Unloved gifts given second lease of life at Christmas

Carol and Daphne shop at the centre every week, and have eyes for bargains

Unwanted items are being given a second lease of life, and being sold ready to become new Christmas presents.

A recycling centre in Nantycaws, Carmarthenshire, has set up what it believes is Wales' only reuse village to help people find a bargain.

The centre has sold more than 1,800 items this year and the number of people buying repaired items has trebled since 2022.

This money is then spent on new reuse projects, funding equipment and investing in educational programmes.

Carol and Daphne shop at the centre every week and are eyeing up some Christmas bargains.

"They get new things here as well, so why not," they said.

Cwm Environmental, which owns the site, is an arm's-length operator for Carmarthenshire council.

The shopping village is made up of about half a dozen shipping containers filled with a variety of items that have either been dumped or donated.

These can include clothes and jewellery, books and furniture, electrical equipment and children's toys.

The centre is looking festive as it sells unwanted items for Christmas

Nicholas Thomas, a co-ordinator at the centre, said 80% of items that are taken to the centre can be reused and resold.

He said people are often surprised how easy it is to repair, clean and resell these.

Chris Swan is one of the bike mechanics in the workshop and said he is seeing them brought in all the time.

"This bike I'm working on had a puncture, I changed the inner tube, the brakes have been tightened up," he said.

"Once that is all done it is fit to go."

The centre has seen an increase in bikes that often have issues that are relatively simple to fix

The centre has been transformed for Christmas with decorations that have all been donated or saved from items brought to the waste centre.

"Santa's sleigh was once an old wooden pallet," according to Penny Weaver, reuse and recycling centre manager.

"We've got two life size Nutcracker figures outside Santa's grotto made from old paint pots, thrown away paint and some bits of material that we were given."