One Person’s Rubbish is Another Person’s Treasure – Celebrating Ashington’s Charity Shops
We at Ashington Town Council are always looking for a greener alternative to certain areas of our lives. Recycling benefits the environment and can also benefit the public. Today we are celebrating an often-overlooked way of recycling, our charity shops around Ashington.
Ashington currently has 6 charity shops on the high street, and over the last few years all of them agree that it has become more common, and in some cases trendy, for people to use their stores to help grab a bargain, or to buy clothing, media or bric-a-brac that they may not currently afford in high street shops.
“We’ve noticed an increase in footfall from younger people looking for bargains” says Jo from Scope. Claire from Sense echoes this by saying that there is a much larger increase of university students using their shop.
Kerry-Ann from The British Heart Foundation says, “A lot more younger people have started coming in, and it’s become more common for university students to buy from us.”
We at the Council have also noticed a trend of younger people going into the charity shops around Ashington, and we are pleased to see that it’s becoming more mainstream to shop for bargains for the younger generation.
The use of charity shops has helped many in their times of need, and the circular economy has shown to be very beneficial for people in Ashington. Prolonging the life of goods that would otherwise be rotting in a landfill, as well as providing a new garment for someone else is a win-win. Sustainable shopping reduces waste and ultimately the carbon footprint of Ashington.
Claire from Sense mentioned, “We use a rag merchant that takes any unusable clothes, media, even our plastic and cardboard which further reduces landfill waste.”
Christine from the Salvation Army, stated, “We use Pre-Cycle, who collect our rags and unusable items, and the clothing that is collected is converted into under-lay for carpets.”
It’s amazing that items can be recycled in various creative ways, such as being used as under-lay as it shows that everything can be recycled in one way or another.
The general message we got from speaking to all the charity shops is that there is an upward trend of more and more people using their shops to grab items that they need. This is positive for the planet and shows that the folk of Ashington are savvy as well as sustainable shoppers. With the costs going up all the time, we hope many more people will jump on the charity shop trail, and spend their money locally, and sustainably.
Jo, from Scope, spoke about the community, “It’s not just our regular customers we are seeing. We are welcoming more first-time customers, and we're looking to get involved in more community events.”
Ashington Town Council would like to thank the charity shops within our town for their hard work, dedication and the work they do to raise money. It’s wonderful to see that charity shops, once overlooked, are now becoming a valued and widely appreciated part of Ashington
If you're interested in getting involved or volunteering, head over to the charity shops in Ashington and talk to the friendly teams. You'll be supporting great causes and helping the local community while uncovering some great deals.
Links to each charities social media or website below. Each link opens a new tab.
YMCA | Facebook | X (Formerly known as Twitter) | Website
Scope | Facebook | X (Formerly known as Twitter) | Website
Sense | Facebook | X (Formerly known as Twitter) | Website
British Heart Foundation | Facebook | X (Formerly known as Twitter) | Website
The Salvation Army | Facebook | X (Formerly known as Twitter) | Website
Sue Ryder | Facebook | X (Formerly known as Twitter) | Website
Charity shops around Ashington
