Recycling innovator plans to use shipping containers for new project

First published Thursday 28 May 2015 in The Argus

A recycling pioneer has launched a £10,000 fundraising drive to create a new reuse depot using eight shipping containers.

Freegle founder Cat Fletcher is seeking funding for the project to buy the containers for the depot in central Brighton and Hove.


Miss Fletcher, who led the pioneering and award-winning Waste House project in Brighton, has launched a crowdfunding project to create a hub capable of receiving, sorting, repairing and redistributing unwanted goods and materials for reuse.
She claims it will be the first centre of its kind on such a scale in the country and could be up-and-running by July.

She said: “We might be bad at household recycling here in Brighton but we are really good at reuse and that is something we can be proud of.

“We are lucky in Brighton. We are really active and creative in reusing and we are really well connected, everybody helps each other out, which I think is pretty unique to Brighton.

“I think using the shipping containers as storage will be so much easier and more flexible, we could store it on one site for six months to a year and then move it and we can expand with demand.”

The project has a few location options with its final position to be confirmed once the containers have been purchased.

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The seven-day centre will have a drop-off and collection points for residents wanting to pass on items such as furniture, building materials and clothes for reuse – as well as a room for Brighton repair cafe and other makers and design workshops.

Facilities will be provided for a scrap and materials store for artists, students, schools, festivals and creative projects, a “library of things” hosting items such as ladders, drills or TVs that people can borrow, a drop-off point for donations to charities and reuse organisations, and space to run community events and education programs based around “resourcefulness”.

The eight containers cost £9,600 and are currently being held nearby on reserve for the project.

As well as running Freegle for seven years and building it up to 22,000 members, Miss Fletcher works with Brighton and Hove City Council, the universities of Brighton and Sussex and City College Brighton and Hove to reduce waste.

To support the project before June 30 visit crowdfunder.co.uk/city-reuse -depot.

Factfile:

  • Pledging £2,000 to the crowdfunding campaign could mean having a shipping container decorated in your name, a special ‘declutter’ event and an invite to the opening.
  • Pledging £1,000 buys you artistic licence over two sides of a container with artists at your disposal as well as a private view at the Waste House.
  • Pledging £500 gets you two Rubbish Movie Nights at a venue of your choosing or the prospect of a ‘declutter’ service for your home, garden or office.