FROM OLD FURNITURE TO GARDEN TREASURE
April 23rd, 2007 Category Antique Furniture, FurnitureBeautifully-crafted garden benches and bird boxes catch the eyes of shoppers strolling along Newland Avenue in the sunshine.
The craftsmanship belies the price tags, causing many to stop to admire the work before heading inside the shop.
For a bargain price of £55, you can snap up a three-seater garden bench. Cube-shaped planters start at £8 while bird boxes cost the pocket money price of just £2, a fraction of the amount charged in DIY stores and garden centres.
If that’s not enough of a pull, the goods outside Recycling Unlimited have been made from reclaimed timber, broken furniture or old pallets, restored and brought back to life by a team of volunteers.
Unlike media-savvy supermarket chains and major companies, who herald the tiniest of environmental moves, Peter Rowson, of Recycling Unlimited, is quiet and unassuming about its ethos.
“We want to look after the environment,” he said. “We don’t think people should be burying so much stuff into the ground for future generations to live with.”
As well as helping the environment by preventing the discarded wood being sent to landfill sites, every piece has been made by long-term unemployed or people recovering from mental health problems such as depression.
“It’s about giving people back their confidence,” said Mr Rowson. “If you’ve been on the dole for 18 months, sitting at home, you can slip further and further into depression.
“This helps them to integrate, make friends and get their confidence back.”
Recycling Unlimited was set up in 2003 by Hull man Eddie Brooks.
He opened 151 Newland Avenue as a charity shop, accepting almost any donation that came through the door. Broken, faded and discarded, he restored them into saleable products.
Although still small, the charity now has four paid members of staff, supported by 10 volunteers. They’ve just opened their second premises in Hessle High Road, west Hull, with plans for two more in the city by Christmas.
Although recycling is the main thrust of their work, they offer a range of community building facilities from the Newland Avenue sites, from using computers to English language classes for asylum-seekers and refugees.
The charity shops rely on donations of furniture, glassware, ornaments and bric-a-brac, selling quality furniture at discount prices, such as a light-coloured two-seater sofa for £45 and metal bunkbeds for £30. Although they prefer good-quality goods for sale in the shop, little is rejected.
As well as giving the less affluent affordable furniture, the shops also provide a sales outlet for the recycling work.
From a warehouse in Bontoft Avenue, off National Avenue, west Hull, manager Steve Wright oversees a workforce transforming tattered and broken pallets into garden furniture.
A time-served joiner, Mr Wright is passing on his skills on to volunteers as they create bird tables, planters, wheelbarrows, rabbit hutches, as well as single, double and three-seater benches.
Products can also be made to order, with customers able to specify requirements.
The charity is also considering branching into the sale of organic vegetables, with volunteers already working on allotments in Hull.
Mr Rowson said: “This is another way for our volunteers to integrate into the community.”
Recycling Unlimited is an example of how taking small, environmentally friendly steps can produce widespread benefits.
Volunteers gain essential skills from retail and office experience to joinery and gardening. The public get affordable furniture.
And the planet lives another day by a reduction in the amount of rubbish sent to landfill.
a.coggan@mailnewsmedia.co.uk
Links
Recycling Unlimited
eddie.brooks@recycling.hullresidents.net
Recycle Now
www.recyclenow.com
