Specialist skills support growth of REUSE Foundation

REUSE Foundation is a young but ambitious charity tackling single-use plastic by promoting reuse and refill systems. Founded less than two years ago, the organisation operates with a small core team of trustees but delivers a growing portfolio of projects – from UK refill initiatives to community pilots in India and Vietnam.

“We started this a couple of years ago,” explains trustee Roger Sharp, describing the charity’s mission to “promote, encourage, support projects and campaigns related to reuse and refill… to get rid of single-use plastic as much as possible.”

Despite its small size, the charity has expanded its reach significantly. With just three trustees running the organisation, REUSE Foundation relies heavily on external support – some interns but also many skills-based volunteers recruited through Reach Volunteering.

“Interns come to us with enthusiasm, but they don't necessarily bring the skills that volunteers who have worked in the industry actually offer,” Roger says.

“There are so many white spaces around us that we need help with,” says Roger. “We couldn’t do what we’re doing to the depth and breadth that we’re doing it without the help from the volunteers.”

The value of specialist expertise

Reach has enabled the charity to access volunteers with specialist expertise across multiple disciplines. These include engineering, marketing, communications, and data visualisation – skills that are otherwise unavailable within the core team.

“Volunteers who have worked in industry can actually bring [skills],” Roger explains. “That’s incredibly valuable.”

One example is a volunteer engineer supporting an international project in India, helping design a mobile refill system: “She’s been helping us devise a system where we can have refill products on the back of a truck… working out whether this needs to be pressurised or hand-pumped.”

Other volunteers have taken ownership of key operational areas. “Somebody works with us on social media strategy… the centre point of our social media work,” he notes, while another contributes graphics and data visualisation.

Bringing new perspectives and ways of thinking

Beyond technical skills, volunteers also bring new ways of thinking. “They bring a whole new perspective… coming from different parts of industry,” Roger says. For a team with a background in economics, this diversity is essential: “There are certain things we have pretty much no idea [about] – social media being one of them!”

Most collaboration happens remotely, though occasional in-person meetings add value. “That brings a different dynamic than just talking online,” he notes.

Roger notes that sometimes volunteer availability can be unpredictable, but flexibility is key. Some volunteers contribute just “two or three hours a week – fantastic,” while others dip in and out depending on availability. Even short engagements deliver value: “[For one volunteer], those three or four months were incredibly useful.” The experience has been overwhelmingly positive.

Roger says that the overall impact of working with Reach has been transformative. “If you’re talking about a cost-benefit analysis, the benefit… has far exceeded the cost,” Roger concludes.

His advice to other charities is clear: “Overall, absolutely do it.”

For REUSE Foundation, skills-based volunteering is not just helpful – it’s essential. As Roger puts it, “We couldn’t do what we’re doing without the help of volunteers.”