Quote Bank

This is to help volunteers writing emails, letters, comments, appeals for support, Facebook posts and more.

Weight of stuff kept out of landfill

You can see the estimated weight of items reused through your group by looking at your group's home page and clicking the small 'more stats' link in the intro text. This reveals 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, e.g. 4483kg saved from landfill is approximately 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 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 was collected at the kerbside or taken to HWRCs. Approximately twice as much was taken to HWRCs (1,050,000 tonnes) as was 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 around 42% of all bulky waste in the UK (including both kerbside collected and HWRC bulky items) 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 of by householders in the UK annually.

There's a perception that items reaching the HWRC, or collected at the kerbside, are no longer fit for reuse, yet this report identifies, down to specific product level, the significant amount of products that are potentially reusable. It's hoped this information can help inform reuse organisations, local authorities and waste management companies of the potential reuse of items currently being recycled or disposed of.

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

WRAP facts and figures

October 2012

• WRAP estimated that around 600 million tonnes of products and materials entered the UK economy each year - only 115 million tonnes of this got recycled.
• Between then and 2020, WRAP estimated that electronic waste in the UK would total more than 12 million tonnes. A quarter of this would comprise IT equipment, consumer electronics and display screens - a total estimated market value of £7bn in precious metals.
• Nearly 25% of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) taken to household waste recycling centres could be reused, worth around £200m gross a year.
• The UK threw away more than 7 million tonnes of food and drink every year from homes - most of which could have been safely consumed.
• The UK hospitality sector (hotels, pubs, restaurants and quick service restaurants) could save £724 million a year by tackling food waste.
• By pursuing opportunities for reuse, the UK could reduce its reliance on raw materials, including rare earths, by as much as 20% by 2020.
• Doubling the number of sofas reused could save 52,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent; at the time, 83% of sofas were not reused and were sent to landfill or recycled.

And this was only the tip of the waste iceberg.

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

Freegle stats

See Statistics for links to find stats about us and your group.

Information about your group can also be found on the group's home page (click 'more stats' 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 adaptations, etc. at primary level. Clear fangs, camouflage and hairy long legs from our Red Indian ornamental tarantula. Will be handed over in a clear plastic box, though we suggest sealing it if taking it 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
• Unicycle and tandem
• A car with tax and MOT (from someone going abroad that day) offered, and a request that resulted in someone giving away 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 1960s Austin was requested - the requester 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 were going paperless)
• 1,000 rolls of 'out of date' wallpaper 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 Derbyshire 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 sold - they all apparently went to folks wanting garden ornaments
• Space transporter (turned out to be a toy)
• Noah's ark (not full scale, but big enough that 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 again
• 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'd 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. I eventually managed to get in contact with a descendant through various family history sites, who was very pleased it was saved from landfill.
• I posted, with photos, an old damaged wheelbarrow with a flat tyre, dented and plaster-clotted. We were surprised when it was taken by someone who was very happy with it. Turns out he had almost the same model, nearly new but with a broken handle - the only part of mine in any usable condition. The result was one very usable wheelbarrow, and only one part in the waste.
• A couple lived in a maisonette and were emigrating to Australia. Four doors away, unknown to them, a young woman had moved into 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 to recycle everything in the property on the group within a few days. The woman contacted the group about putting up a wanted post for basically anything, as she had nothing. To cut a long story short, she'd been in her place a couple of days and done nothing to it. So the local moderator got both parties and the council together, and with their agreement she moved into the property as it became vacant the day the couple moved out, and hers became vacant again in exactly the condition it was in when she'd moved in. No work for the council refurbishing either property, nothing went to the tip, and she even took over their canary. It was the ultimate in recycling, and it all happened within a week.
• "Someone asked for a diamond engagement ring on our group, as she'd lost hers while gardening and wanted to 'propose' a marriage blessing to her husband of 15 years. Coincidentally, 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'd 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 moderating at the time, and had to reject it - but I felt sorry for them, so I phoned a friend who happened to be a piano teacher, in the hope she might find someone to help. I thought perhaps one of her students might do it. They ended up with a former West End pit piano player! I went to see the show and put a review of it: http://www.qsulis.org.uk/Reviews/Sams_Bar.htm"

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