15 October 2019
15th October 2019
Fifty prams abandoned at St. Enoch Centre have been given a new lease of life by Repair Café to help refugees and disadvantaged families across Glasgow.
The collaboration was launched last summer when the centre noticed a number of prams left on the premises and in the surrounding area.
Through its ongoing focus on circularity and sustainability, St. Enoch Centre teamed up with Repair Café in a bid to save the prams, the majority of which were still in a working condition but in need of restoration.
Jon Dawes (Repair Cafe) & Anne Ledgerwood (St. Enoch Centre) showcasing some of the prams going to new homes
The team at Repair Café, supported by the Climate Challenge Fund, is working towards a target of saving 2200kgs from landfill before March 2020. Due to the weight of the prams, the St. Enoch Centre collaboration has helped the charity reach 70% of the target, while allowing the team to develop the initiative and grow the project.
The team purchased cleaning products to sterilise the prams and revive them to a state that they themselves would use for their own children, before donating them to charities such as Refuweegee.
The initiative is the latest in the St. Enoch Centre’s move towards a circular model where it looks to repurpose waste. Ongoing projects include its coffee grounds to compost initiative, adding nutrients to the compost used within the plants throughout the mall, and an art competition with local schools encouraging young people to think of circular ideas for retailers.
Anne Ledgerwood, General Manager of St. Enoch Centre, commented: “We were coming across a number of prams left in and around the centre and started to collect them while we thought about how we could put them to good use. With circularity at the core of our values, we were determined to ensure they were saved from landfill and teamed up with Repair Café to bring them back to life.
“We’re absolutely thrilled that families across Glasgow will now benefit from the prams and it’s great that they’ve been able to make use of a product that was previously seen as waste.
“We continue to work with our retailers to encourage sustainability through innovative ideas that help reduce our waste streams.”
Jonathan Dawes, founder of Repair Café, said: “The majority of these prams were still usable but just needed a really good clean. A pram is a necessity for young children, however can be expensive to purchase and often out of reach for vulnerable families.
“Our collaboration with the St. Enoch Centre allowed us to save the prams from landfill and redistribute them to new homes across Glasgow, making good use of a valuable asset which would have otherwise been scrapped.
“We’re absolutely thrilled to be able to help disadvantaged families in this way and now that we’ve managed to get the project off the ground, we’re welcoming donations from anyone who has a pram they no longer use.”
Customers and members of the public can donate unwanted prams to St. Enoch Centre’s customer service desk.