Two new projects in the Borders aim to help us reduce our household waste

Two new projects have been set up in the Borders with the aim of helping us to reduce our household waste.The General Store, a repair workshop and sustainable gift shop, opened in Selkirk last week. It's encouraging us to have our broken belongings fixed rather than binned.

And just over a month ago a zero waste refill store, which is trying to reduce the amount of single use packaging being consumed, opened in Lauder.Both support a 'reuse and repurpose' mantra to try and bring an end to our 'throw away culture.'

"The big reason is that we're running out space to chuck stuff away, and we're running out of resources to make new stuff that we can then chuck away," explains Sue Briggs, who runs The General Store in Selkirk.

The repairers there welcome everything from broken electricals, to ornaments and clothes, they'll even mend or restore old items with sentimental value.One local family, who lost their little boy, had his bike restored as a keepsake after he passed."Like everybody, I'm getting tired of throwing things out, and I'm conscious about the damage that it's doing, so I want my things to last as long as possible."So the back of the shop is our workshop area which is where the magic happens and where the fixers fix the stuff. And the front of the shop is crafts and any money we make from selling those goes to support the repairs and make them affordable."We encourage all of our crafters to be as sustainable as possible so to use stuff that would've ended up in landfill."

In Lauder, a crowdfunder raised the £12,400 needed for Charlotte Aitchison to open Weigh Greener, a zero waste refill store.It was due to open last March but the pandemic hit, and they were finally able to open their doors just over a month ago.Groceries here aren't shrouded in plastic bags and boxes but customers bring their own containers to fill.It sells everything from pasta and rice, to cereals, sweets and baking products. As well as locally produced items.Even empty bottles of shampoo and cleaning sprays can be brought in and refilled.

"I think people want to be able to shop sustainably," says owner Charlotte Aitchison."People really want to change this terrible situation that we seem to have ended up in, where we're unwrapping so much plastic from our shopping, and want the choice to be able to shop without single use plastic."Such vast majorities of it are not recyclable, and here people can buy their pasta without putting another plastic bag in the bin."All of Weigh Greener's profits above its running costs are injected back into the community, hoping to create further benefits locally.Zero Waste Scotland say projects like this really do help.In 2019 (the most recent year reported) Scotland produced 2.4 million tonnes of household waste, according to the charity.This equates to 443kg per person every year.52,000 tonnes of that was generated in the Scottish Borders. In 2011 it was 53,000 tonnes, so the picture is improving.