Everything at Wiltshire charity shop from local recycling centres
A charity has set up a shop using stock only from household recycling centres - including skis, hundreds of pounds worth of artwork and working electricals.Kennet Furniture Refurbiz (KFR) has teamed up with waste company FCC and Wiltshire Council for the scheme, which has raised more than £2,000 in its first month. KFR collects reusable items - some still new - from Wiltshire's recycling centres and sells them in its new re-use shop at its Devizes warehouse. "Re-use is the most carbon-friendly way. Why destroy something when it can be re-used again?" said Daniel Thompson, operations manager at KFR.
The shop is full of treasures - complete vintage tea sets, clocks, china dolls and even collectables like Scalextric."There's £1,000 worth of keyboards, artwork - we've taken some to auction. "Some Chinese bamboo prints that fetched about £800. People might not have known what they've thrown out" explained Mr Thompson.Just upstairs in the warehouse was an area full of electricals that were being fixed - including a large hoard of vacuums.He said: "We've got our own in-house engineering department that deal with those."Charity KFR picks up second-hand furniture and appliances already, giving to those who need them or selling at low cost, but these come from donor's homes or house clearances.
People are encouraged to donate still usable items at the eight Wiltshire household recycling centres run by FCC - they can be put in big shipping containers reserved for the purpose which have an old bike painted orange on top.Chris Ellis, FCC's Operations Director Waste & Recycling commented: "Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for residents to donate items for reuse. Keep an eye out for the orange bicycles on our sites and ask members of staff for help."
Daniel explained that KFR also picks up usable appliances from the centres: "So we're currently collecting about 2.5 tonnes of reusable stuff from household recycling centres."For those who want a peek at what the new shop might have before a visit though, then they can tune into Wednesday morning live streams from KFR on social media showing off rescued treasures.
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