Children's Scrapstore

Children’s Scrapstore has been collecting safe waste from businesses in and around Bristol for over 30 years and turning that waste in to play things. Members of the Scrapstore are using scrap materials for anything from creative play to theatre productions to science investigations and art installations. Our membership is made up of over 1,800 Bristol organisations and projects whose aim is to support children and young people in education, play, therapeutic and care settings to improve their wellbeing and happiness.

Often businesses are generating waste that they need a solution for. It may not be suitable for recycling or seem not to be suitable for reuse because it is offcuts or components that don’t seem to have a purpose as an individual item. Children’s Scrapstore can collect that waste for free and give it a new life as a creative play resource for children and young people; diverting tons of waste from landfill every year to put a smile on the faces of children and young people across our city.

Many of our members, who are made up of church groups, schools, after school clubs, uniform groups, care settings, childminders and day nurseries plus some of the leading arts and cultural organisations in the city including museums, science centres and art galleries, tell us year on year that they would be severely limited or would not be able to continue with what they could offer children if we didn’t exist. This would mean a vast decrease in the quantity of Bristol’s current varied and vibrant play and learning opportunities for our children.

Recently we have had the pleasure of working with the Arnolfini on their family engagement programme and have provided resources for large scale creative sessions with parents and children exploring themes that are currently present in the galleries – learning about art through play.

Re-using materials that might normally be determined as waste and sent to landfill has allowed Children’s Scrapstore to develop the Scrapstore PlayPod programme.

The Scrapstore PlayPod introduces loose-parts for play time into primary school lunchtimes to make lunchtimes more dynamic and fun. This programme has been a huge success with headteachers reporting improved behaviour, better inclusive play, children engaged in the classroom and less absences from schools. Many businesses local to schools have supported them financially in signing up to the Scrapstore PlayPod Programme because of its impact on the community. There are now over 100 Scrapstore PlayPods UK wide and many children across Bristol recognise Children’s Scrapstore because of their Scrapstore PlayPod.

Your waste can make a huge difference.