HOUSING UNITS’ SKIP-COPS AND BIN-BANS TURN RECYCLING UPSIDE DOWN.

HOUSING UNITS

PRESS RELEASE

January 18, 2010.

HOUSING UNITS’ SKIP-COPS AND BIN-BANS TURN RECYCLING UPSIDE DOWN.

A company-wide bin-ban has helped rubbish recycling ignorance as one of the region’s leading home furnishing stores sets the pace on green issues.

A team of skip-cops has been enforcing and encouraging recycling after Housing Units in Failsworth, Manchester, set up a working party 18 months ago to address the issue at its multi-store retail park and distribution centre – and management have been knocked sideways by the results.

“In 2007 we were recycling nothing. In autumn 2008 we were sending 80% of our waste and rubbish to landfill, but right now we’re sending 80% for recycling – we’re frankly amazed at what the team has achieved, but it has also been a massive measure of how the country’s attitude to recycling is changing,” said Nick Fox of Housing Units.

“When we started the project in early 2008 it was surprisingly difficult to find out how to turn a business green and develop recycling programmes – but there’s now masses of help and advice on how to achieve some amazing recycling figures.

“It was tough to get everybody engaged at first, but the pace with which the team is embracing recycling has gathered momentum so that just about everybody now sees the importance.

“Our security team has a ‘skip-cop’ detail who have been trained to recognise what’s rubbish and what’s not, and if the wrong materials are found in the wrong bins then they put them in the right place and endeavour to investigate where the system has gone wrong.

“We’re not perfect yet, but the more we do the more we learn about what else we can do – it’s fascinating and it’s rewarding, and if every business did the same then there really is a difference to be made.

“Some of the rubbish we produce has a value, so we can actually sell it, which, of course, makes a small contribution towards keeping overheads down, as does the fact that we have fewer, smaller, skips for rubbish.”

Housing Units – known for its top-hatted doormen - was established in 1947. It is a family-owned furnishings retailer based in Wickentree Lane, Failsworth, Manchester M35 9BA, next to Junction 22 of the M60. It stocks 30,000 high-quality lines across a range of departments in two buildings and prides itself on its unique style of customer service, the value of its goods and the shopping experience it provides.

Ends

Further information:

Iain Macauley
0161 929 0446/07788 978800

im@pressrelations.co.uk
http://www.housingunits.co.uk/