The Foaling Box, a luxury retreat in Hertfordshire, was furnished almost entirely using free or secondhand items
(Picture: Binky Nixon)“For 20 years, I’ve run my house without buying anything new,” says Cat Fletcher, director and co-founder of Freegle, a UK network of reuse groups where unwanted items are donated for free. “You can honestly furnish your home completely on Freegle – I’ve done that myself.”
Over 670,000 tonnes of furniture are disposed of annually in the UK, much of which has the potential to be reused or recycled, according to a recent government report. Only 17 per cent of sofas, for example, are reused in the UK, while almost half of furniture collected for Household Waste Recycling Centres was assessed as being fit for further use.
