Supporting Saturday morning Swap Shops
The successful Community Action Group (CAG) project, funded by Oxfordshire County Council is organsing a series of Swap Shops during March which can include electrical items for the first time.
Thanks to support from Oxfordshire Waste Partnership (OWP), useable, but unwanted, small electrical items can now safely be swapped. OWP gave the CAG project a grant for PAT (Portable Appliance Test) equipment and funded a course for CAG members so they can test electrical equipment at Swap Shops.
OWP chair Cllr John Tanner, is a keen recycler but says, “Reusing stuff is even better than recycling! It's environmentally better to have safe second-hand electrical items than to recover the metal and buy new. I wish the Community Action groups every success with their swap shops around the county. With families feeling the pinch financially this makes a lot of sense."
Swap shops are becoming increasingly popular and although the 7 March has been designated as the date for the annual County Wide Swap Shop many of the CAGs now hold a monthly event so it is possible to attend a swap shop most Saturdays.
A number of CAGs have already put the test equipment to use and Ruth Finar from Low Carbon West Oxford, PAT tested for the first time at their swap shop in January. She says “PAT testing added a new interest to the swap shop and many items were able to be taken away, I thought it was well worth doing.”
West Oxfordshire District Council staff will be on hand to tell people about their waste reduction services at the Green Fayre and swap at the Wychwood School, Milton Road, Shipton-u-Wychwood.
Other district councils will be helping with the clean up operation after the events, making sure that everything left over that can be recycled is recycled.
Swap Shops in March 2009
Saturday 14 March
1. Charlbury Area Waste Action Group in Charlbury Village Hall 10:00-12.00
2. Bullingdon CAG, Bullingdon Community Centre, Pear Moors, Headington, Oxford, OX3 7HS 11:00-16.00
Saturday 21 March
1. Headington CAG, Headington community Centre, Gladstone Road, Oxford 11:00-13.00
2. Barracks Lane Community Garden, off Cowley Road, between Kenilworth Avenue and Cumberland Road, East Oxford 10:00-16.00
Saturday 28 March
1. Canalside Environment Group, St Margaret’s Institute
