FCC Environment works for Suffolk County managing eleven HWRC since 2009 through a contract spanning until 2019. The Group is also a County’s active partner in the ‘Re-use’ program since the opening, on March 2016, of the Ipswich Re-use shop, located at the HWRC site of Foxhall Road and run by The Benjamin Foundation.

Thanks to this groundbreaking initiative it has been possible to reduce the waste generated annually in the County to 400 tonnes, an amount expected to increase in the coming years reaching 550 or 600 tonnes annually.

Councillor Matthew Hicks, Suffolk County Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment and Public Protection said “It’s great that pre-loved items are now finding their way through our recycling centres to the Re-use Shop. Thanks to the residents of Suffolk, we are reducing waste and raising money for our charity partner, The Benjamin Foundation.”

Steve Bell, Re-use Manager at FCC Environment which runs both the shop and the network of HWRC’s in partnership with Suffolk County Council, added: “Our re-use shops have proven incredibly popular across the country. We are providing residents with bargains, preventing items which are re-usable from being discarded, helping to meet Government recycling targets and raising funds for local charities. Everyone really does win.”

Items donated in the county find their way to the re-use shop at the HWRC on Foxhall Road in Brightwell, Ipswich. The shop is the result of a partnership between Suffolk County Council, FCC Environment and The Benjamin Foundation.

Re-use shops are becoming incredibly popular all over the UK, raising money for charity and, crucially, preventing unnecessary waste from being created.

The range of materials being sold includes electrical items from hoovers to blenders, furniture from chairs to dressers, children’s toys along with prams and highchairs, sports equipment including golf clubs and bags, weights and even skates, CDs and DVDs, books, bicycles and DIY and garden tools.