The Furniture Recycling Project (FRP) ceased trading in October from their shop in John Street in Stroud (see my Blog on 28th November). At the time I got on the phone and fired off various emails - it has surprised me that so little fuss has been made among other parties - this is a great way to stop stuff going to landfill, save all that energy used in manufacture and provide second-hand furniture to the community - particularly great for low-income groups as prices are very good indeed.Today after my requests last year to see if anything could be salvaged, we finally were able to have a meeting between SDC officers, representatives of the FRP and myself.
Two and a half hours of useful discussion and sharing produced a number of possible ways forward. FRP will still collect furniture in the area and will also deliver to anyone - however at the moment to view furniture you will have to visit Gloucester or Cheltenham. The hope is to restore a shop one day to Stroud but in the meantime other ideas for diverting furniture from landfill are being explored - hopefully will have more news here in the future....
.....perhaps the most frustrating thing here appears to be the lack of coordination between District and County Councils on this - and for that matter the Government's failure to lead and simplify a crazy system that works against commonsense solutions. I will be interested to explore more around this as we must remove these blocks if we are to get serious about issues like climate change.
2 comments:
I am amazed that neither Stroud Lions, Round Table or Rotary wish to become involved in furniture recycling. Dursley Lions collect and re-sell furniture weekly and, in the process, make thousands of pounds for charity every year. They do not currently collect from the Stroud area so there is a gap in the market for any organisation having the will to exploit it.
Yes a great project in Dursley but requires alot of work and energy from volunteers.
The FRP will still collect Stroud/Stonehouse area (incl our patch but not Nailsworth or any other areas beyond Stroud) - hopefully they will advertise that more but the problem is they only have a bus available for 2 days a week in this area - need someone to invest more so that we can stop all this stuff going to landfill.
I'm hoping we can come up with some scheme with the District but as noted before in these blogs, the way the Government organise funds there is little economic incentive for the District Council to divert furniture from landfill as it is County who are responsible for that - sadly it seems the two find it difficult to work together. However SDC officers appear keen to find a way forward.
At least we still have collections in this area and if people go to the Gloucester shop they will also deliver to this area - v reasonable rates indeed. Longterm the plan is to look at also having more of the items available on the internet for people to see - but I am also hoping at some point we can reopen a shop in Stroud.
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