Our work
Lil Reuse Project
The Lil Reuse Project helps keep good quality items in use for longer through local reuse events, shared resources, and practical community action in East Lothian. It makes reuse easier, more visible, and more connected by helping people pass on what they no longer need and find things they can use.
Why it matters
Too many useful items are wasted when they could still serve someone else. Reuse cuts waste, reduces demand for new materials, saves money, and helps build a more local circular economy that benefits both people and planet.
Strands:
- The Revolving Wardrobes – curated collections of preloved clothing for all ages, sizes and genders.
East Linton – based at The Mart, East Linton and open to members 24/7. Members can select what they need and donate what they don’t. The collection is maintained by a dedicated team of volunteers and our Reuse Development Officer. Sign up for membership >>
Tranent – Lil has been invited to develop a new Revolving Wardrobe to support the Tranent Community and we are working with local groups and the Local Authority to find the perfect location. - The Annual Reuse Festival – running for 6 years now, this is an annual event (usually in mid November in Haddington) for the community to clear out household items they no longer need and pass them on to others who can put them to good use.
- Textile Project – exploring ways to prevent ‘waste’ textiles from going to waste by utilising existing materials for new purposes.
Who it’s for
It’s for East Lothian residents, families, community groups, and anyone who wants to live with less waste and more sharing. It is especially useful for people looking to pass on surplus items, access affordable everyday essentials, or get involved in practical climate action close to home.
How to take part
You can take part by donating good quality items, coming along to reuse events, using Lil’s local reuse initiatives, or volunteering your time and knowledge. Lil also invites people to help strengthen local circular solutions by sharing information, skills, and connections.
Impact
The project helps normalise reuse as part of everyday life and strengthens the local networks that make circular living possible. Its impact is environmental, social, and practical: less waste, more value from existing resources, better access to useful goods, and stronger community participation in lower-impact living.
Contact
Jude Cormack
Lil Reuse Development Officer
email : reuse@dolilthings.org
Lil Loop
Helping East Lothian keep more in use, for longer.
Lil Loop is a local initiative that makes it easier to know what to do with everyday items . Whether that means repairing them, passing them on, finding a reuse route, recycling them properly, or choosing a lower-impact replacement when needed. It is designed to connect people with practical, close-to-home circular options, so sustainable choices feel simpler, more visible and more achievable.
What it is
Lil Loop is a place-based circular living platform for East Lothian. It brings together tailored local information to help residents work out how to repair, reuse and recycle specific items, instead of relying on generic online advice that is often confusing or not relevant locally.
Lil Loop is not just a directory; it is intended as practical local infrastructure that helps turn good intentions into real action.
Why it matters
People often want to do the right thing but get stuck on simple questions: what is the best option for this item, where can it go locally, and is there a better route than throwing it away? When useful items are discarded too early, more new materials have to be extracted and processed, increasing pressure on nature and on the systems that manage waste.
Lil Loop matters because it helps close the gap between intention and action. By making local circular options easier to find and easier to trust, it can support everyday behaviour change while also strengthening the visibility of repair, reuse and sharing activity already happening in the community.
Who it is for
Lil Loop is for residents across East Lothian who want straightforward, local help to waste less and make better use of the things they already own. It is also for community groups, repair projects, reuse organisations, schools, charities and local businesses that want more people to find and use circular services close to home.
The project is especially relevant for people who care about saving money, reducing waste, finding practical local solutions and taking part in community-led climate action.
How to take part
There are several ways to get involved. Residents can follow the project, suggest items they want help with, share local knowledge, and use Lil Loop when it launches to find better options for everyday items.
Community organisations, volunteers and potential ambassadors can help build and maintain the knowledge base, contribute local insights, test the platform and help spread the word through events and neighbourhood networks. This community-powered approach fits Lil’s wider model of enabling people to play an active role in local circular economy action.
Email Sarah@dolilthings.org to find out more.
Potential impact
Lil Loop has the potential to make circular living more practical at a local level by helping more items stay in use, increasing awareness of nearby repair and reuse options, and supporting residents to make lower-impact choices more often. Over time, it could also generate stronger links between households, community organisations and circular businesses, helping East Lothian build a more connected local circular economy.
Because Lil CIC already works across community climate and circular economy activity, Lil Loop also has the potential to become part of a wider local support system for volunteering, skills, community wealth building and climate action. In that sense, the project is about more than waste; it is about making local sustainable living visible, usable and shared
East Lothian Climate Action Hub
The East Lothian Climate Action Hub is a community‑led “home” for climate and nature action across East Lothian, designed to connect, support and amplify the work of local people and organisations. It describes itself as both a network of relationships, support and collaboration, and “the sum of all the communities across East Lothian who want a sustainable environment that centres the wellbeing of our communities, the climate and nature.”
Funded through the Scottish Government’s national Climate Action Hub programme, East Lothian’s Hub is one of over 20 regional Hubs across Scotland that bring communities together to take collective climate action and support a just transition. The Hub is guided by the East Lothian Climate Action Network (ELCAN), a membership network of community groups and organisations that helps steer the Hub’s priorities and advocacy.
In practice, the Hub runs events, projects, networks and learning spaces that help people move from concern into action – from festivals and youth creativity projects, to thematic collectives on food, biodiversity, energy and more. Its role is to make climate action easier, more connected and more impactful by offering coordination, capacity‑building and a shared identity for climate work across the county.
Lil CIC’s support and hosting of the East Lothian Climate Hub has been a critical enabling factor in shifting East Lothian’s climate action ecosystem from isolated projects to a visible, credible and increasingly coordinated community‑led movement. These outcomes are the result of collective effort by the ELCAN Board, ELCAN members, community partners and in particular the Hub staff team; Lil CIC’s role has been to design, secure and host the programme, and to provide the backbone infrastructure without which this level of coordinated work would not have been possible.
Lil Consultancy
More information coming soon.