A woman has saved 50,000 soft toys from landfill with her teddy bear rehoming business
Charlotte Liebling runs Loved Before – where she takes in old soft toys, cleans them up and re-sells them, supporting charities with every toy sold.
The 27-year-old operates out of her own home – where she lives amongst hundreds of thousands of stuffed cuddly toys at a time.
She says that research suggests that around 381 million new toys are bought every year in the UK and estimates 80% of these eventually end up in landfill.
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It is predicted that each toy that is re-homed rather than bought new saves around 1kg of CO2 from entering the atmosphere.
As well as helping the environment, the rehoming business has reunited many adults and children with replicas of their long-lost cuddly friends.
After the bears have been donated, they go to the teddy bear ‘spa’ for a thorough cleaning and refurbishment.
Typically, the bears take two hours each to clean, but some particularly well-loved bears have spent a week or more on their spa journey.
Once the toys have had their refresh and makeover session, they are given their own personal photoshoot and listed for sale online with their own backstory.
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Charlotte, of Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, said: “We have saved tens of thousands of stuffed animals from landfill so far.
”On the donation side of things, we get them from anywhere in the country and world.”
”Day by day, parcels turn up at our door or people drop them off themselves.
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”Some are donated as people are moving away, have simply grown out of them, or from people who have sadly passed away and written us into their wills.
”When they arrive, they’re checked in, and assessed with notes about their story, history or names so their next owners can learn all about them and their previous adventures.
”In the spa, we make sure they’re clean and feeling great, but we also try to embrace the imperfections.
“We’re not trying to make them brand shiny new, the love they’ve had already just makes them even more special.
”They all go through a baseline process including antibacterial cleaners cleansing and high temperature steaming to ensure cleanliness.
“And then additional processes and grooming take place from there based on age, fur types, sizes, materials etc.”
Charlotte set up Loved Before after an eye-opening volunteering experience at a charity shop.
The business owner was left horrified after seeing how overwhelmed the shop was with too many donations, and for those who made it to the shop floor, how the lives, stories and memories they came with were simply forgotten.
Many sentimental items such as toys and teddy bears are being thrown away worldwide into landfills, with charity shops often unable to cope with the amount of contributions.
The bears are sold on their website as well as in Selfridges stores in Birmingham and Manchester’s Trafford Centre, with a dedicated space launching in Selfridges London in 2024.
On average, they’re priced between £10 to £30 depending on their brand, rarity and condition.
Over their lifetime, they have donated half of their profits to charity and are currently supporting Make-A-Wish UK.
Charlotte added: “There are many occasions in which we have been lucky enough to play a role in reuniting a child with a specific toy, one which may be extremely special and provide them immense comfort and emotional support.”
“We were once able to source a replica of a child’s furry best friend when all her toys had been lost in an awful house fire.
“They ask us to help us find a replica and we’ve when we’ve been able to match it – it’s very fulfilling.”
She added: ”We once had to pause donations to reset as it got so overwhelming.
”In total, over three years we’ve received around 50,000 donations.
“One person even brought 28 full bin bags.”
“It’s time to ‘put second first’, and we can’t wait to continue showing the world that.”
READ MORE: Woman uses tractor tyres and bouncy castles to make clothes – saving 6kg landfill rubber a WEEK
