Shropshire college launches eco store out of pandemic
A Shropshire college’s leavers of 2020 were unable to reclaim a number of items in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
So the items left behind have enabled Concord College’s student-led Eco Club to launch an Eco Store – the latest initiative as part of ongoing ‘green’ commitments.
The Acton Burnell-based college Eco Store, set up on a private web-hosting service, is being used as an online platform for current Concordians to buy essentials for daily life and boarding.
The store consists of numerous categories including bags, clothes, health and fitness and household items.
In addition, kitchen utensils, toiletries, phone accessories, stationary and other miscellaneous items.
Student Jasmine Law, 17, of the Eco Club, said: “The Eco Store enables us to repurpose unclaimed or donated parcels and items.
“Concord students have a diverse range of wants and needs and as the saying goes one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
“The Eco Store will help to reduce wastage of perfectly viable and usable items too.”
Speaking of the life-cycle of the new initiative, Jasmine added: “I firmly believe the Eco Store has potential to keep running and expand further into a college second-hand shop in the future.
“This has not been currently possible due to the pandemic and health risks it might pose.
"But I have hope that the Eco Store could be made into a long-term initiative for charitable causes and for a greener Concord.”
Mathematics teacher and Concord’s staff head of the Eco Club, Emma Charles said: “I am really proud of the way the Eco Club has independently produced such a great online store and auction.
“I hope it will be an ongoing project where students can buy and sell unwanted items at the end of each school year as they pack up to leave, saving them money and educating them on a key part of the five R’s – reduce, reuse, repair, rot, recycle.”
All proceeds from purchases on the site will be donated to the World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to ensure long-term protection of the world’s ecosystem and its wildlife.
Products are purchased through an auctioning method taking place through Concord’s internal student information group on Microsoft Teams.
Mrs Charles added: “I hope the Eco Club raises lots of money for WWF and helps educate our students to be ethical consumers of the future.”
