Charity Retail - an environmentally friendly way to shop?

With the rising popularity of TV series like David Attenborough’s Blue Planet shedding a light on the waste that we’re corrupting our natural environments with, lots of people have been exploring more eco-friendly ways to live and shop.

There are petitions for less plastic packaging at supermarkets and voluntary schemes set up across Norfolk to help clean up our beaches, but have you given much thought to the way you buy clothes and furniture?

Charity shops’ have a number of positive environmental impacts. They provide a second life for an increasing range of items including clothes and furniture and according to the Charity Retail Association, only 5% of materials donated to charity shops end up in landfill sites and over 327K tonnes of textiles were sent on for reuse and recycling by charity shops in 2017/18.

When you buy items from one of our Age UK Norfolk charity shops (in Dereham, King’s Lynn and Sheringham) not only are you helping to prevent items from winding up in a landfill site, but you’re also helping to support older people in your community – how’s that for a feel-good factor?!

We set up our flagship charity shop, our Dereham Furniture and More Store, in 2016 and we stock a wide selection of clothes, furniture, electrical items, books and much more. We’re incredibly proud that since 2016, our store has helped to contribute over £158,000 to Age UK Norfolk.

Today, we have three stores in total which all help us to support older people in Norfolk and across these three stores, we have a number of volunteers who are gaining valuable work experience, keeping active and meeting new people!

The benefits of supporting your local Age UK Norfolk charity shop are bountiful, whether you donate items to us (we’ll even pick up large items for free!) to avoid them ending up in a landfill, or you buy from us to bag yourself a bargain and support older people in Norfolk or even by volunteering and learning new skills… every little thing helps us to make Norfolk a great place to grow older.