Quote Bank

This is to help Volunteers with writing emails, letters, comment, appeal for support, tweets etc.

Weight of stuff kept out of landfill

You can see the estimated weight of items reused through your group by looking at your group home page and clicking on the small 'more stats' link in the intro text. This will reveal several stats about your group that all your members can access, including estimates of weight.

• "On average every person in the UK throws away their own body weight in rubbish every seven weeks."

http://www.southampton.gov.uk/s-environment/householdwaste/

• "The average kg per household per fortnight, weighted to reflect the population of the area, was 17.54 kg."

http://www.southglos.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/6A5A1670-6A9B-4255-91AB-15DCB28C3EC7/0/COS090013.pdf

• Pick any item from the Furniture Reuse Network list

http://www.crni.ie/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/2009_FRN_Average_Weights.pdf
Calculate how much your Group saves from Landfill and divide this by the average weight of one chosen item
eg 4483kg saved from landfill is approx 118 fridges.

WRAP study shows re-use potential of household bulky waste

August 2012: The purpose of this research was to understand the composition of bulky waste in terms of item type and re-usability, in order to identify the opportunities for the re-use of bulky items across the UK. National estimates derived from WasteDataFlow (WDF) suggest that across the UK during 2010/11, some 1,590,000 tonnes of bulky waste is collected at the kerbside or taken to HWRCs. Approximately twice as much is taken to HWRCs (1,050,000 tonnes) than is collected at the kerbside (540,000 tonnes).

Using the above data and extrapolating the sample findings across all UK kerbside and HWRC bulky waste collections suggests that of all bulky waste in the UK, (including both kerbside collected and HWRC bulky items), around 42% consists of furniture, 19% textiles and 19% WEEE. These estimates equate to 670,000 tonnes of furniture and 310,000 tonnes each of textiles and WEEE disposed by householders in the UK annually.

There is a perception that items, when they reach the HWRC, or are collected at the kerbside are no longer fit for re-use, yet this report identifies down to specific product level the significant amount of products that are potentially re-usable. It is hoped that this information can help to inform re-use organisations, local authorities and waste management companies of the potential re-use of items that are currently being recycled or disposed.

http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/study-re-use-potential-household-bulky-waste

WRAP Facts and Figures

October 2012

• WRAP estimates that around 600 million tonnes of products and materials enter the UK economy each year… only 115 million tonnes of this gets recycled.
• Between now and 2020, WRAP estimates that electronic waste in the UK will total more than 12 million tonnes. A quarter of this will comprise of IT equipment, consumer electronics and display screens. This 12 million tonnes will include precious metals, which at the time of writing, have a total estimated market value of £7bn.
• Nearly 25% of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) that’s taken to household waste recycling centres could be re-used, worth around £200m gross a year.
• We throw away more than 7 million tonnes of food and drink every year from our homes – most of which could have been safely consumed.
• UK hospitality sector (hotels, pubs, restaurants and quick service restaurants) could save £724 million a year by tackling food waste.
• By pursuing opportunities for re-use, the UK could reduce its reliance on raw materials, including rare earths, by as much as 20% by 2020.
• Our research shows doubling the number of sofas re-used, could save 52,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. At the moment, 83% of sofas are not re-used and are sent to landfill or recycled.

And this is only the tip of the waste iceberg.

http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/facts-and-figures

Freegle stats

See Freegle Group Membership for links to find stats about us and your group.

Information about your group can be found on the group's home page (click on 'more stats' at in the group intro) or in Modtools on your Introduction Page on the dashboard.

Unusual and interesting Freegles

Interviewers or reporters often ask for examples of unusual or interesting things that have been freegled. Keep a note for your own group, but across the UK the following have all appeared as offers on Freegle groups:

