Reuse shop turns trash to cash at Wrexham waste site

Reuse shop worker Jim McCorquodale

A second-hand shop has opened at a household recycling site in Wrexham to turn people's trash into cash and cut landfill waste.

The Reuse shop at Wrexham Industrial Estate sells cast-offs dumped at the area's three recycling centres.

A similar site in Neath Port Talbot is saving about 10 tonnes of items a month from landfill or recycling.

Meanwhile, Monmouthshire council plans to open a reuse facility at its Llanfoist depot, near Abergavenny.

It intends to give an array of items, including architectural and building materials, a "second chance" while the Wrexham shop is selling furniture, china, toys, bikes and games.

"You'll be gobsmacked by what people throw away," said Mac Kendrick, manager at the household recycling site in Wrexham.

"There is treasure here. There is always the opportunity to find something of value."

Staff and volunteers from Wrexham's Nightingale House Hospice will run the Reuse shop seven days a week.

It will split the profits with partner FCC Environment, which manages waste and recycling operations on behalf of Wrexham council as well as running other Reuse shops at waste and recycling sites around the country.

Items saved from the skips at those sites include musical instruments, antiques, war-time memorabilia and a human skeleton that was formerly used as a medical teaching aid and which has since been given a new home.

Nightingale House managers are hoping the shop will boost its funds as it has to raise £2.8m a year to cover the hospice's running costs.

Retail development manager John Donnelly said he was no longer surprised by the things people threw away as the hospice had been running its own charity shops for more than 20 years.

FCC Environment helped to set up a Reuse shop at Briton Ferry with local charity Enfys Foundation and Neath Port Talbot council.

Charity co-founder Richard Gaunt-Morris said it was selling in excess of 10 tonnes of goods a month which, in turn, enabled it to provide support to homeless people since it opened in 2013 at the household waste and recycling centre.

"It added a whole new dimension to our charity," he said, adding the charity has to log the weight of goods saved from landfill or recycling as part of its arrangement with the council.

Other local authorities are running similar services to meet the Welsh Government's zero landfill waste target by 2050.

The amount of waste being recycled across Welsh councils hit 60% in the 12 months to the end of March, although the target for 2015-16 was 58%.

It rises to 64% by 2020 and 70% by 2025.

Unwanted items will be stored in a lock-up in a security compound

Swansea council runs an online "Swap Shop" for people to trade unwanted goods as well as a "Corner Shop" at its household waste recycling site at Llansamlet, with money going to educational projects.

In Carmarthenshire, a council project is reusing faulty washing machines by turning the drums into planters and selling them on.

Boss Nigel Williams said it was a welcome move as the price of scrap metal had fallen heavily in the last 12 months.

He said it was also providing training and qualifications for people using the council's mental health and learning disabilities service.

Meanwhile, FRAME (Furniture Recycled and Managed Effectively) has been running since 1994 in Pembrokeshire and now has a council contract to deal with householders' bulky waste, as well as saving items dumped at the county's recycling sites.

Last year, Nightingale House Hospice shop volunteers found a 1837 Welsh Bible among a bag of donated items.