engage in this space in a meaningful way, and it’s really exciting that they are. There are so many potential donations sitting gathering dust in cupboards, warehouses, stockrooms and storerooms across the country. Impact just waiting to happen!
At A Good Thing CIC, we have learned first hand that charities will make use of almost anything. They’re resourceful and motivated, and (sadly) they’re also in very desperate need. Anything that a charity can get hold of for free is a potential cost saving for them – from horribly squeezed budgets. Even seemingly very low-value items like pens and envelopes can have a huge impact on a local charity.
The role of reuse is growing fast, across all sectors. Several great apps exist to help businesses donate leftover food; platforms like Warp-It allow organisations to more efficiently repurpose things within their own premises; and firms like Neighbourly work to connect businesses with their communities.
In founding A Good Thing, one of our first barriers was convincing businesses that we were not simply a furniture donation service. Breaking through to the ‘anything’ was game-changing for us, and we see change taking place across the reuse sector as a whole: an acknowledgement that literally anything could potentially be useful to a local charity.
As the sense of collective responsibility for local communities grows across UK businesses, we’re seeing the other part growing as well: more and more UK firms each week are wanting to sign up with us and give back to their local charities. We’re seeing a move away from a reliance on simply recycling, and an understanding that reuse and sharing are increasingly important.
And charitable organisations are being set up all over the country to fuel this shift to the circular economy and to fill this gap. We know that sharing and reusing help to build a more equitable society: when charities have the opportunity to up cycle and reuse, they can make things more accessible to the local communities they support, tackling huge and devastating issues like food poverty, period poverty and digital poverty. And surely that is a powerful tool to harness.
About The Author - Cathy Benwell
In 2020, my husband Richard and I co-founded A Good Thing, and it’s been incredibly rewarding to see it flourish. I was thrilled to be recognised in July 2024 on the Digital Leaders Net Zero 50 List, an honour celebrating individuals across the UK who are advancing sustainability efforts.
I’ve always had a bit of an eco streak. Back when most people didn’t give it much thought, I was the one setting up recycling bins in the office kitchen and rinsing out plastic cups to reuse. Long before it was popular, I’d take my own bags to the shops – often earning a few curious (or disapproving) glances!
