The Lil ReUse Festival

Join us for the Lil ReUse Festival and Second-hand Market on Saturday November 12, 10am - 2pm at the Maitlandfield House Hotel

Help us make Second-hand the first choice for everyone.

Here’s your go-to lowdown. Buying, donating, selling, stall holders, volunteers, how to buy without the kids seeing, we’ve got you covered.

Zero Waste Scotland sums it up:

Around four-fifths of Scotland’s footprint comes from the products and materials we manufacture, use, and throw away. In fact, the average Scot consumes 18.4 tonnes of materials every year – that’s the equivalent of 50kg per week on average.

50kgs a week! That’s about a chimpanzee, or a North Pacific Giant Octopus. And by making Second-hand our first choice, we can cut that drastically.

But, we are saddened every time we hear someone say lack of funds meant they “had to buy second-hand” or they are ashamed of their second-hand mismatches. Second-hand needs to be our first choice if we are to cut our waste and keep every useable item in circulation for as long as possible.

Second-hand stuff always has a story, is usually freaking fabulous, saves the world and your pennies. We adore our second-hand treasure. It means another family wasn’t exploited, or had to go without for us to get ‘new’ stuff. Second-hand means we get to boast about our community’s wealth in sharing. It means we don’t have to be ashamed of how much we waste, it means we apologise when we “have to” buy new.

Coming to buy?

Hooray! Thank you for doing your Lil thing for the planet. Here’s a few tips:

• Doors will open at 10am but don’t worry if you can’t make it first thing, we will be putting fresh stock out all day.

• Remember your shopping bags. Items are likely to be priced per bag.

• Items can be set aside for collection later. Voucher payment is all that will be accepted on the day ( but you can buy vouchers at the venue.)

• If you need a surprise set aside discreetly just let a Lil volunteer know 😉 Have you seen our Second-hand Santa letters??

No Cash, just vouchers

Everyone at the ReUse Festival will be ‘paying’ with vouchers. You can buy vouchers online from Lil, or in person at the Lil Hub, 10 High St Haddington, EH41 3ES or on the day. If buying vouchers stretches your budget too far please contact us or our referral partners. We want everyone to be able to make second-hand their first choice.

Purchased vouchers that are unused can be refunded.

Want to donate or sell your Secondhand stuff?

Thank you! You can donate your good quality used items to Lil and we will sell them (and utilise the funds for this and more reuse projects)

OR they can be sold at the event for a 50/50 spilt between you & Lil. Read on for more details.

How do we donate?

Bikes for donation need to be dropped to Lil on Friday November 4th (9am-noon) or Saturday N0vember 5th (10am-2pm). This is because we can only sell them once they’ve had their safety check, which the lovely Mikes Bikes has volunteered to do.

Other items can be brought to Lil at 10 High St Haddington. We don’t have room here for bulky donations, so if it’s more than a small car boot full, please email us to arrange. Great quality electricals can now be accepted too. There will also be vans around the town that you can donate directly to - see our socials for updates on this closer to the day.

To sell You’ve got a few pieces you wouldn’t mind a £ or two back for, we get it. We’re happy to help out! We’re requesting a 50/50 split of the sale value of items you want to sell. You will need to mark every item with your name/ surname, the sale price, and a GIFT or RETURN on the label. Gifts will be put in the general sale at 1pm, RETURN you will need to come and collect by 4pm on Saturday 12th.

Please no clothes for this, it’s very tricky to keep tabs on them as we sort other items.

What do you want donated?

• children’s clothes and footwear (no drawstrings that go all the way around necks or tummies)

• baby stuff

• adult clothes & footwear

• toys (Please check the CE labels still attached)

• bikes

• gardening equipment/ produce/seeds/plants

• tools (small electrical OK)

• Homewares and kitchen equipment

• soft furnishings (curtains & cushions, throws etc, as long as fire labels still on any cushions with fillings)

• Sports kit

• Storage jars, food caddies

• Portable electrical items are now OK thanks to some fab PAT testing volunteers

We don’t want (sorry):

•  large furniture

•  personal items

•  earrings

• car seats

  if you need a home for such things Zero Waste Dunbar may be able to help
  

Gah, It’s Saturday, I have the kids in tow!?

AWESOME. We’ve got kids activities lined up for a family friendly day. Come see us if you need to set something aside for a surprise. We’ll have refreshments available too.

I’m a reuse/ waste tackling organisation, Can I have a whole table?

We have some tables set aside for other ReUse and waste-reducing organisations. We’ll try to update as we confirm partners attending, and check out our social pages @dolilthings for more too. If you’d like your organisation to be there, or to sell your own gear from a table it will be space dependent, so please email us.

Can I Help?

Oh yes you can! Volunteers make things happen at Lil so we are always delighted to have you join the team. We need extra hands both before the event and on the day. Pop in to the Hub, email us at hello@dolilthings.org or give Sarah a call/Whatsapp on 07765 126700. Thank you 😊