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The role of furniture and appliance re-use organisations in England and Wales

The role of furniture and appliance re-use organisations in England and Wales
The role of furniture and appliance re-use organisations in England and Wales
There have been approximately 400 third sector organisations set up across the UK since the 1970s with the primary function of collecting used furniture and electrical appliances and re-distributing them for the relief of hardship. In addition to the resulting socio-economic outputs of these organisations, their role in diverting waste from landfill and increasing re-use and recycling rates raises their standing in the current political climate of high emphasis on improving waste management practices.

This paper reports on the current size of the furniture and appliance re-use sector, how re-use organisations operate, and the level of re-use and recycling associated with their activities. It was found that significant improvements in the re-use rate of local authority bulky waste collection services may be obtained if a third sector re-use organisation takes over the service; where re-use organisations collect household bulky waste on behalf of the LA, a 40% re-use rate was achieved, compared to the 2–3% average of waste collection departments. In most areas of the UK, these two sectors are not well integrated at present and this results in potentially re-usable items being disposed of to landfill or incinerated. Establishing partnerships between the two sectors has the potential to benefit both but this will probably require system and culture changes. A significant current barrier is that LA waste management departments are hampered by the current (well-intended) quantitative waste management system coming into conflict with the unquantified, positive social value generated by the distribution of previously used bulky household items to disadvantaged groups by re-use organisations. If added to the environmental improvements and high quality of service provided by third sector-run services, the effort involved in setting up such partnerships may be regarded more favourably.
re-use, recycling, furniture, electrical appliances, third sector
0921-3449
Curran, A.
f961d069-1ada-4bf4-8d75-52015bd20360
Williams, I.D.
c9d674ac-ee69-4937-ab43-17e716266e22
Curran, A.
f961d069-1ada-4bf4-8d75-52015bd20360
Williams, I.D.
c9d674ac-ee69-4937-ab43-17e716266e22

Curran, A. and Williams, I.D. (2010) The role of furniture and appliance re-use organisations in England and Wales. Resources, Conservation and Recycling. (doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2009.11.010).

Record type: Article

Abstract

There have been approximately 400 third sector organisations set up across the UK since the 1970s with the primary function of collecting used furniture and electrical appliances and re-distributing them for the relief of hardship. In addition to the resulting socio-economic outputs of these organisations, their role in diverting waste from landfill and increasing re-use and recycling rates raises their standing in the current political climate of high emphasis on improving waste management practices.

This paper reports on the current size of the furniture and appliance re-use sector, how re-use organisations operate, and the level of re-use and recycling associated with their activities. It was found that significant improvements in the re-use rate of local authority bulky waste collection services may be obtained if a third sector re-use organisation takes over the service; where re-use organisations collect household bulky waste on behalf of the LA, a 40% re-use rate was achieved, compared to the 2–3% average of waste collection departments. In most areas of the UK, these two sectors are not well integrated at present and this results in potentially re-usable items being disposed of to landfill or incinerated. Establishing partnerships between the two sectors has the potential to benefit both but this will probably require system and culture changes. A significant current barrier is that LA waste management departments are hampered by the current (well-intended) quantitative waste management system coming into conflict with the unquantified, positive social value generated by the distribution of previously used bulky household items to disadvantaged groups by re-use organisations. If added to the environmental improvements and high quality of service provided by third sector-run services, the effort involved in setting up such partnerships may be regarded more favourably.

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More information

e-pub ahead of print date: 6 February 2010
Keywords: re-use, recycling, furniture, electrical appliances, third sector

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 74130
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/74130
ISSN: 0921-3449
PURE UUID: 38c1eed4-b640-49ff-97cc-61dfb01a06d2
ORCID for I.D. Williams: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-0121-1219

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 11 Mar 2010
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:50

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