Social housing provider goes green to tackle fly-tipping

Published by Jon Land for Salix Homes in Environment and also in Housing

Thursday 24th January 2013 - 9:17am

A fly-tipped sofa which was picked up by our operatives in Rosemary Grove, Salford.

A social housing provider has launched an eco-friendly initiative to tackle fly-tipping in the community.

Salix Homes, which manages 10,500 homes inCentral Salford, has joined forces with furniture recycler CT Home to deal with the tonnes of furniture that gets dumped in our communities.

Fly-tipping has become a major problem across the city with Salix Homes’ operatives spending two days a week collecting fly-tipped furniture.

Items picked up by our workforce include sofas, beds, mattresses and wardrobes and are found dumped everywhere from pavements and alleyways to communal areas.

As part of the scheme any furniture that is deemed in a decent condition will be sent to Salford-based CT Home to recycle instead of going to landfill.

CT Home, which has a store on Hope Street, recycles old furniture to resell to the community at a reduced price.

Sue Sutton, director of customer and neighbourhood services at Salix Homes, said: “Fly-tipping is a serious issue, not only does it blight communities, but the cost of clearing it up is a drain on valuable resources.

“With this scheme not only are we helping to tackle the issue of fly-tipping, but we are also ensuring these items don’t end up in a landfill site.

“We are already starting to see a reduction in the amount of fly-tipped furniture and we are delighted to be working with CT Homes to keep our communities clean and tidy.”

Salix Homes’ tenants can call CT Home to arrange collection of their unwanted furniture and tenants will also be offered a 20 per cent discount on any second hand furniture in store.

Jo Sugden, project manager at CT Home, said: “One person’s junk is another person’s treasure and it’s always a shame to see items of furniture sent to landfill when they could be re-used by a family in need.

“We are thrilled to be working with Salix Homes on this worthwhile scheme and hope it will go someway to reducing fly-tipping in our communities.”