Donate unwanted furniture

Shropshire Council and their contractor Veolia Environmental Services (UK) Ltd are working in partnership with local charities, Shropshire Housing Alliance and South Shropshire Furniture Scheme, to encourage residents to donate household items like furniture, white goods, small electrical items, crockery, cutlery and bedding. 

It’s all part of an externally-funded campaign which aims to encourage residents to donate their unwanted items to the network of re-use organisations around the county.  This helps provide people with affordable essential everyday items, whilst at the same time reducing the amount of waste which has to be managed. 

For Shropshire residents, donating couldn’t be easier – they just need to call Shropshire Housing Alliance on 01691 679817 or South Shropshire Furniture Scheme on 01584 877788, who can arrange for a local scheme to come and collect items from people’s homes.  

Mike Owen, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member with responsibility for waste management, said:

“Not only will you be helping people get items at affordable prices, but re-using items reduces the amount of waste sent to landfill. 

“Last year across the UK local charities like these re-used 2.6 million items of furniture and electrical equipment, which kept 90,000 tonnes of waste out of landfill and saved over 100,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.  It’s great that we have managed to attract external funding so that we can support these groups and increase these benefits even further.”  

Jean Jarvis MBE, CEO of South Shropshire Furniture Scheme, added:

“Something that you don’t want anymore can still be used by someone else.  If you contact your local furniture scheme we can arrange a collection for your items, restore them and make them available to others at affordable prices.  As a social enterprise, any income we generate goes back into the scheme support our charitable work.”  

As part of the campaign the council’s recycling team will be out and about providing information to residents on how they can donate their unwanted items.  In addition to this, information is being sent to residents detailing how to donate items. 

For more information on re-use and recycling in Shropshire, and other ideas on how to waste less, people can visit www.recycleforshropshire.com.  

Further information

The whole campaign is externally funded by WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme), who aim to pilot this campaign in Shropshire and Leeds in the coming months and, assuming it is successful, roll out a national re-use campaign in the longer term, to help increase the amount of re-use across the whole of the UK.  

For more information visit www.wrap.org.uk/category/subject/re-use