Great Uncle Bulgaria opens Maesteg reuse shop

Underground, overground, Wombling free - the Wombles from Wimbledon know a thing or two about making good use of the things that they find, the things that everyday folks leave behind.

And following in their footsteps, Bridgend County Borough Council has been working with its partners Kier and the social enterprise Wastesavers to open a reuse shop at the Maesteg Recycling Centre.

Officially opened by Great Uncle Bulgaria on Friday, February 14, the reuse shop, called The Siding, contains everything from bikes and scooters to books and DVDs, speakers, games and crockery.

Since opening in October, the shop has sold thousands of items and made more than £3,500 which is invested by Wastesavers into its volunteer and social programmes.

Alun Harries, charity manager for Wastesavers, said: “Between October and December, five tonnes was saved from going to landfill.

“When residents come to the three recycling centres in Bridgend staff will pick out anything they think is too good to go to landfill.

“We have reuse shops in Newport, Rhondda Cynon Taf and one is soon due to open in Cardiff – there’s always a steady flow at the start when a shop opens but once word gets out it just balloons.”

No doubt the use of the shop is going to grow and grow. It’s really important that we are offering this service in partnership with Kier and Wastesavers. It is very much part of our climate emergency agenda.

We haven’t declared a climate emergency in Bridgend because we believe in action and this is one of a series of actions we are undertaking to help deal with the crisis we face.

We already have the second highest recycling rate in Wales and Wales has the third highest recycling rate in the world. We are doing a huge amount but we need to do a lot more.

Council leader Huw David