A chance to reduce waste and donate to charity

If you enjoy a look through pre-loved items to find a few treasures or are Oundle-based and have been having a clear out, the next declutter & donate event is just around the corner.

On Sunday, June 20, the streets of Oundle will again be dotted with ‘stalls’ selling/asking for donations for household items, clothes, furniture and other goods as part of the third town-wide garage sale organised by the Oundle Waste Less (OWL) team.

The event aims to provide stallholders with the chance to make some money for themselves or their favourite charity in these difficult times and, of course, to reduce waste and promote re-use.

‘The two declutter & donate sales held last summer were very successful,” said Oundle Waste Less project manager Camilla Sherwin. “Over £3000 was taken, and £2000 was donated to charities such as Oundle Community First Responders, Oundle Volunteer Action, the East Anglian Air Ambulance and Parkinson’s UK.

“The pandemic has hit charities’ income hard, so this is a good opportunity to raise some funds for them and rehome some useful, pre-loved items.”

Those wishing to visit the stalls will be able to download a map (available from June 18) from the Oundle Waste Less Facebook page or www.transitionoundle.org.uk. A few hard copies will be available from The Coffee Tavern in the town’s Market Place on the day.

As parking at many of the locations is very restricted, buyers are encouraged to walk or bike around the town and only drive to collect any large items they have bought as they are on their way home.

Anyone wanting to get their stall added to the event map should email [email protected] by June 16th with brief details of where it will be, the items on sale and whether proceeds are being donated to a chosen charity. Sellers will be asked to read the risk assessment and agree to put a few simple coronavirus prevention measures in place, such as having hand sanitiser available.

The event is part of the Oundle Waste Less project, run by Transition Oundle, which aims to reduce waste by creating opportunities to re-use, repair and refill. Over the past 18 months the project team have run several repair cafés, signed up over 20 local venues to the national refill, been instrumental in setting up the zero waste shop Refill Revolution at Oundle Wharf as well as arranging talks on environmental topics and engaging with schools and businesses about how to reduce their environmental impact.