• Offer: Tarantula Exoskeleton: Does anyone want one of our latest spider's skin sheds. It's a useful learning aid for animal adaptions etc at primary level. Clear fangs, camouflage and hairy long legs from our Red Indian Ornamental tarantula. Will be handed over in clear plastic box though suggest sealing it if taking into a school for show and tell.
• World War II air raid shelter
• Giant African Land Snails
• several hundred wine bottle corks made into a cork noticeboard
• shop mannequins
• a yacht; a 4-berth caravan
• hospital hoists
• unicyle and tandem
• car with tax and MOT (from someone off abroad that day) offered, and a request that resulted in someone giving a little runabout with tax and MOT
• life size cardboard sci-fi figure
• a melodeon (like an accordion) said to have been made by prisoners of war; bongo drums
• an ex-cinema Shrek hanging display
• a well (decorative only)
• a front near side quarter light for some model of 1960's Austin was requested, he got offered four!!
• monkey puzzle tree; pampas grass
• full size dalek
• whole kitchens
• 6 tonnes of filing cabinets and paper office furniture for Brighton and Hove city council (they are going paperless)
• 1,000 rolls of 'out of date' wall paper from a DIY store
• over 3,000 video tapes for the Brighton Waste House (from just one wanted post) – to be turned into insulation
• spinning wheel and drum carder
• 3 coffins offered! (cardboard, offered by a theatrical group. 2 went to a Derbys theatrical group and 1 to a Sheffield theatrical group – all for Halloween productions.)
• 18 former Humberside telephone boxes bought on a whim to sell to BT, but never did – they all apparently went to folks for garden ornaments...
• space transporter (turned out to be a toy)
• Noah's ark (it wasn't full scale but it was big enough it needed four people to carry it. A prop from a play)
• Captain Pugwash cardboard cut out, made for a children's birthday party, taken, re-offered and then asked for
• a collection of porcelain dolls looking for a "new loving home"
• entire contents of a large garden shed full of winemaking equipment
• Someone on Towcester (pronounced Toaster) Freegle posted: Offer: Toaster (Towcester). The group owner was delighted – she's been waiting for years for that to happen!

Misspellings:

• bag of badgers

Items people don't immediately think of, but are requested often:

• cardboard boxes for moving house
• padded envelopes and bubble wrap
• plant pots
• jam jars
• egg boxes

story snippets:

• I rescued and eventually rehomed (after about 3 years!) a lovely framed family tree, framed by someone in the tree, eventually managed to get in contact with a descendant through various family history sites who was very pleased that it was saved from landfill!
• I posted with photos an old damaged wheelbarrow with a flat tyre which was dented, damaged and plaster clotted. We were surprised when it was taken and picked up by someone who was very happy with it. Turns out he had exactly the same model almost new but had broken the handle which was the only part of mine in any usable condition. The result was one wheelbarrow very usable and only one in the waste.
• A couple lived in a maisonette and were emigrating to Australia. Four doors away unknown to them a young lady moved in to her maisonette with nothing but a primus stove and a blow up mattress. The couple were taking nothing but clothes with them and were off to live with their son so they wanted in the space of a few days to recycle on the group EVERYTHING in the property. The woman contacted the group about putting a wanted on for basically anything as she had nothing. To cut a long story short she had been in her place a couple of days and done nothing to it. So the locla moderator got both parties and the council together and with their agreement she moved into the property becoming vacant the day they moved out and hers became vacant again in exactly the condition she had as when she had moved in. No work for the council with any refurbishment of either property, nothing down the tip, she even took over their Canary. It was the ultimate in recycling. It all happened within the space of a week.
• "Someone asked for a diamond engagement ring on our group as she had lost hers while gardening and wanted to 'propose' a marriage blessing to her husband of 15 years. Co-incidentally I had found a beautiful engagement ring in the mud at the local park and even with the help of the police and local shop windows never found the owner. After 6 months it had become legally mine so I gave it to her in exchange for an afternoon's gardening. It felt very right somehow. The ring was never really mine and this way she got her new ring through gardening just as she lost her old one. (plus I had some NASTY ground elder!) "
• "Someone tried to post a 'Wanted' for a pianist for their am dram show in aid of the RAF Association (their only pianist was ill). I was modding at the time, and had to reject it, however I felt sorry for them, so I phoned a friend who happened to be a piano teacher in the hope that she might be able to find someone to help them, I thought perhaps one of her students might do it. Well they ended up with a former West End pit piano player! I went to see the show and put a review of it on http://www.qsulis.demon.co.uk/Reviews/Sams_Bar.htm "

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