More places to shop with less waste in Leighton Buzzard – the Circular Economy

I have previously written about the places I shop for consumable items locally – but what about the other things you sometimes need or want to buy?

WRAP describe a circular economy as an alternative to a traditional linear economy (make, use, dispose) in which we keep resources in use for as long as possible, extract the maximum value from them whilst in use, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each service life.

A Circular Economy – WRAP and the circular economy | WRAP UK http://www.wrap.org.uk/about-us/about/wrap-and-circular-economy

 

With the circular ecomony in mind I tend to adopt a ” second hand first” to those non – consumables I sometimes need to buy.  Fortunately Leighton Buzzard is very well supplied with places to find some lovely pre-owned things. This post focusses on the shops  you can look through in town, but if you scroll to the end you will find a link to online sharing/ swapping and selling sites operating locally.

Ollie Vees – Market Square  This is a fantastic vintage store selling clothing, sewing patterns, records, buttons and much more.  They also hold regular events including sewing and making meet – ups.

Peacock Mews Collectables A collection of several shops along Peacock Mews selling a variety of vintage collectables including clothing and furniture and other items – pop in for a browse.

Allsorts – Clarence Road  – a house clearance business selling a variety of second hand furniture, electrical goods and antiques.

I mainly tend to shop in the charity shops – of which we have a good selection ( and there are probably more I have missed).  I can almost always find what I want in one of these – with Oxfam being my personal favourite.

Variety of charity shops:

Oxfam – High Street

British Heart Foundation – Waterbourne Walk

The Salvation Army – Waterbourne Walk

Breast Cancer Care – Lake Street

Sue Ryder – High Street

Willen Hospice- Bridge Street

Extra Care Charitable Trust – Bridge Street

Age UK- Lake Street

I previously wrote about the places I shop for food and other convenience shopping items in Leighton Buzzard – you can read about those here : My favourite places for shopping without packaging in Leighton Buzzard

As well as the local shops, there is a wealth of local sharing/swapping/selling groups in the areas, mostly online, forming part of the local circular economy.  Some of these are listed at the bottom of a previous post: 7 top tips to reduce your household waste

So, most of the time there is no need to leave town for a shopping fix, and no need to buy new, saving the resources involved in buying new things, and saving other people’s unwanted items from being thrown away.