Countryfile presenter Paul Martin is on a mission to “de-clutter without costing the earth.” He’s looking for ways to reinvent all the clutter he has accumulated and doesn’t want any more. So he came to Frome!
Fearless entrepreneur Jen Gale of sustainable-ish (whose family didn’t buy anything new for a whole year) volunteered to help him in his mission, and brought him to visit several initiatives started by Edventure: Frome – all designed to support sharing and sustainability in our community.
Paul says, “It’s all backed by an organisation Edventure. The first of its kind in the UK which hopes locals set up businesses to benefit the community.”
His tour started at Remakery: Frome, learning about their monthly Repair & Upcylcing Cafe where people bring their broken items and volunteer fixers do their best to breathe new life into them, whilst sharing their skills and having a cuppa!
His next stop was The Frome Wardrobe Collective, the clothes-swap-with-a-difference, designed to reduce our dependence on “fast-fashion” – we now consume 400% more clothes than we did 20 years ago. Paul swapped his unwanted items and left with a new shirt. He said, ”It’s like a real shop but it’s got this kind of earthy presence to it…I think it’s really brilliant, every town needs something like this.”
Next stop was The SHARE Shop – were he visits Sam Attard, co-manager. Sam says, “It was fantastic to meet Paul and see his genuine excitement for the SHARE shop. He was astounded at how cheap it is to borrow items and he couldn’t believe that there isn’t a Library of Things in every town.
“That’s something that I think will soon change because we’ve been getting more and more requests for help from people in other towns hoping to replicate our model. We’ve been going for four years ourselves now and finally I believe our concept is one whose time has come … why buy when you can borrow?!”
Paul’s tour culminated at The Community Fridge where he donated some surplus fruit for someone else to take and enjoy. He said, “Here, in Frome, they’ve got it right. We don’t need to keep buying stuff and chucking it away. It’s all about sharing”
Watch the whole feature in Countryfile Winter Diaries Series 3, Episode 2, via BBC Iplayer at bbc.in/2GwTRJx.
If you’d like to take part in Edventure’s next start-up course – and help start-up another new community enterprise in Frome, apply at edventurefrome.org.