St Albans Wood Recycling

History

2008

As part of the Emmaus homeless charity in St Albans to start a wood recycling operation alongside their furniture recycling business.

October 2010

With Emmaus support St Albans Wood Recycling CIC was set up by Geoff Deans as an independent social enterprise at the present Pickford Road site. It began with one driver and two part-time staff.

March 2011

We provided our 1000th volunteer day!

July 2011

One of our volunteers accepted a job as a part-time driver. He’s still with us and is now full-time. He spent 10 years unemployed before coming to us and is now part of the furniture!

February 2012

We recycled our 1000th tonne of wood!

August 2013

We supported a longtime volunteer Dave through his joinery course at Oakland college by employing him in the wood workshop. 

February 2014

Longtime volunteer Karen Sludds joined us as a director.

February 2016

Volunteer Steve became our full time driver after many years not working as a single parent. Spot the pattern: volunteering turns into full time work. All our volunteers turned employees are still with us and form the core of our staff (five out of seven staff).

Social Enterprices

We are a not-for-profit social enterprise that is financially self-supporting. Our income is derived from the charges we make from our waste wood collection service and from sales of wood and wood products. Any surplus is reinvested in the business. We provide work, learning and training opportunities to those facing barriers to gaining paid employment and for local people who enjoy working with wood.

We work with local agencies such as job centre restart schemes and the probation service to provide practical work experience, learning and training opportunities. We provide an opportunity to help local people to develop their skills and confidence working alongside us as part of a team. We are socially inclusive and welcome volunteers from different backgrounds.