SHURB COOP: Who is Behind Edinburgh’s Fashionable Fundraiser?
Penny Hodgson
25/03/24
(Zero Waste Hub, image credit: Penny Hodgson)
To celebrate a decade of community climate action, SHRUB Cooperative invites Edinburgh to join their Zero-Waste fundraising event on Saturday (March 30th).
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The event, which is set to take place in Stockbridge Church, promises to be an evening full of ‘vibrant entertainment,’ with a fashion show and ceilidh included in the ticket price.
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Blether Magazine caught up with their Community-Hub Coordinator, Heloisa Fyfe, who told us more about the charity as well as their upcoming Fundraiser.
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Originally founded in 2008, the Cooperative looked a lot different to how it does today. Before becoming an established organisation in 2013, it all started with students from the University of Edinburgh. They started to grow frustrated with the amount of waste produced at the end of the year when people moved away from the city, “they would just throw everything away because they weren’t able to take it with them…then new students would come every year and have to buy all those things again,” Fyfe explained. After feeling that was “quite silly” some students set up a collections project: “They would collect all the stuff…and then in September students would be able to take all the stuff for free, which obviously helped with waste but also with money – so that’s how it started and then it grew arms and legs from there.”
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From a grassroots project to an established charity, SHRUB now have two bases in the centre of Edinburgh with “multiple projects running at the same time.” The Cooperative’s Zero Waste Hub is home to a shop and vegan café. Their other location – The Wee Spoke Hub – is a second-hand bike shop and repair station. “We use [our] café as an event space, so we run yoga classes, sewing cafes, mending workshops and lots of other fun community events. We also have a Swapshop which is a second-hand shop, but if you become a member you can actually swap the things that you own with the things in the shop,” Fyfe told us.
(Zero Waste Hub, image credit: Penny Hodgson)
Although the overall aim of SHRUB is to “reduce waste in the city…and empower and educate people to do that around the circular economy,” over the years more and more people have become reliant on the charity because of the services they provide. “We have a Food Sharing Hub which is basically like a community pantry and that’s rescued food from supermarkets which we get every evening, and we get loads! Then people can take it for free or for a donation so we’re helping with food insecurity there as well, rather than just waste reduction,” Fyfe explained. The Community-Hub Coordinator added, “we have people queuing for like an hour, an hour and a half before we open to access food – so we do have people that rely on us quite a lot.”
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Despite providing all of these services for the local community, education is still a key priority for SHRUB. Whilst many claim sustainable practices are too expensive, the Cooperative encourage people to challenge this view. “We do sewing cafes for example, they’re free and open to everyone, we have sewing machines and sewing supplies that people can use. [If] you’ve got holes in your clothes, don’t buy a new jumper learn how to mend it,” Fyfe suggested. Praising the work of SHRUB’s “expert” volunteers, Fyfe stated, “what I think is really important is that instead of them mending it for you they will teach you how to do it, so they’re passing down skills.”
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Fyfe also described the importance of the Coop’s upcoming fundraiser: “We want to remain accessible to people, a lot of what we offer is free or very cheap because that’s the whole point of what we do. We want sustainability and having a zero-waste lifestyle to not seem like a sort of luxurious thing – its something that anyone can do. [But] we need to run big fundraisers to keep running all our projects.”
(Zero Waste Hub, image credit: Penny Hodgson)
As the team behind the fundraiser promise to deliver an evening of ‘energy, entertainment and engaging activities – we asked Fyfe where the event ideas came from. “We thought you know what - a sustainable fashion show - that sounds really fun. Fashion is an extremely wasteful industry unfortunately, especially with fast fashion, but [it] can still be sustainable… and we can have fashion shows that are sustainable – we just need to organise them,” Fyfe said. She continued humorously, “and then the Ceilidh…Ceilidhs are fun, that’s it.”
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After working at the Cooperative for around a year and a half, Heloisa was keen to express how happy the job makes her: “I feel like I can go home at the end of the day and tell myself you know I’ve done everything I could do…and I’ve had an impact locally and I think that really counts.”
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From a student’s dumping ground to a fixture of the local community, over the last 10 years SHRUB has made a lasting impact for many across the Capital. After recycling 28.5 tonnes of household items in 2023 alone, the success of SHRUB is clear. The team encourage everyone to “come to the fundraiser”, so that they can continue to grow and reach even bigger milestones.
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To get tickets for the fundraiser, or get become a member of the Cooperative, visit: https://www.shrubcoop.org/