Moray Waste Busters must be the worst-kept secret in history because everyone seems to know about the Forres treasure trove.
Perched on the edge of the town’s recycling centre, the charity is quite unassuming. It’s not until you reach the top of the steps that you realise just how huge the operation truly is.
Almost 5,000 customers visited the charity to browse the bargains over April alone, with some even travelling from the Highlands and Aberdeenshire just for a look.
After following the charity on Facebook for some time (and marvelling at some of the more unusual pieces shared online like a stuffed seagull) I headed down to meet the team one Friday morning.
As soon as I arrived I knew I was somewhere special, and was surprised to find that despite being a charity the team does even more for the community than I realised.
Read on to join me for a day behind the scenes at Moray Waste Busters, and:
- Meet some of the customers, including a couple from Muir of Ord and a local fisherman, visiting the Forres facility
- Find out how Moray Waste Busters is run and where the money goes
- Learn more about what the team does for the Moray community
I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of things… and customers
I arrived with P&J photographer Jason Hedges just before Moray Waste Busters opened for the day, and cars were already waiting in the car park before the doors opened at 10am.
Manager Phil Mills told me Fridays were always busy for the team, but I hadn’t quite expected people to be this early.
The site is made up of two large polytunnels, and a few sheds and containers, all filled with things that could have ended up being thrown away.
And as we made our way through the first polytunnel to chat to the team, customers were already meandering around, wrestling with arms full of precious finds.
Jason’s camera bag had been left on the floor while he was snapping some pictures, and someone thought it was even for sale — which shouldn’t have been surprising to me considering where we were.
“Every day is like Christmas,” Phil explained as he showed me around. “You don’t know what you’re going to find.”
Well, he wasn’t wrong because the place was absolutely brimming with stuff and everywhere I looked something caught my eye.
My personal favorite was the shed stacked full of books. And at just 50p a book, I couldn’t resist a couple…
Elderly couple drive more than 2 hours to stock up on books
I wasn’t the only one drawn to the books though — Keith MacLeod and Rhona Hay had made the two-hour round trip from their home in Muir of Ord just to browse the shed.
Keith told me he actually tries to limit himself to a maximum of 15 books a time, but jokingly said his wife often buys a lot more than that.
He discovered an edition of Arabian Nights filled with old illustrations that he sent as a gift to his niece in London.
“Every visit shows up something, and you think ‘my goodness, fancy seeing that here’,” the pensioner said flicking through the pages.
Rhona added: “People ask us to look for them too, you know ‘if you see such and such, would you get it?’
“And after we’re done with our books we either give them to charity or the library or pass them on to somebody… Or we keep them of course.”
According to Phil, the team sells more than 50,000 books every year and they have a whole team dedicated just to this one section.
Customers from Strathspey, Inverness and even Alford visit the Aladdin’s Cave
They were not the furthest away visitors though, Shirley and Les had travelled from Alford for a day out.
The retired couple had been before and found “one or two bargains”, but now they were in looking for tiles to fix the hearth of their fire — and perhaps a book or two.
I also got chatting to a woman from Strathspey looking for furniture to put in her greenhouse, as well as a mum and son who had driven through from Inverness.
‘I’ve been saving myself a fortune’ says fisherman
Forres local David King visits Moray Waste Busters twice to three times a week, mostly to look at the electrical items (which are all PAT-tested).
He’s been kitting out his new fishing boat that he docks in Burghead, and instead of buying anything new he’s been finding bargains at Moray Waste Busters for a “fraction of the price”.
“I’ve been saving myself a fortune,” he said smiling broadly. “I’ve known about it for a few years, it was one of the older lads that said to me to come here.
“I thought it would probably be old tat and broken, but no no everything is tested and up to spec. You see some of the stuff and it’s practically new.
“That slow cooker I bought for six quid was brand new, never used. It would have ended up in the skip when somebody could make the good out of it.”
While looking at the shelves, David told us his most unusual find here was a solar-powered shower — which he said is ideal for having on the boat.
He scooped it for just £2 and said it “works a treat and fair heats the water”.
Have you been to Moray Waste Busters before and bagged a bargain, or something a bit more different? Let us know in our comments section below…
Forres Academy staff member loved charity so much after school visit she got a job there
Yvonne Whyte was working at Forres Academy when she first heard about Moray Waste Busters.
She volunteered to take some of the pupils on a trip to the shop, and “absolutely loved it” there.
Yvonne ended up leaving the academy to work at Moray Waste Busters eight years ago and says it is her “perfect job”, and that she often comes home with a “little treasure” for herself.
“I’m always amazed at the things people will throw out,” she said. “I thought about this long and hard and the only thing I can think of is, and I’m guilty of this myself, the thought of actually having to sell privately.
“Like on Gumtree and all that, you have to wait for people and they let you down, and for all you get… I think people are the same, but as long as they know it’s going to a good cause they’re more than happy.”
The visual coordinator also notices a lot of people coming in every week because it’s a part of their routine, which she says make the shop feel more like a “community”.
She added: “They may be an old person living on their own, and they come here every day as part of their routine. They buy a few wee bits for a couple of pounds and it’s made their day because they’ve come out, they can mingle with people, they’ve bought something — you just couldn’t afford to do that in another shop.”
‘We give people bargains — what they do with it after is totally fine’
Some customers come into the shop to buy things to sell, which Yvonne says is “part of the parcel”.
She told me there’s a couple that come in and buy clothes from the 50p rail and while they give some to family, they sell other pieces on eBay.
“They’re quite honest about it,” she said. “If they make a bit of money from that, that’s fine. But the whole point for us is that we’re giving people bargains and what they do with it after that is totally fine.”
But, the only thing Yvonne does “come down hard on” is when people try to haggle on something reasonably priced.
Almost ‘four elephants’ saved from recycling or landfill at Forres
Moray Waste Busters is a charity and while it is on council land it is not run by the council — despite what many people think.
It started 21 years ago as a composting business (which explains the polytunnels), but those running it realised people were throwing away items at the adjoining recycling centre they could sell instead.
Phil says in a sense they were involved in reuse before “it really took off”, and all the money raised goes into keeping the recycling charity running.
He’s worked at the charity for over 10 years now, after starting as a volunteer in the bookshop and moving up the ranks until he took over from the boss.
Over April alone, around 24,500 items were sold by Moray Waste Busters.
That equates to 24 tonnes of materials being diverted from recycling or landfill, and being sold on instead.
If you want to visualise the amount, that’s around the same as 13 cars or almost four elephants.
Reuse shop gives teachers books for free and has even helped a foodbank stay open
But on top of this, 1.3 tonnes were donated to 28 local schools, nurseries, community groups and charities.
Phil explained that the book team realised there was a lot of teachers coming in to buy books. They decided to set up their own dedicated space in one of the containers outside and the teachers can take whatever resources they need for free.
A lady runs a second-hand bookshop from a Coop in Lossiemouth, and all the proceeds go to local charities.
She sold all the books she was given from Moray Waste Busters and the money she raised from that has helped keep the Lossie foodbank open.
“I think places like this can quite easily help,” he said. “We didn’t even realise it was making that kind of impact.
“There’s a lot more going on than just dealing with the donations, and a lot more than just dealing with the environmental aspects.
“There’s a strong community aspect to Moray Waste Busters as well. And everyone here is treated the same way, all shown respect and listened to as part of the team.”
Want to find out more?
Moray Waste Busters is open seven days a week from 10am until 3.30pm (2.30pm on Sundays).
Follow the Facebook page to find out about pop-up shops and see all the quirky and best bargains first.
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