Hello and welcome to the Cone Exchange.
The Cone Exchange is Harrogate’s unique community scrap store and the flagship community project of Bettys & Taylors of Harrogate. Every year the Cone Exchange works with 200 Yorkshire schools, community groups, social enterprises and charities to transform trash into treasure and encourage young people to become environmentally aware. We also providing a valuable resource for crafters from the local area.
The Cone Exchange was inspired by a school visit to our tea factory more than a decade ago. A child asked to take home a waste cotton cone to make an angel for Christmas. Within weeks more than 500 angels had been made and sold, with the proceeds used to set up a school gardening club.
With the help of over a dozen volunteers, the Cone Exchange now recycles and re-uses waste materials from our business and from other local companies.
What we do with the waste materials we receive:
- Exchange: Much of our donated scrap can be used by schools and community groups for arts and crafts. They earn credits by donating recyclable items such as stamps and mobile phones (which we pass on to Oxfam) and exchange their credits for craft materials
- Re-Use: Some of our scrap is used to make products to sell at shows and fairs, and through local shops and charities. This work is carried out by our volunteers and by young adults with learning difficulties who come to us for work placements
- Sell: We keep a selection of donated materials in our Scrap Store to sell for hobbies and crafting, raising funds for local social enterprises as well as Bettys & Taylors’ Trees for Life project – supporting tree planting and tree preservation in Yorkshire and in tea and coffee growing countries.
The Cone Exchange is the flagship community project of Bettys & Taylors of Harrogate.
