The familiar purple vans have been visiting the world renowned children’s hospital to help them empty the old buildings of furniture ahead of their demolition. Bulky Bob’s diverted 83% of the waste from landfill, sending it for recycling, or for reuse to their London Road shop, Bulky Bob’s Furniture World.
Mick Hart, Bulky Bob’s Manager, said: “We decided to expand Bulky Bob’s by moving into business waste and what better way to start than working with such a prestigious Liverpool institution like Alder Hey?
“When we started the job, there were 15,000 items of old furniture waiting for us in the old staff car park and our team sorted it for reuse or recycling, deconstructing where necessary, and filled 19 large commercial skips to get it off site.
“We are now looking forward to working with Alder Hey again on the next phase of the works.”
The items collected included furniture from the offices like desks and filing cabinets, as well as bedside chairs and much more. The team sorted out two tonnes of items suitable for reuse which went to Bulky Bob’s Furniture World where it will sold to low income families or given away as part of crisis furniture packages.
The Alder Hey work was also the first job for four of Bulky Bob’s new Driving Change trainees. The year-long paid training programme targets long-term unemployed people and helps them to get the experience and qualifications they need to get into permanent work.
Peter Lavin, Bulky Bob’s trainee, was unemployed for 10 years before starting with Bulky Bob’s last month. He said: “This opportunity with Bulky Bob’s will change my life and I am already learning so much here. Working at Alder Hey was hard work but a great start to my year with Bulky Bob’s. It was really interesting to begin with a great big pile of waste and see how much we were able to recycle and reuse.”
Bulky Bob’s holds bulky household waste contracts with local authorities across the North West, including Liverpool and Oldham. They divert thousands of tonnes of waste from landfill, reusing as much of the good quality preloved furniture as possible. Many items are given away to people in crisis and on low incomes, working with nearly 100 referral agencies in the region, like Citizen’s Advice Bureaus, Age Concern and many housing associations.
Bulky Bob’s is now carrying out office clearances and collecting general business waste from businesses across Merseyside. If you are interested in finding out more, call Carol on 0151 702 0556.
