The Edinburgh Remakery is a perfect example of the circular economy in action – and all the benefits that virtuous cycle can bring.

This social enterprise, Edinburgh’s first ‘re-use hub’, is part of a drive by Zero Waste Scotland to transform the scale and economic impact of re-use shopping in Scotland and enable more people to learn key repair skills. The Edinburgh Remakery aims to create jobs, help reduce landfill and help cut the city’s carbon footprint, while upskilling and providing some of the Capital’s most vulnerable citizens with free resources.

Rob Gallagher, Chief Executive of The Edinburgh Remakery, said: “Since we were founded in 2011 we’ve grown, now employing nine people and around 10 freelance tutors. We also work with around 30 volunteers and look forward to these numbers growing each year.

“Essentially our ethos is to encourage people to repair and reuse furniture, textiles and IT equipment. This helps divert significant tonnage from landfill, and our IT repairs help reduce our carbon footprint.

“We are also in the process of creating new programmes, which will see us work with homeless people getting accommodation, and upskilling them in the repair of furniture which can be used to furnish their new homes.

“We are also creating a project which will ensure we can have a depository of free furniture available to people living in adverse circumstances.”

Based in Leith Walk, The Edinburgh Remakery model has now been used to help establish similar social enterprises around the world, with the first one in Brooklyn in New York.

Rob added: “As well as offering training workshops, we also repair and upcycle furniture and IT equipment and sell these through our shop, which goes a long way towards funding our activities. People can come to us knowing they can buy a quality refurbished laptop at a very reasonable price – getting a bargain and with the added benefit of helping the environment and those in need with their purchase.”

Circular Edinburgh is a joint initiative delivered by Zero Waste Scotland and the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce.  Circular Edinburgh complements Zero Waste Scotland’s nationwide support for SMEs to develop circular economy business ideas, including its £18million Circular Economy Investment Fund and Circular Economy Business Support Service.

The initiative is part of the Resource Efficient Circular Economy Accelerator Programme, which will invest £27million in Scotland in circular economy projects until December 2019, thanks to support from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

For further information please visit https://www.edinburghchamber.co.uk/circular-economy or

contact Mayan Grace or Aileen Boyle on 0131 221 2999 (option 5) or email

circulareconomy@edinburghchamber.co.uk