Croydon ARC - the appliance and furniture reuse centre

Croydon ARC History

History

Croydon Appliance Reuse Centre (ARC) was founded in 2004 with an initial grant from the East London Community Partnership, with the aim of setting up a long-term furniture and appliance/white goods reuse scheme working as a social enterprise. 

At the launch of Croydon ARC, Croydon Councillor Gerry Ryan emphasised both the social and environmental benefits of the scheme saying, "Schemes like this enable people to pass on unwanted, but still useful, household items in the knowledge that they are not simply being destroyed and sent to landfill sites but are benefiting other needy people in the community".

Assistance in securing funding for the project came from the Furniture Reuse Network and the London Community Recycling Network, through its Building Partnerships programme.

A key part of the raison d'être of the organisation is to provide work experience and training opportunities for those long-term unemployed and those with mental or physical restrictions. 
 

Collection and Reuse results 

We measure our success by the number of people we help through our activities and the amount of material that we collect and divert from landfill. During the last 12 months we can report the following: 

Description	Households	Items	Tonnes
Total collections	6162	16399	478
Total people helped with furniture and or appliances	2053	9104	183

Of the total 478 tonnes collected 183 tonnes has been reused, 270 tonnes has been recycled and only 18 tonnes has been sent to landfill.

   

 

Other ways in which we help people

Through our work with various organisations including Croydon Council, Croydon Education Business Partnership, Job Centre Plus, the Career Development Group, Mencap and Scope we have provided work experience for many people, helping them to learn new skills and develop their confidence and progress in the world of work.

Some specific examples include:

We provide work placements for school and college students doing their 2 week work experience activities in which they get exposed to the world of work. The students come to us for experience involving administration, sales and customer care. They help us in the administrative activities, sales in the showroom, and assist us in the preparation of products for the showroom. The work they do in assisting us in the preparation of products for sale in the show room might include checking keyboards and printers for condition and function, opening up computers, removing their hard discs and cleaning the machines ready for loading new software or building furniture ready for display in the showroom.

Placements through CESS and Mencap

Approx 20 people with learning difficulties have been placed with us or have volunteered with us to develop their skills and to gain more independence in their lives. They have worked in our delivery and collection teams as drivers mates, in our warehouse and shop assisting sales staff and customers with moving items to be sold from the warehouse to the showroom then once sold moving them to despatch or loading the items into our customers' vehicles.Others have ensured that our offices, toilets and showroom are kept clean and tidy. Many of these people braved the worst the weather could throw at us during the winter of 2009 not wanting to let us down.