Did you know that saving used postage stamps is an easy way to help charities?

This Christmas period, many of us will receive cards through the post. Lots of charities and organisations can do something worthwhile with our used postage stamps.  Please don’t throw them away but cut them out as part of Donating December.

There are envelopes in each kitchen area of each building.  All you need to do is cut out, leaving one cm of paper around the edge and place in the envelope.

You can donate British, foreign, commemorative or Christmas stamps, which are valuable to charities that take part in recycling schemes.

Some of the charities that raise funds from stamps include:

• Hearing dogs for deaf people
• Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB)
• Macmillan Cancer Research
• Oxfam
• Parkinson’s UK
• The Leprosy Mission
• Care and Relief for the Young (CRY)
• Against Breast Cancer

What happens with the used stamps?

Every kilogram of UK stamps — around 6,000 — is worth about £10, while a kilogram of stamps from abroad can fetch up to £15.

The used stamps are bought by dealers who pick out any unusual or valuable ones in very good condition to sell to collectors.

They will look out for stamps with imperfections, such as faulty perforations (too many or too few), colouration, printing errors and any watermarks. A second-class stamp can be worth more if it has a fault.

The rest are sold as used stamps for crafting or paper recycling.

If you’d like to know more, and how this fits into our wider sustainability work please contact Grainne Stephenson.