About Our Charity

Who we are

Children’s Scrapstore is Bristol reuse charity on a mission to redefine waste as resource, widen opportunities for creativity and play, as well as improve wellbeing and empower others to do the same!

What we do

Here at Children’s Scrapstore, we have many facets and services that are all focussed towards one goal: to improve wellbeing through scrap reuse, encouraging creativity, and championing play for all.

The main components of our charity are:

  • Scrapstore Warehouse, where we divert and process waste materials from businesses and industry for our different members to to reuse as a low cost and sustainable resource.

  • Artshop, a community hub with public toilets and Children’s Corner to play in, where anyone can buy art and craft supplies (with a 20% discount for annual members).

  • Play Team, who run external community play sessions, care home activities, facilitate play training and run our nationally endorsed Scrapstore PlayPods programme at schools across the country.

  • Events, which include Bookable Sessions that support our charity work such as weekly Messy Play, Friday Craft and School Holiday Sessions, as well as Free Events like our monthly Super Saturdays, annual Play Day and Family Fun Friday.

  • Hire, where we hire unique equipment and services like Badge Machines, Workshop Facilitation and Rooms, with a discounts available for annual members.

  • Volunteering, where individual and corporate volunteers help support our work at Childrens Scrapstore as well as create Scraptivity Packs to send out to families across Bristol.

You can support our charity and all the different work we do through Monetary Donations, Volunteering, or using our services and letting your friends know that we are here (please don’t gatekeep us!)

Our Yearly Impact

At Children’s Scrapstore, we aim to improve and contribute to three main sectors: play, art, and reuse. We’re proud to say that, with the support of our customers and community, we divert as much waste away from landfill as we can to be reused every month, and provide play opportunities for children and young people all over the country.

We have an annual Charity Impact Report, with case studies and figures from the last financial year available to view here. Find our impact in numbers for 2024/2025 below.

Our Journey in Bristol

We were first founded by Friends Of The Earth in 1982 and were first located in a very small space in Brislington. The next stop on our journey was Bedminster where we stayed for a few years before moving to Welsh Back. Finally, in 2002, we settled here at what was formerly known as The Proving House. Now it is known as Scrapstore House, and is our central location for all of our activities and events!

Reuseful Network

We are part of national network of independent Scrapstores which share similar values around reuse. We support one another through sharing scrap through swaps!

Scrap swaps allow Scrapstores from all over the country get together to trade different items and materials with each other, so that everyone is able to have unique and interesting scrap from different sources! This also means that we can continue to accept regular items as they can be shared out amongst different Scrapstores.

Some Scrapstores we swap with often are Gloucester, Milton Keynes, Exeter, Wiltshire, Dorset, Cornwall, and Swindon. Multi swaps, where lots of Scrapstores get together at once, means that there is a plethora of scrap to share and all the Scrapstores involved can connect with each other!

If you’re not based near us in Bristol but are interested in accessing scrap, you can check out the Scrapstores Directory on ReusefulUK’s website to find a reuse centre near you.