SECOND-HAND COMES FIRST.. New Revolve scheme sets high standards for Scots stores

be a more circular economy. The Scottish Government’s Making Things Last strategy calls for reusing and repairing to become more commonplace activities.

“And Scotland has a national standard, called Revolve, which aims to encourage people to reuse more by assuring high quality and a good customer experience when visiting reuse shops.

“Revolve is about ensuring people can shop second-hand with confidence, so the standard is awarded to stores that have checked all items for quality and safety, have attractive and easy to browse store layouts and great customer service.

“It’s about making buying second-hand an attractive alternative to buying new and making the retail experience more akin to shopping on the high street.”

One of almost 100 stores across Scotland that meets the Revolve standard is Glasgow’s Merry-goround, a social enterprise that specialises in selling second-hand maternity and children’s goods.

In addition to helping the local community through fundraising, Merry-go-round was also founded with the environment in mind.

Samantha Moir, founder of Merry-go-round, explained: “A lot of people think, ‘It’s OK, I’ll buy new and then pass it on to someone else.’ But if everyone does that then everyone is still buying new items.

“It’s not about passing it down to people who might not necessarily have as much money, but it’s about passing it round.

She added: “There is this image of rummaging around in a charity shop, not knowing what you’ll find. But with our store we’re trying to make it look exactly like a new shop, and I feel very strongly that there’s no reason why it shouldn’t.”

It’s estimated that 150,000 tonnes of reusable household items, including furniture, electricals and textiles, are sent to landfill in Scotland annually.

And just reusing all the washing machines, T-shirts and sofas alone would save more than 80,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions or the equivalent of taking 17,000 cars off the road for a year.