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Home > Resource Bank > Resources

Furniture Reuse at University of Bradford

First class honours to Bradford Uni recyclers

Student furniture to local homes

The University of Bradford isn’t only teaching students to be green – it’s actively doing its bit too.

A big refurbishment programme recently carried out by Bradford University has seen students re-housed in newly furnished accommodation. Two massive clear-outs, covering 280 student rooms, went ahead in Summer and Autumn 2007, which left the University staff with a headache. As an 'Eco-Versity' with a sustainability policy, they wanted to keep waste to a minimum but finding outlets to get the items reused was not easy.

Enter CHAS Housing Aid and Shires Removals. These two organisations got in touch with the University through the Why Waste website and arranged collection of nearly all the furniture.

About 150 wardrobes and 64 fridge-freezers were good enough to go straight to homes in Bradford through the CHAS shop in Manningham. That was over 8½ tonnes saved for reuse in the local area. The rest – about 30 tonnes of beds, shelves, chairs, desks and tables - found homes in the North, thanks to Shires Removals distributing through charity shops and other outlets.

Noor Meah of CHAS said:
"We were particularly interested in the items which we knew families who use our services would want. The electrical appliances in our shop always go like hot cakes and the quality of the wardrobes was also very good. Our thanks to the University and to Why Waste for making the match. We hope there will be more opportunities like this from the Why Waste site in future."

Why Waste provides a range of opportunities for organisations needing a supply of furniture and appliances or to make materials available for reuse or recycling.

Funding provided from Yorkshire Forward is provided through the Business Resource Efficiency and Waste Programme (BREW). The programme provides support for businesses wanting to make better use of their resources and manage their waste through improved resource efficiency. . BREW is funded by DEFRA through re-investment of landfill tax to businesses.’
For more information and to register your interest on the Why Waste website:

T: 01274 718420
whywaste@beat.org.uk
www.whywaste.org.uk

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