I had a great morning yesterday attending the Circular Communities Scotland National Members Forum through my work with Door in the Wall Arts Access and learnt a whole lot from all the organisations who shared their circular economy experiences.
Circular Communities Scotland represents a thriving network of charities and social enterprises that supports Scotland’s circular economy. They aim to empower the national network of reuse, repair and recycling charities and I’m excited that through my role at Door in the Wall Arts Access we’re now a member. Check out their Impact Report for more information on their work.
We heard from lots of incredible organisations doing fantastic work across Scotland including Marie from Magpie and Aberdeenshire Voluntary Action who work with voluntary groups across Aberdeenshire and are one of 32 Third Sector Interfaces in Scotland who exist to support and represent voluntary sector organisations.
Magpie sells second-hand furniture and household goods, addressing the ‘throw-away’ culture we live in today. They have directly diverted tonnes from landfill in the last year and have supported families in crisis donating items to support them to start again. They also work with offenders to rebuild their lives and work with other partners to deliver emergency food parcels in their community. Their work directly tackles climate change, and they are supporting the national aims to reach net zero.
We also heard from James at Music Broth an organisation working nationally to support the sharing of musical instruments. They provide quality instruments and music equipment through affordable membership and subsidise membership through funding, and they have a library of over 3000 instruments across Scotland now. They also restore unwanted or damaged instruments, giving them value, ensuring that instruments don’t go to landfill, promoting zero waste practices.
They have a network of volunteers across Scotland who support the project through their hubs in local areas and they provide free workshops, events and opportunities for individuals in the community, promoting musical expression.
Both orgs showed the value of working with people and materials to change our societies perceptions of the things we throw away and how when we create value in those items, we support each other to create our own and a collective value in our communities. They remove barriers for those in society by working with these materials and create value for both the reused items and the people in their communities.
The meet up showed there is a value in both people and materials and how working together we can have a positive impact on our planet and through collaboration we can bring communities together.
We also heard from the Scottish Community Alliance and their Community Learning Exchange initiative. SCA is a coalition of community based, national networks and intermediaries – each one representing a different aspect of Scotland’s diverse community sector.
The Community Learning Exchange offers small pots of funding to support local community groups connect and share peer learning across Scotland.
The fund offers the opportunity for peer-to-peer learning and to offer organisations the chance to collaborate and not compete and to build networks around creating circular economy initiatives. They offer different models for different groups, and it was exciting to hear that they also look to create equity for rural organisations applying to ensure that there are no barriers to travel. They have lots of interesting case studies available on their website launching soon that they hope will help influence policy makers when it comes to policies around circular economies as well.
We also heard from Zero Waste Scotland who are a public body offering free information and resources to support the reuse and recycle community. They have a wealth of topics such as policy templates and staff documents that are free to organisations to strengthen the work in the sector.
It was exciting to hear from all the organisations who attended the meeting today and I really look forward to working with them across the Circular Communities forum. There are lots of great events coming up so keep an eye on Circular Communities Scotland’s website and join as a member if you’re in the share and repair field.
Hopefully we can all make our little dent in working towards a more circular and sustainable economy!