Grangemouth charity gives office equipment a new lease of life
HUNDREDS of tons of office furniture, destined for landfill has been saved, thanks to an innovative new recycling scheme.
WorkBack in Grangemouth take broken, old or out-of-fashion office equipment and renovate it to be new useful pieces in their Dalgrain Industrial Estate unit.
The charity then re-sells the goods to other businesses, preventing the waste from going to landfill and creating good quality, affordable furniture.
In just 12 months the scheme, part of Grangemouth Enterprise Limited and backed by Falkirk Council, has prevented 263 tons of office furniture going to landfill, generated sales of 100,000 and provided jobs for 30 trainees.
The workforce is led by project supervisor Craig McKinstry, a former joiner and construction worker who was a victim of the recession and found himself out of work.
Craig said: "When the opportunity at WorkBack came up, I grabbed it with both hands.
"It's a challenge but I'm really enjoying teaching others and passing on knowledge.
"A lot of the guys we get here have been unemployed for a while or are straight from school and it's their first job so you're not only teaching about creating furniture but also how to hold down a job."
WorkBack collect furniture from offices that are closing down and also accept donations from businesses updating their furniture.
The team then get to work, transforming the old into new, quality furniture and recycle all the parts they don't use.
In the corner of the huge warehouse, lies hundreds of chair backs and seats, which Craig explains are in the process of being recycled.
The foam padding is sent to a mattress recycling company, the metal sent to the scrap yard and the wood sent to be chipped and used for flooring. Only the cloth isn't currently recyclable, but they're working on that and hope to secure a company to reuse that too.
In a separate corner lies dozens of wooden frames which at one point were room dividers at the IBM factory in Greenock.
Craig said: "We were paid to clear out the huge factory of furnishings and the room dividers were part of the so-called rubbish.
"They are made of oak and still in great condition so we've sanded down the wood and are in the process of turning them into picnic benches.
"That's what is so great about the recycling element, you're taking a product no-one wants and turning it into something useful."
As well as being a recycling programme and creating affordable office furniture, WorkBack provide training and employment opportunities for 10-12 people at any one time.
Some workers come on a 16 week placement and others are there for six months, learning about joinery and recycling.
All the trainees leave with recognised qualifications and eight out of 10 go on to further training and employment.
James Short (25) from Grangemouth has been working at WorkBack through a Job Centre Plus recruitment scheme.
He previously worked in mechanics but was paid off when the company moved premises.
"I'm actually really enjoying working here, I'd not done any construction or joinery work before so it's been a challenge.
"I like the job and the satisfaction from creating something new from rubbish."
With the scheme creating jobs, training and preventing goods from going to landfill as well as smashing targets for both sales and goods recycled – the charity has had a fantastic first year and WorkBack is most certainly here to stay.
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Wednesday 30 May 2012
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