What rubbish!

Creative materials are likely to be available by the crateload at a scrapstore near your early years setting. Meg Jones rummages around

In the run-up to Christmas, scrapstores all over the country are brim full with gold card, sequin waste and bright pieces of card. All sorts of factory waste materials and printers' off-cuts suitable for making cards, decorations, costumes, scenery and Christmas gifts are just waiting to be collected by nurseries, schools and other early years settings.

Scrapstores are a growing facility benefiting both suppliers and users. Traditionally, early years settings and primary schools have recycled cartons and egg boxes, scrap paper and cardboard tubes. With an eye to the demand for these and other less accessible materials, and the growing concern for the environment, scrapstores have been expanding over the past two decades. The simple idea of collecting clean waste from manufacturers, storing and displaying it, and inviting childcarers, school staff and playworkers to collect it, has become a success story.

Scrapstores tend to charge their members only an annual fee on a sliding scale for their recycled resources. Did you know that for each ton of recycled paper 17 trees are saved? Think how much children could save by re-using the variety of waste products destined for the dump. There are also financial benefits to businesses, which have to pay for their waste to go into landfill sites. It is estimated that 85 per cent of all waste comes from industry, so every little bit of recycling is a benefit to the community. Everyone is a winner.

The Playaway project in Stafford, run by the Community Council of Staffordshire, has as its motto 'Supporting play in the community'. Housed in a cool and airy warehouse, reels of coloured elastic, foam sheets, window-blind off-cuts, carpet squares, cork coasters, thousands of yoghurt pots, stacks of plain white plates ripe for decoration, and countless other scrap stocks are displayed in racks. It is an Aladdin's cave of junk.

Having called in to buy craft materials for another strand of the project, Marie Dawson and Angela Clark from St Peter's Pre-school were seduced into collecting a few yards of gold tape and stiffened material to make a display. 'It's a great resource,' says Marie. 'We've only just started using Playaway, and we intend using it regularly to get more ideas.'

Their enthusiasm was obvious as they spotted half-barrels they could use as planters in the spring, and talked of the other benefits of being members. 'We only have a small storage area, so we couldn't store 50 egg boxes. Here you just take what you need,' says Angela.

In addition to scrap materials Playaway also offers other services. For an annual subscription, groups and individuals can collect the equivalent of ten trolley loads of scrap, use the toy library, borrow books, tapes, and CDs, buy craft materials, attend training and workshops, and hire equipment like parachutes, musical instruments and puppets.

'We don't have a lot of money,' says Angela, 'so being able to hire bongo drums for a Caribbean theme, for instance, is a great idea.'

Full-time project co-ordinator Karen Brophy (pictured above) explained how the scrapstore started. It has been open since August, although it was in the planning for 18 months. Securing funding was the biggest task, with the largest funder being Barnardo's Better Play, with contributions from the Countryside Agency, Staffordshire EYDCP, the Community Council of Staffordshire and NCMA. They have agreed support for two years, and Karen is already busy applying for funding to take the project beyond that date.

Each scrapstore is managed and operated differently. Playaway staff are employed by Community Council of Staffordshire, which received funding for the project and is also supported by volunteers.

Once the money had been secured, the warehouse agreed, the co-ordinator, administration staff and a driver employed, the Yellow Pages were then scoured for scrap suppliers. 'We had a very positive response,' says Karen. 'We now have over 40 businesses supplying on a regular basis.'

Having a full-time driver is a great advantage. It means not only can waste materials be collected, but also equipment and scrap can be delivered free anywhere in the county.

Karen is optimistic that in due time they can support satellite scrapstores in other areas of the county. Angela Johnson, play development officer for East Staffordshire Borough Council, has made some investigations into setting up a scrapstore in Burton-on-Trent. 'Providers think it is a good idea,' she says, 'but the biggest problem is one of logistics, due to the amount of agencies needed to be involved. Finding suitable premises and who is going to pay are the next issues to tackle.'

Not every item is suitable for scrapstores; safety considerations must be made. All scrap is assessed - it must be safe, non-toxic, and clean. Members are warned about sharp edges, and reminded that foam must not be put in the mouth. Some items may only be suitable for older children.

But the value of children's scrapstores has been recognised in the fifth report of the Select Committee on Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs as part of the recycling of waste products (Audit Commission Local Authority Performance Indicators for 1999/2000).

While it is believed there are more than 80 scrapstores across the country, there is no systematic way to find out about all of them. The Children's Play Information Service at the National Children's Bureau has a directory of about half the scrapstores in England and Wales, which it plans to put online shortly and welcomes more listings from providers.

Networking is informal, although several projects have websites and many carry contact details of other projects, while they try to drum up enthusiastic support and recruit new members.

'Every scrapstore is different,' says Maureen Burgoyne, centre co-ordinator of PARC, Derby's Play and Recycling Centre. 'Some operate in garages, others in warehouses, shops, whatever they can find.'

PARC has been operating for ten years, and with a membership of more than 200 organisations, it tries to offer members as wide a range of materials as possible.

From time to time scrapstores swap materials to give more variety. Once a year a grand national swap is arranged in a car park somewhere. This year in S****horpe, 30 groups took vanloads of stuff and laid it out. At the sound of a claxon a free-for- all ensured a distribution of waste materials around the country. Usually there is a speaker and a competition, such as in kite flying, as well.

PERCY (Teesside Play and Educational Resource Centre) is planning the 2003 big swap in Middlesbrough in June or July (see panel for contact details). Playaway, in common with many other scrapstores, is planning workshops including making papier mache and model-making using a glut of plastic bottles as the mould.

'We are preparing hand-outs with ideas so members can take them away,' says Karen. 'We want to be as helpful as possible.'

Much to the members' delight, and in recognition of the work it is doing, Playaway has recently received a Green Award from Staffordshire Borough Council's Agenda 21 for contributions to recycling.

Playaway has a target of 100 members by Christmas, and is currently on target with 95. Karen says, 'While we have tried different methods of informing potential users, our greatest success is by word of mouth.' Recruiting the remainder should not be difficult, judging by comments from the users so far.