There are so many organisations across Wales that can benefit from your unwanted waste. Fridges, tables, clothes, sofas — you name it.
Join us as we shine a spotlight on five incredible Welsh businesses, initiatives and charities who continue to play an important role in helping to reduce household waste, which in turn, helps to reduce the amount of fly-tipping in Wales.
Repair Café Wales is a collection of volunteers who host pop-up Repair Cafes across Wales to fix items that the public can bring in, for free.
The types of items they can fix, include clothes, household electrics, technology, woodwork, children’s toys, furniture and bikes.
Visit their website to find your next local COVID-secure Repair Café: repaircafewales.org/venues/.
A brilliant, Cardiff based project set up by Cadwyn Housing Association, Nu Life Furniture upcycle unwanted household items, including furniture and white goods, to sell on to those who need them, at an extremely affordable price.
If you live in Cardiff or surrounding areas and would like to donate your unwanted items to help people furnish their homes affordably, please fill out the booking from on the Nu Life Furniture website: http://nulifefurniture.co.uk/donate/.
NuLife Furniture collections are free and the organisation is currently searching for the following priority items: fridge, fridge-freezer, wash machines, cookers, bed frames, mattresses, wardrobes, sofas, tables and chairs.
Too Good To Waste has been the leading re-use charity in south Wales for over twenty years, collecting unwanted household items, like furniture and electrical appliances, from householders for free.
All items are sold at affordable prices in their showrooms, located in Ynyshir, Aberdare and Treorchy, with the profits going towards helping people in the local community.
The charity strives to maximise potential and minimise waste by re-purposing householder’s unwanted goods to help alleviate the effects of poverty, while preventing more re-useable items from ending up in landfill or fly-tipped across Wales’s roads, lay-bys and countryside.
If you need unwanted household items collected from your home and are based in the Rhondda Cynon Taff area, give the Too Good To Waste team a call on 02443 680090 and they’ll arrange to come and collect up to eight items for free.
Want to donate your unwanted bulky items to a charity but have no way of getting them there?
The British Heart Foundation is offering a COVID- secure furniture, electrical and homeware collection service. Depending on your preference, their registered van crews will collect from your room of choice, your doorstep or an alternative safe access point. To find out if the service is available in your local area, visit: https://www.bhf.org.uk/shop/donating-goods/book-furniture-collection-near-me.
Please remember, if you are able to donate your unwanted items to a charity shop in person, do not leave them outside the store, as this is still classed as fly-tipping. Please leave them safely inside the shop, or if the shop is closed, please return at a later date.
5. Crest
Based in Llandudno Junction and Colwyn Bay, Crest is a charitable project and member of the Refuse Network.
Overseen by a committed group of volunteers, the project’s mission is to ‘unlock people’s potential through inclusion, innovation and enterprise, for the benefit of the community’. Crest achieves this by offering disadvantaged people an opportunity to upskill and gain real work experience in a supportive environment.
As part of this, the charity welcomes donations of unwanted furniture and household electrical goods from the homes of residents across Conwy. Individuals are then trained up to upcycle, fix and re-purpose the unwanted items, so that they can be sold for use in a new home.
Crest offer free collections for ‘good-for-re-use’ items of furniture. If your unwanted items are deemed unsuitable for re-use or re-sale, then they also offer a registered waste collection service for a fee. To arrange a collection, please visit crestcooperative.co.uk/donate/ or call 01492 596783.
There are plenty more organisations, charities and initiatives across Wales who can benefit from your unwanted items this Christmas. Please visit your Council website for further information.
For more advice and useful information on how to re-use, recycle and re-home unwanted household items over the festive period, keep an eye on our Facebook page where we are sharing daily bite-size tips in the run up to Christmas Day.
It’s all part of our seasonal campaign, #25DaysofTipmas. If you have any advice that you would like to share about safe and responsible waste management at Christmas time, please join the conversation by using our campaign hashtag on Twitter.