Changeworks Recycling

This year I officially started working with Changeworks Recycling to handle my cardboard waste. As a business I create very little waste normally, however when I bought the enormous job lot of jersey fabric back in March (you can see a fraction of it in this Reel), I quickly realised that the amount of cardboard I was generating, from the inner tubes of the fabric rolls, was ENORMOUS. Ridiculous you might say. Badger had a grand old time, pulling tubes out of the recycling bags and shredding them, but one dog, even working round the clock, couldn't process all of that cardboard waste properly.

Enter, Changeworks! I've only had one collection so far (I'm saving the full bags until I have 12 before booking a collection, since it works out more cost effective that way) but I'm delighted to get this wee report at the end of the month, summarising how much cardboard I've recycled and the amount of carbon that has been diverted. 26kg of carbon diverted from 49kg of cardboard! From just one collection!
I love that they translate it into something you can understand - I've diverted the equivalent amount of carbon as an HGV truck driving 27km. How satisfying is that?

This job lot of jersey came from a slightly dodgy, could-be-a-murder-scene-in-Line-of-Duty, storage facility on the outskirts of Glasgow. The person I bought it from was clearing a shipping container and when we'd finished emptying the unit, the owner of the yard took out the last of the rubbish (old cardboard tubes, bits of plastic and scraps of fabric) and...horror of horrors...BURNED IT in an old oil barrel. The stench and black smoke that came off that barrel made my eyes water and the 3 times I've been back to that storage facility to collect my job lot of fabric, he always had that barrel alight. It was clear to me that he was using it as a quick and easy (albeit illegal) way of getting rid of his rubbish, rather than sorting it out and paying for it to be recycled.

I'm personally delighted to be at a stage of my business, where I can pay for recycling to be done officially and properly and this carbon report is just the icing on the cake. It's good to know my little shop is making a small difference in the world.