Agenda item

To receive a briefing on reuse and reuse opportunities for the re3 Board.

The Board received a report which provided a briefing on reuse and reuse opportunities for the re3 Board.

Rory Brian, General Manager at re3 Ltd and Liam Bould, Regional Development Manager at re3 Ltd, attended the Board to provide a presentation on Reuse from the contractor’s perspective.

The key points arising from the presentation were as follows:

·       The YouGov poll showed a rise in public appetite for reuse.

·       Over 2000 people were surveyed.

·       44% said they had purchased in a reuse shop in 2020, this had in creased by 12% to 56% in 2022.

·       80% of those surveyed agreed all HWRCs should have a charity reuse shop nearby or onsite.

·       Three quarters of people who did not currently have access to a reuse shop said they would donate their items if their HWRC had one.

·       60% said they would be more likely to donate than throw away their good quality, second-hand items if they knew they would be resold at a reuse shop.

·       64% said they would prefer to be shown how to fix a broken item, at their local HWRC with 19% saying they would prefer to buy a new item to replace a broken one.

·       81% thought companies and local authorities should be encouraging people to fix their broken items, whereas 4% thought that companies and local authorities should encourage people to buy new items to replace their broken ones.

·       75% bought second-hand items.

·       Almost half bought a second-hand item every six months.

·       Over half of people donated items to their local charity shop every six months.

·       Almost half visited their local HWRC at least once a year.

·       FCC currently operated 10 reuse shops in partnership with local authority and charity partners.

·       The reuse shops generated £1.7m in revenue annually for the charity partners.

·       FCCs Swanton Road site in Suffolk had been reopened as a merchant drop off site for reuse items with their charity partner The Benjamin Foundation. White good repairs were also being undertaken at the site.

·       re3 currently worked with Sue Ryder, Precycle for book scanning, Precycle for electrical items and bikes, pop up shops and Re3paint scheme for residents to collect free paint.

·       55,000 books a year had been scanned and sold on.

·       Reuse sat under Reduce, at the top of the waste hierarchy and had the greatest carbon benefit of all the solutions for dealing with waste.

·       In 2020 the UK reused 3.4 million furniture and electrical items, which was 111,664 tonnes of products and 123,236 tonnes of CO2.

·       Model of reuse that could be utilised were a physical shop, pop-up shops, auctions, a Hub like at Swanton Road and working with partners such as Precycle.

·       2 repair events had been held in 2022 in Amersham, Buckinghamshire which had been continued by the local community.

·       Repair built on FCCs re-use portfolio.

·       230 councils had declared a climate emergency and reuse and repair would help to combat this.

·       The Environment Bill requires the Secretary of State to set legally binding targets for resource efficiency and waste reduction by 31 Oct 2022.

·       Re3 would build on commercial opportunities and deliver increased social value.

·       Continue delivering and developing the current commercial arrangements and pop-up events.

·       Consideration of a local shop needed to be fully investigated.

·       Introducing repair cafés into the 3 council areas would be considered.

Arising from the Boards comments and questions regarding the presentation, the following points were made:

·       The £1.7m was given direct to charities as a profit share.

·       Each shop ran as an individual business which each shop delivering a reasonable amount of profit.

·       There needed to be good feed stock for a reuse shop, which was available at the re3 locations.

·       There was good demand for a reuse shop following on from the pop-up events.

·       There were a number of empty shop units in all three council boroughs.

·       It was suggested that there be scope to look at local charity networks first.

·       A bike storage facility was due to be opened in Reading under the Primark headquarters, which would be developed to have resale and repair included.

·       The majority of bikes received were mainly children’s bikes. Often any adult bikes received were bike parts.

·       Not all charities that FCC worked with had an existing shop.

It was felt that the Board should get behind the idea of a reuse shop and that it would be unwise not to take this forward in the current climate.

The Chair requested that the presentation be circulated with Members and any feedback be sent to Oliver Burt.

RESOLVED that

i.       Members note the contents of the briefing.

ii.     Members indicate which of the options, if any, they would like officers and the Contractor to explore further, with the intention of returning to a subsequent re3 Board meeting with proposals.