The Newhaven Green Centre recycling and reuse organisation has launched a Crowdfunder to raise money to rent premises in Newhaven to be a home for their sharing library, a drop-in centre for information and advice and a venue for workshops.
The project is being supported by East Sussex County Council's 'Projects That Matter' scheme which means that they will match funds raised by the Crowdfunder if they get at least 30 pledges totalling at least £1000 by 22nd November.
From the beginning the premises will house:
A ‘Sharing Shop’: an area where visitors can leave any unwanted items for other people to collect. We encourage visitors to donate saleable items to local charity shops, but we’ll take anything else, from books with torn covers to half-finished bottles of shampoo.
Information about recycling: what can and can’t go in the council-run kerbside recycling schemes, how to recycle other items
Collection of some difficult-to-recycle items: we’ll collect hard plastics, corks, rags and some other items for recycling.
A list of local people & organisations who can use 'waste': even better than recycling your waste, give it to someone who can reuse it - food scraps can go to community composting, jam jars to arts & crafts groups, mobile phones can be donated to developing world projects. We'll try to match up your 'waste' with someone else's 'raw materials'.
A library of environmental books: a collection of books on environmental subjects, from solar energy to compost toilets, all available to read on-site.
Information on household grants: we’ll maintain a database of grants available to householders for environmental purposes, ie the Renewable Heat Incentive for installing heat pumps.
And after they have started, they will use the space to:
Run skills-sharing workshops: learn from the experts how to saw in a straight line, use open source software on your computer, or other skills offered by members of our local community
Run a repair café: an informal setting where you can bring your broken toaster, torn shirt or other rescue-able things and see if our resident experts can help you to fix it.
For more information and a link to the Crowdfunder page: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/newhaven-green-centre