Keynsham reuse shop celebrates success by opening to non-residents

Almost a year after opening its doors, the Reuse Shop at Keynsham Recycling Hub is celebrating success and welcoming customers from outside the Bath and North East Somerset area.

The shop opened in October 2023, aiming to provide quality products at a fraction of the price of new, while being a positive step towards a circular economy for B&NES.

More than 21,000 people have visited and roughly 44 tonnes of household items have been kept in circulation and reused or refurbished rather than being recycled or disposed of at Bath & North East Somerset Council’s three recycling centres.

Donated items that may be of benefit are passed on to the internal council welfare teams or local charity partners - Mercy in Action, Julian House, The Sofa Project and Small Stuff Baby Bank, to support their services.

Share and Repair Bath are another local organisation that benefits from the success of the shop. Its volunteers carry out PAT safety testing on all donated electrical items and the money made from those sales is shared equally between Share and Repair and the council.

Lorna Montgomery, Chair of Trustees of Share and Repair, said: “We are thrilled to be a partner with the council’s Reuse Shop to keep more electrical items living longer. Share and Repair volunteers visit the shop at least twice a month and have carried out PA Tests on items including an organ, coffee machines, keyboards and many table lamps. On their last visit, they tested more than 80 electrical items and the majority have been given a new lease of life. 

“The shop is becoming more and more popular as the mountain of electrical items grows bigger. Share and Repair can also pass on suitable items to low-income households via the charities supporting them.

“This is such a great way of reducing and repurposing waste - all of these items would previously have been put into landfill/ recycled when they were actually in working order. Bath & North East Somerset Council Waste Team have done a great job to get this shop operating to benefit the community and the environment.”

The shop’s visitor numbers are set to be boosted again with the opening of the adjacent car park on a Saturday, allowing customers from outside the B&NES area, who are not allowed to drive into the recycling centre, to leave their cars and walk across to the shop.

Councillor Tim Ball, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhood Services, said: “Thank you to everyone who has donated and helped to make the Reuse Shop such a success. We have had some fantastic items donated including a Victorian high chair and a Chinese day bed as well as more practical household items. It is enabling us divert items away from waste, support our charity partners and offer products to residents at a fraction of the price of buying new, while extending the lifetime of products. Opening the adjacent staff car park on Saturday’s means that even more people will be able to visit and that can only be a good thing.”

The Reuse Shop is cashless and staff only take card payments. The money raised goes towards the running costs of the shop and any profit at the end of the year will be reinvested into improving our recycling services further.

Sustainable, peat free compost made from the garden waste collected in B&NES is sold in the shop. It costs £4 for a 40L bag.

The Reuse Shop and the staff car park on World’s End Lane are open to the public every Saturday from 9.30am to 3pm.

During the week, the shop is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 9.30am to 3pm to B&NES residents visiting the recycling centre, or other members of the public on foot. It is closed on Monday, Sunday and Bank Holidays.

You can find out more about the Reuse Shop, including a list of what items can be donated on the council website.