2025 Lil ReUse Festival
Join us for the Lil ReUse Festival
Saturday November 22, 9.30am - 2pm
Haddington Scout Hall - 8 Millfield, Mill Wynd, Haddington EH41 4DB
Help us make Second-hand the first choice for everyone.
Here’s our FAQs on buying, donating, volunteers, how to buy without the kids seeing…
Why?
80% of Scotland’s entire carbon footprint comes from our shopping choices. It’s super easy to cut that - while getting amazing items and saving money. Why not?!
Coming to buy?
Hooray! Thank you for doing your Lil thing for the planet. Here’s a few tips:
It’s quicker to buy your vouchers before the day. Voucher payment is all that will be accepted on the day (but you can buy vouchers at the venue). See more later.
Please park at Knox Academy (Pencaitland Rd) and walk across the playing fields, or at John Muir House (council car park) off the High Street. Walk along The Butts, past the primary schools and turn left. Please save the limited parking on site for users with limited mobility and for our “Click and Collect”. We will have a dedicated space for you to leave items and return to load up the car.
Doors will open at 9.30am. People do typically start queuing before then.
Remember to bring your shopping bags. Items will be priced per bag. A big bag like an Ikea blue bag is £20; a large shopper £15 (or two for £20), regular tote £10.
If you need a surprise set aside discreetly just let a Lil volunteer know 😉 Have you seen our Second-hand Santa letters?
It is a smaller venue this year, so some items will be outside. Please remember to pack your patience :) and wear layers. It’ll be hot inside and cold out!
No Cash, just vouchers
Everyone at the ReUse Festival will be ‘paying’ with vouchers. You can buy vouchers online to collect at the Welcome Desk, or pay cash in person on the day. If buying vouchers stretches your budget too far please contact us or our referral partners. We want everyone to be able to make second-hand their first choice.
Purchased vouchers that are unused can be refunded. Gifted vouchers can’t be refunded for cash. We request that you don’t ask if that’s the case because refusal could offend.
How do we donate items?
We are being extra picky this year about the items we want donated. We are in a smaller space and want to make sure everything is great for you, our customers. Please see what we’ll accept below.
Items can be taken to the to Lil Lorry at Knox Academy, Pencaitland Rd, Haddington. It will be there from noon on Monday November 17 until noon Friday November 21. Items can be brought directly to the Scout Hall on Friday morning.
If the Lorry is unstaffed you can donate directly into the lorry. Please access carefully and put items as near the driver’s side as possible.
What do you want donated?
As above, we want the items available for you to buy at the sale to be amazing. We also have some Health, Safety & Trading Standards codes to follow.
We’re calling time on Temu & Shein items this year, partly because of the lack of CE marks, British Standards and because of their environmental and ethical record. A longer blog explaining this is coming.
Quality children’s clothes and footwear (no drawstrings that go all the way around necks or tummies; no holes, pilling, stains or marks.)
baby stuff: we have a lot of baby clothes already. We don’t need “it’d do someone a turn”. We’re looking for those barely worn / nearly-new gifts or items they grew too fast to wear.
adult clothes & footwear: as above. If you’re not sure if it’s good enough, please send to Oxfam or other high street charity retailers that have recycling facilities.
toys (Please check the CE labels still visible/ attached. This is a legal requirement.)
bikes - we are not reselling bikes this year, we don’t have space. If you have amazing bikes that need a new home, please email Louise.Hastie@walkwheelcycletrust.org.uk
gardening equipment/ produce/ seeds/ plants
tools (no electrical , sorry)
homewares and kitchen equipment
soft furnishings (curtains & cushions, throws etc, as long as fire labels still on any cushions with fillings)
Sports kit
Storage jars, food caddies
We don’t want (sorry):
Temu or Shein. So many Temu toys lack the CE mark, they go straight to landfill. This quality level is a concern across their products, and their environmental/ ethical credentials are not a fit with Lil.
electrical items, including things that need to be USB charged.
large furniture (as a guide, we can only accept items one person can easily carry)
earrings
car seats
magnets
if you need a home for such things Zero Waste Dunbar now known as ReUse Scotland may be able to help
Gah, It’s Saturday, I have the kids in tow!?
Kids are very welcome!
Come see us if you need to set something aside for a surprise. We’ll have some small refreshments available too.
I’m a reuse/ waste tackling organisation, Can I have a whole table?
Sorry, this year we’re operating in a smaller venue and with less grant support. We would love to reintroduce this in the future. Please do get in touch, we might be able to collaborate in other ways.
Can I Help?
Oh yes please! Volunteers make things happen at Lil so we are always delighted to have you join the team. We need extra hands both before the event and on the day. Email Lou at hello.lilthings@gmail.com or call/Whatsapp on 07538031226. Thank you 😊
Why vouchers?
We sell via vouchers to people that can afford it, and gifting to those in need, so everyone uses vouchers on the day. The only distinguishing elements to the vouchers are that people who have bought vouchers can be refunded. Whether vouchers have been given or bought is a question on our evaluation sheets so we can share the impact with you and funders. We don’t want any perception of stigma or embarrassment, we’re all in this together! Also, the more we all shop secondhand, the less stigma there is.
We also don't want to devalue secondhand by making it all free, and the paid-for vouchers helps cover costs of the event for Lil too. Any leftover is put towards sustainability projects in our community.
“Loved the event. Saved me £100s.”
We love that we can support cost of living, but the environmental impact of shopping second-hand is huge.
In 2024, we all kept 1657kg of items in circulation and saw £11,000 in vouchers distributed among our community through this event alone.
Zero Waste Scotland cites about four-fifths of Scotland’s footprint comes from the products and materials we manufacture, use, and throw away. In fact, the average Scot consumes 18.4 tonnes of materials every year – that’s the equivalent of 50kg per week on average. Just on clothes, we on average each spend £640/year and collectively throw out almost 1 million tonnes of textiles. About one third of this has barely been worn. Small wonder that fast fashion accounts for more carbon than international aviation and shipping combined.
Second-hand needs to be our first choice if we are to cut our waste and keep every useable item in circulation for as long as possible.
Second-hand stuff always has a story, saves the world and your pennies. We adore our second-hand treasure. It means another family wasn’t exploited, or had to go without for us to get ‘new’ stuff. Santa loves it too - see our printable example of Second-hand Santa letters
