More hints and tips
As well as using your council services to reduce, reuse and recycle, there are plenty of other ways you can do even more in Surrey.
Rethink Waste is a scheme available to Surrey residents that rewards them for reducing their waste – sign up now!
Charity shops accept a wide range of donations, which they sell on to raise funds for their charity. The membership organisation, Charity Retail Association (CRA), has a find a charity shop tool where you can locate your local shop (if it is a member of the CRA) and find out what items it accepts.
Below is a list of charities and social enterprises that service each area of Surrey by collecting and delivering bulky pre-used furniture and other household goods, including large electrical items.
- Elmbridge – Kingston Community Furniture, FurnitureLink Surrey, Woking Community Furniture
- Epsom and Ewell – FurnitureLink Surrey
- Guildford – Furniture Helpline, FurnitureLink Surrey, Woking Community Furniture
- Mole Valley – Furnistore, FurnitureLink Surrey, Woking Community Furniture
- Reigate and Banstead – Furnistore, FurnitureLink Surrey
- Runnymede – Kingston Community Furniture, Woking Community Furniture, FurnitureLink Surrey
- Spelthorne – Kingston Community Furniture, FurnitureLink Surrey, Woking Community Furniture
- Surrey Heath – Woking Community Furniture, FurnitureLink Surrey, Woking Community Furniture
- Tandridge – Furnistore, FurnitureLink Surrey
- Waverley – Furniture Helpline, FurnitureLink Surrey, Woking Community Furniture
- Woking – Woking Community Furniture, FurnitureLink Surrey
Freecycle, FreelyWheely, Freegle and LoveJunk – online communities where people give away or find items for free in their local area.
Gumtree – website featuring both free and paid for items using classified ads.
Nextdoor – app and website through which you can buy and sell items or find and give away free items in your neighbourhood.
Ebay – online marketplace where anyone can sell items to others.
Facebook Marketplace – a platform for Facebook users to sell or give away items to other Facebook users.
Community fridges are great initiatives which allow individuals and businesses to share surplus food with the wider community, reducing food waste. They are different to food banks as they are not means tested and are open to all. More information about how they work can be found on the Hubbub website.
Find your nearest community fridge:
- Dorking – Mid Surrey Community Fridges
- Knaphill, Woking – Knaphill Community Fridge
- Farnham – Hale Community Centre
- Godalming – Godalming Community Cupboard
- Merstham – Merstham Community Fridge
- Reigate – Woodhatch Community Fridge
Terracycle – organisation that recycles hard-to-recycle items. Local organisations or people become collection points for various types of item. You collect these items and drop them off at your local collection point for recycling.
Recycle More – enter your postcode and the type of item you no longer need and this website tells you where to recycle it including through council and non-council services.
Take your own containers to a zero waste shop and fill them up with a variety of food, cleaning and cosmetic products. Find your nearest shop using The Zero Waste Network
Find your nearest car boot sale using the Car Boot Sales website.
The Surrey Hills Baby Clothes Library provides free boxes of baby clothes to families with children aged between 0-24 months, which can be borrowed until outgrown.
Residents can also donate used baby clothes to the library.
We all know that recycling our waste is a good thing, but it’s better for the planet and our pockets to reduce the amount of waste we produce in the first place.
The Binterrogator is a quick and easy tool that helps you record what you bin over a set period and come up with ideas to waste less and recycle more.
If an item is broken, it might be repairable.
Have a look online to see if you can do it yourself.
Or you can take it to your nearest repair cafe. In Surrey, repair cafes are located in Caterham, Dorking, Epsom, Farnham, Fetcham, Godalming, Guildford, Haslemere, Merstham, Oxshott, Reigate, Walton-on-Thames and Woking. Simply take along your broken items and experts will help you repair them.
Or you can find a professional repairer near you by searching The Repair Finder.
You can order a free collection of unwanted clothing and small household items from your home by Anglo Doorstep Collections. The items are donated to charities to be reused.