The Gloucester GRC Scrapstore – where nothing goes to waste – is essentially a warehouse full of very well organised scraps and surplus materials, haberdashery and art materials. Here you can find textiles, paints, card, wool, clay, beads and all manner of weird and wonderful material treasures to stimulate and stretch creative minds.
I visited the Scrapstore recently to drop off a large box full of wooden beads our business no longer needed. The store is a charity and is run by four friendly staff who were delighted to receive the beads and invited me on a tour of the premises. I was amazed at the amount of materials, tools and fun items on offer, neatly categorised, clean, colourful and inviting to browse.
Beth Hill, who runs the Gloucestershire Resource Centre says: “The Scrapstore is a brilliant low cost resource that can really help families, clubs and schools with small budgets to do more activities. It also provides unusual and interesting materials not usually available in regular shops like teabag paper, cable reels, cardboard cones, coffee sacks and all sorts of quirky random items. The materials we rescue are given a new lease of life in all sorts of amazing projects at a low cost and the added benefit is that they are diverted from the waste stream.”
The store can be used by anyone, including families, teachers, clubs and groups. Take out an inexpensive annual membership to benefit from special offers, ideas for projects, events and to be part of a creative community who re-use, re-cycle, re-invent and re-create! see membership info here.
The Scrapstore regularly collects from businesses across Gloucester, Tewkesbury, Forest of Dean, Cheltenham and Stroud, to help keep perfectly good materials out of the waste stream, including:
- card, paper, envelopes
- textiles
- unused packaging materials
- containers with lids
- tubing and piping
- foam rubber
- wood offcuts
- rope, cord, and twine
- foils and films
- plastic and more
The Scrapstore and City Works are run by The Gloucestershire Resource Centre to promote the principles of ‘re-use’ through arts, education, and play in a vibrant environmentally conscious venue for associations, businesses and community groups to create, meet, and work.