The Penarth Reuse Project, which encourages local residents to give away items they might have binned, has gained popularity rapidly since its launch in September last year.

With an environmental message at its core, the project consists of a Facebook groups that has been created for people who want to give, or get, items for free in Penarth.

The overall theme being: 'Keep the good stuff out of landfills.'

The idea was formed in Hertfordshire by an independent group. It was then discovered by Sonia Denise and Sacha Bedford who have taken the project on and expanded it to 28 other places across the UK.

They both sit as admins on each individual Facebook group along with a local representative.

Currently, there over 30,000 members across all of the groups and intend to continue growing with many more areas already expressing interest.

Sacha Bedford told Nub News: ''The whole ethos of the Reuse Project network is to keep items out of landfill by finding new homes for those things.

''At the same time, building a wonderful community spirit and supporting each other and building friendships.''

Lara Hopkinson, the local admin for Penarth Reuse Project, spoke with Nub News about what it was all about and how it worked for the town.

What inspired you to bring the Reuse Project to Penarth?

''Personally, I have always been passionate about reducing waste and being as sustainable as possible.

''I was inspired to bring the Reuse project to Penarth as I saw my friend Sonia involved in the St Albans site (which is where I grew up), so I looked into this a little more and thought that Penarth would be the perfect place to give this a try.

''There is a strong sense of community and willingness to help others, so I knew this initiative would be perfect.

''In fact, from the Penarth site, there are now sister sites covering Cardiff, Barry, Cowbridge and Llanblethian, Llantwit & St Athan, Torfaen and Haverfordwest, with others in the pipeline.

''Penarth is the most successful group in Wales.''

The project has been very successful. What do you think has encouraged that?

''The success of the site has bowled me over! I knew it would work, but perhaps not to the level that it has, and certainly not so quickly.

''The fact that the overall ethos of the group has spread throughout Penarth and surrounding areas is amazing. Generally, everyone has picked up on what it is about and run with it, and for that I am very grateful.''

What are the basic principles of the group?

The basic principles are to offer items that you would otherwise dispose of for free. The idea that we have 'too much stuff' resonates clearly, and this helps people to remove excess items from their homes by passing on to others.

''We also allow requests, and in order to ensure equitable distribution of materials, we ask that people make no more than three requests per week (either on their own post or on items posted by others). Obviously, for charitable purposes, this can be exceeded.''

How important is the environmental aspect of the group?

For me, the environmental aspect is key. We all have too much stuff, and in my line of work (I am a senior lecturer covering topics relating to sustainability), I see all too often the amount of perfectly usable items that are simply disposed of because we no longer want them. Longer term, this Reuse Project can help people to think about whether they really need an item at all - but that would be a longer-term view.

What are the admins roles on the group?

''The admins roles are to approve posts, deal with any queries, dealing with some arguments (generally trivial, but they can occur), and overall monitoring to check that the vibe of the site is maintained.

''As I'm local, I also occasionally get people stop me in the street to ask me about certain things about the site. And I love also engaging with the local businesses. This is on top of a full-time job and being a parent of 2 boys. So sometimes days can be pretty long.''

If you could briefly summarise how the group works, what would you say?

''The group works like this: people offer items or make requests. These are then approved by the admin team (or declined, if in violation of one of the groups' rules).

''We encourage transparency throughout the group, and so ask interested parties to respond to the post first before arranging directly with the person offering for collection.

''Personal messages outside of the post are discouraged, more for personal safety reasons.

''Collections can prove a little tricky at times, but we are lucky in Penarth to have some key businesses part of this too, and kindly offering to provide limited space for short periods of time for collection purposes, so that personal addresses do not need to be divulged.

''We encourage positivity across the group, and where posts perhaps get a little heated, we can then cease commenting.

''This has only happened a few times thankfully! We also encourage posters to indicate if their item has gone and also not to delete their posts; this is so we can track any issues that are reported to us.

''Sacha maintains an overall spreadsheet for all the Reuse Projects, and other local admin feed into this. We also have a forum for administrators, where we can query a decision before making it final.''

These are the groups that are currently up and running:

• Barry

• Berkhamsted

• Brighton & Hove

• Bushey

• Cardiff

• Cote d'Azur

• Cowbridge with Llanblethian

• Dubai

• Harpenden

• Haverfordwest

• Hemel

• Hertford & Ware

• Hitchin

• Llantwit & St Athan

• Luton & Dunstable

• Markyate and Flamstead

• Milton keynes

• NW London

• Penarth

• Potters Bar

• Redbourn

• Salisbury

• South Oxhey

• St Albans

• Stevenage

• Torfaen

• Watford

• Welwyn Hatfield

• West London

The Penarth branch of this project already has over 5,500 members and is growing daily. To find out more about the group or to join please click the red button below.