Brighton & Hove Wood Recycling

Founded in 1998, Brighton & Hove Wood Recycling Project was the first of its kind in the country, dedicated to recycling waste timber – seeing it for what it really is: not something to discard but a precious resource.

Leading the way as a pinnacle of the local circular economy, we are a not-for-profit social enterprise with charitable aims of:

• protecting the environment by conserving resources – collecting, recycling, and re-using reclaimed waste wood, operating throughout East and West Sussex 

• educating and promoting behavioural change – through both educational materials and the collection, re-use and sale of sustainably-produced timber and timber products, all at greatly reduced costs to the public

• changing lives, relieving unemployment and social exclusion – by providing jobs, work placements, training, qualifications, mentoring and volunteering opportunities for local people. Our focus is on supporting those disadvantaged in the job market through any form of mental or physical disability, social exclusion, or vulnerability.

We are more commonly known by our trading name, The Wood Store.

Our Mission – what we do

Brighton & Hove Wood Recycling Project exists to advance environmental protection by stopping as much reusable timber as possible from ending up in landfill and indiscriminate incineration.

We do this by providing a collections service below the cost of a skip or other disposal option, bringing the material back to our premises for sorting, preparation for re-supply, or to be transformed into beautiful objects and furniture, benefitting everyone.

Operating the project and collecting this timber resource affords training and volunteering opportunities for many currently not working or in financial hardship due to social exclusion.

The project trains staff and volunteers to run the business, providing nationally recognised accredited qualifications. Skills learned include retail, customer service, business administration and woodworking, with many volunteers gaining paid employment with the project once trained.

All funds from running the project stay within the business though financial sustainability is always a challenge.  We have received minimal grants in the past and so rely on low-cost premises to ensure the public can continue to benefit from our activities.

We are now seeking to register as a charity to properly reflect the charitable nature of the work we have been doing for the last 20 years and to increase our eligibility for external funding.  We want to ensure we’re still here for you for decades to come.  

Our Story

Born in 1998, Brighton & Hove Wood Recycling was the first scheme of its kind in the country. We collect waste timber for reuse and recycling, keeping it as far up the waste hierarchy as possible. When we began, hundreds of thousands of tonnes of wood was sent to landfill every year, which we thought was a terrible waste. Why not collect that unwanted wood so that it can be reused or made into useful things, creating opportunities for people to gain work experience and learn new skills at the same time.

Our status as a social enterprise means that any profit we make stays within the business, enabling us to improve our facilites and conditions for our volunteers and staff. We have always had a strong focus on both environmental and financial sustainability and, apart from a small start-up grant, we operate without any financial support enabling us to be independent and do things in our own unique way.

Volunteer

We strive to make volunteering with us fun and rewarding. Whether you want to get back into the swing of working with a team, want to gain experience in the construction industry or just have some spare time and want to keep yourself busy, why not come and see what we do. We especially welcome applications from people who are finding it difficult to get back into mainstream employment.