Wirral Business Goes from Strength to Strength

Second Unit in Cardiff Opened by Welsh Minister for Environment and Sustainability

Cardiff (I-Newswire) July 18, 2012 - Wirral business Recipro has gone from strength to strength in the past twelve months and this month celebrates the opening of a second Reuse centre in Cardiff.

Launched in 2008, the business was founded to find outlets for the £1.5 billion worth of surplus, unrequired building material ending up as waste each year. They launched a free to use website which allows anyone to register, promote details of surplus material to other members and exchange products. The website now has over 6000 users from around the UK.

Then last year they launched their first physical reuse centre, known as a ReciproCity here on Wirral. The Wallasey centre provides a storage facility for leftover materials from large construction projects, as well as end of line and slow moving stock from builders’ merchants. These materials are sold specifically into community and charity projects at a massively discounted price. Recipro then reports to the donating company on the carbon saved, the waste reduction and the community projects helped.

Since launching in December, ReciproCity Wirral has received over 55 tonnes of material destined for the waste stream, saving over 60 tonnes of carbon. A number of charities and community projects have benefited from Recipro’s services, including North Liverpool Regeneration Company. Nicola Kelly, Project Manager, said “Thanks to Recipro we were able to purchase a large number of kitchen units and brick for a fraction of their true cost. Also we’d like to say a mas¬sive thank you to contractors and merchants for using the Recipro initia¬tive to help community projects rather than sending materials to landfill. The bricks and units will assist in the ed¬ucation of our college students, who range between 16-24 which will give them a much greater chance of gain¬ing apprenticeships within the construc¬tion industry and ultimately a brighter future.”

In July 2012, Welsh Minister for the Environment and Sustainability, John Griffiths, officially opened the second ReciproCity in Cardiff. He said, ‘As part of our commitment to One Planet Living, we know that we must work towards ensuring security of resources and to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The more we can reuse materials and items within our own communities, and the more we recycle, reprocess and remanufacture in Wales, the closer we will get to this goal…This really is a great project and I congratulate the partners on their success in opening Wales' first Reciprocity centre."

The second centre is operated in partnership with Constructing Excellence in Wales. Milica Kitson, Constructing Excellence in Wales Chief Executive said: “In Constructing Excellence in Wales, we are constantly looking for opportunities to develop new solutions and so help the construction industry more effectively deal with traditional problems such as disposal of surplus materials. I must emphasise how this project directly impacts on CEW’s role in delivering the Welsh Government’s ambitious targets for waste prevention and minimisation.”

With the second ReciproCity centre open, the future of this Wirral business is looking very positive. Managing Director, Les Owens, said “We are over the moon to be working in conjunction with CEW to run this second ReciproCity centre. With over 35 years experience of the construction industry, I know how much of a problem surplus building material is which is why we came up with the idea of Recipro. Our business is growing quickly and its great to get support from organisations and individuals such as the Welsh Minister for the Environment and Sustainability. We are confident that Recipro is going to continue to grow, and eventually have a network of ReciproCities around the whole country.”

For more information, please contact communities@recipro-uk.com or call 0844 225 3000