#ElectricAvenue supercharges EEE reuse in Bristol

Launched in the Galleries shopping centre in Bristol on Black Friday, the objectives of the campaign and pop-up store were to raise awareness about electrical waste in Bristol; trial the collection of working electrical items at kerbside; trial a pop-up shop to giveaway pre-loved items; and signpost people on how to re-gift, repair or recycle pre-loved items.

Over ten days the store handed out unwanted electrical items to customers that had been donated by Bristol residents. Each item was fully cleaned and professionally safety checked to ensure they were ready for a new life with another household.

Volunteer staff in the store were also on hand to explain the important role of reuse and repair, with customers encouraged to drop off unwanted electrical goods in-store and via a Reuse Shop in Avonmouth, Bristol.

Impressive reuse results

Closing its doors on 5 December, the results of the campaign are now in and prove how appealing reuse is for consumers, whether they are donating or giving an item a new lease of life.

In terms of raising awareness the campaign reached:

• 5,000 local residents through a leaflet campaign
• Over 1,000 customers who visited the shop itself
• 175,000 people through 75 social media posts
• Over 29 million people via 20 pieces of press coverage

Of course, the #ElectricAvenue shop would not have existed without donations of electrical goods seeking a new home in the first place, and these were not in short supply.

The campaign gratefully received donations of:

• 120 items from kerbside collections in response to the leaflet
• 46 items dropped off in the #ElectricAvenue shop
• 166 items from the Bristol Waste Re-use Shop in Avonmouth

Playing their part to prevent e-waste

In all 322 items were rehomed over the 10 days and 100% of customers surveyed would want to see the #ElectricAvenue store return in the future.

Customer feedback was extremely positive and included comments such as:

“It would be great to have more opportunities like this for electricals and furniture.”

“What a brilliant idea! And especially after the year we’ve all had. Great idea!”

“Highly recommend this and I would love for this to be a regular thing. Staff are wonderful.”

Ecosurety Marketing Manager Stephanie Housty commented "It was fantastic to see how people engaged with the campaign. We had lots of positive feedback and great conversations with Bristolians visiting the pop-up shop.”

“It was heartening to see that citizens of Bristol were keen to play their part to prevent e-waste. One of the key learnings of this campaign is that there is a crying need for consumer information about options to re-use, repair or donate electricals, before they think of putting them out for recycling."

Funded by Ecosurety, the project was a pilot project run by environmental charity Hubbub and Bristol Waste Company with staff from Ecosurety also volunteering to help run the store and interact with the customers throughout the duration of the campaign.

Find out more about the impact projects undertaken and funded by Ecosurety.

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