National Reuse Day UK

National Reuse Day is an awareness day created to encourage us all to reuse items instead of throwing them away.

Held on 18th October each year in the UK, it was created by Freegle, the organisation dedicated to helping all of us reuse our unwanted items. UK based Freegle was founded in 2009 to help people give and get things for free in their local community.

How Freegle works is that you list an item that you have but want to give away on their website, someone from your local community sees your ad and contacts you. You give the item to them. It’s a win-win situation - you dispose of your unwanted item, someone else can use it for free!

It grew out of the US based website Freecycle, which works on a similar basis.

How Can I Take Part In National Reuse Day?

It’s really easy to take part in National Reuse Day.

Think of an item that you don’t use any more and want to get rid of. If the item is still in a usable condition, there may be someone in your local community who could use it! You just need to find them.

By advertising your item on Freegle, a local freebie group on Facebook group or other community platform such as Nextdoor, that neighbour in need can take it off your hands and give it a second life.

Or maybe you need something? Before you rush out to the shops or check out your favourite online store, you could see if someone is offering it on one of these websites or groups. You will not only save money, you will also be helping someone in your community dispose of an unwanted item.

Reuse keeps unwanted items out of landfill, and means that you don’t waste those materials.

Is Reuse The Same As Recycling?

Reuse and recycling are not the same thing.

Reuse comes above recycling in the Hierarchy of Waste.

While recycling means processing the materials that an item is made from to make a new item, if an item is broken or unusable this is a better use of the planet’s resources than sending it to landfill.

But if an item is still working, a piece of clothing still wearable or a décor item still beautiful, reusing it requires no further input of energy to keep the item in use. So where possible an item should be reused rather than recycled.

So if you have books that you’ve read, a musical instrument you no longer play or kitchen equipment that you no longer use, now is the time to pass it on to someone else.

Reuse can also mean using the item for a new purpose. If you have clothing, sheets or towels, for example, that are too worn to use, tearing them up and using them as cleaning rags is another type of reuse.

Using a cardboard box as a storage container is also reuse. If it saves you from having to go out and buy a new plastic storage box, all the better!

Gardeners are well-known for their ability to see the possible uses of items that would either be thrown away or recycled. From making cloches out of old milk containers and soda bottles to reusing scratched CDs as bird scarers, visit any allotment and you will see many brilliant ideas for reusing your household rubbish.

So this National Reuse Day, why not look around your house and see what you could reuse rather than throw away? That piece of furniture that you’ve been meaning to get rid of could be just what your neighbour needs. That shabby pillowcase could become a cloth that saves you from buying disposable kitchen roll, saving you money and saving some trees as well.

If you have an item that could be reused, but it needs a repair that you don't know how to do, maybe a repair café can help? Held across the UK they are regular events where you can take a broken item to be repaired.

National Reuse Day is not the only day dedicated to the environment in October . Here are some more of the key environment awareness dates in October.

National Reuse Day UK

How Can I Take Part In National Reuse Day?

Is Reuse The Same As Recycling?

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