The British Heart Foundation re-uses and recycles 72,000 tonnes a year and extracts from nearly all of that. They are particularly keen on capturing usable furniture, and they continue to open, on average, a new store every fortnight to sell that on. They are preventing waste by providing a free and convenient collection and drop-off system, and they provide an attractive retail offering.
Macmillan Cancer Support is another UK charity that is working at minimising its environmental impact through a sustainable strategy. Unlike many other charities, it doesn’t currently have a retail presence on the high street. As such, it waste challenges are geared more around its own output.
A Macmillan spokesperson said: ‘We recognise we have a responsibility to minimise our impact on the planet and use our resources wisely. Waste reduction innovates at Macmillan include encouraging recycling in our offices, working towards removing plastics from fundraising materials and using recycled materials to create items such as our collections buckets and fundraising tins.’ These are now made in the UK from 100 per cent recycled materials from old milk and juice cartons and have a full end-of-life sustainability plan with a return address provided. Returned collecting materials are stripped down and recycled/re-chipped to make new materials.
As well as textiles, Oxfam has developed partnerships with several companies around the country to ensure book waste is reused or recycled to prevent it going to landfill. Pulped book waste might end up as recycled paper or card or, in some cases, it is used in tarmac. The charity is also trailing a new partnership to collect and recycle crockery and other home-ware waste.
REDUCE:REUSE:RECYCLE
Taken from : ciwm-journal.co.uk
March / April 2019
