Act now to avoid 'resource wars', warns Zero Waste activist

By CRNS

August 27, 2008

More than 100 delegates from Scotland's furniture reuse sector gathered in Glasgow today (Wednesday, August 27) for a major conference, highlighting the growing role furniture reuse projects are playing in tackling poverty and homelessness, while also diverting furniture from landfill.

‘More Than Furniture 08', the 5th Annual Furniture Reuse Conference, was hosted by The Community Recycling Network for Scotland (CRNS), the membership body for community recycling and reuse organisations across the country.

The conference, which was held at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD), focused on the growing demand for second-hand furniture which has increased partly due to the credit crunch, coupled with greater public understanding of the environmental benefits reuse and recycling have.

Under the banner of ‘Bigger, Better, Bolder', a number of key figures from the furniture reuse sector - from home and abroad – took to the platform to speak about the projects they are involved with.

This morning's session was opened by Sophy Copland from Aberdeen project Instant Neighbour, and included addresses from James Dunbar of Highland New Start, which helps homeless people find and furnish new homes, and CRNS Furniture Projects Coordinator Linsay Chalmers.

Linsay, who engages with the furniture reuse sector on behalf of CRNS, outlined her organisation's support and the increasingly positive effect the sector is having on people's lives.

She revealed the scale of the sector which includes 56 community furniture projects run by 329 staff, 860 trainees and 1,013 volunteers, with a combined turnover of £10million.

Before lunch, the audience heard from US recycling pioneer Eric Lombardi, who is Executive Director of Eco-Cycle, one of the largest non-profit recyclers in the world.

Eric's influence has extended in the past to the very highest levels of office, including an invite from President Clinton to attend the White House in 1998 to advise on national recycling issues.

During his address Eric praised much of the work which was being done within projects across Scotland, but challenged the sector to do even better in the years ahead. He said: "Zero Waste is the new peace movement – the roots of conflict in the 21st century will be the race to gain access to natural resources which we can call the ‘Resource Wars'.

"Our vision of Zero Waste is not going to happen overnight – we are simply helping to build a bridge to a Zero Waste future, which may take many years. Zero Waste is not about reducing waste levels to absolute zero, but about being on the path to zero.

"We can realistically look at achieving 90% resource recovery within the next 10 years – only after that can we seriously look at approaching 100%. "Our challenge is to bring about a cultural change which will encourage people to consider buying second-hand items first.

"People will do the right thing if there are services there which are convenient and reliable, so we must build the infrastructure to provide alternatives to landfill and incinerators.

"We also have to tap into the power of the marketplace and demonstrate to business that these alternatives will be good news for their bottom line. "The States can learn a lot from Scotland on furniture reuse – the work which is taking place over here is amazing. Furniture recycling in my community is virtually nowhere."

The afternoon session saw the spotlight fall on specific organisations from across Scotland, including the Glasgow based Maxie Richards Foundation, which helps to rehabilitate drug addicts and gets them involved in restoring second-hand furniture ready for resale, and Edinburgh based homeless charity The Bethany Christian Trust.

CRNS Chairperson Matt Lewis commented: "Furniture reuse projects are playing an increasingly pivotal role in our economy, bridging a gap in the market for low cost, perfectly decent furniture for families who are on a low income or people who are moving out of homelessness.

"Furniture reuse also offers a host of other benefits, such as stopping items being scrapped and sent to landfill, and social benefits for workers and volunteers who work on some of the projects.

"The figures speak for themselves – around 105,000 people made use of a furniture reuse project in the last year, compared with 30,000 five years ago. That means 14,000 tonnes of furniture a year that would otherwise have gone to landfill has been reused.

"Last year, 65,000 of the people who made use of the initiative were homeless or on low incomes. The other 40,000 were members of the public who opted not to go to a traditional furniture store."

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