News

A new study by WRAP shows the impact that Reuse currently has in the UK.

The study shows that  reusing items like sofas and TVs rather than buying new items is saving UK households around £1 billion a year and helping to create jobs - but this is just a fraction of the potential shown in ths report.

One million sofas which the current owner has finished with are reused in the UK every year, saving households over £320 million – but this is just 17% of the total number of sofas discarded each year.  The environmental benefits of re-using one tonne of sofas are the same as recycling one tonne of plastics.

REalliance which participated in the research welcomes the report as a step on the road to making reuse as commonplace as recycling now is.

Matthew Thomson, REalliance Director and CEO of the London Community Resource Network (LCRN) said: “Hundreds of community organisations across the country have for many years been quietly salvaging, restoring and redistributing discarded furniture and equipment to provide vital help to families and other people in need, creating employment and training thousands of volunteers in the process.

“The London Re-use Network is linking grassroots community organisations with businesses, local authorities and customers to quadruple the amount re-used in London. With a coordinated network of high quality depots, workshops, retail outlets and a new web portal we are working to make sure everyone can benefit from re-used goods, and that noone in London need throw things away that could be used again.”

The report can be downloaded from http://www.wrap.org.uk/reuse/