Categories: Case Studies

Scrapheap challenge for Sutton Mencap

Sutton Mencap provides services for both adults and children with learning disabilities. For younger users, a diverse programme of activities and play opportunities are offered in order to meet the needs of children and young people. The activities include sensory play, arts and crafts, stories, music, drama and outdoor play.

As the playground is one of the key resources for the children who visit Sutton Mencap, it was important to give it some attention. Using volunteer time, paint from Community RePaint Bromley and some imagination they transformed the playground into an area any child would be excited by.

In order to revamp the children’s playground of the centre, Sutton Mencap organised a ‘Scrapheap Challenge’. This used cheaply sourced and donated materials to create colourful and sensory play areas for the children who use the service. New ‘play stations’ were constructed to encourage interactive amusement, these have made a huge difference to the area.

RePaint reaches rural Scotland

Gledfield Primary School, set in the beautiful and rural surroundings near Loch Migdale, requested help from Community RePaint Highlands with painting their sheds and benches. Our northernmost scheme in the UK, hosted by New Start Highland, was able to offer a cost-effective solution.

Community RePaint Highlands receive surplus paint from a number of paint suppliers and manufacturers. These include popular brands such as Dulux and Johnstones Trade Paint, as well as the Scottish paint specialist, The Paint Shed, who have a chain of seven stores located around Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Due to the volume of reusable paint that this scheme receives, the scheme is able to offer donations of reusable paint to community projects, charities and schools entirely for free.

Scott Clelland from Community RePaint Highlands said “The school got in touch with us as they needed to paint quite a few things around the place, but had to think of their budget. We were able to help by donating 90 litres of paint to them at no cost.” In this way, our schemes continue to divert paint from waste but also brighten the surroundings of their local communities.

“We always try to help schools and charities as much as possible – it’s important to give back.”

 

Tenants and leaseholders provided low-cost paint

Currently, the Unique Scrap Store, in association with the national body Community RePaint, provide low-cost paint to community and voluntary organisations who need help with their projects throughout the area. The paint comes from donations from organisations such as Dulux and Wilkinson as well as the members of the public.

Newark and Sherwood Homes are currently the only housing referral agency identifying individuals on low incomes who would benefit from purchasing paint at just 50p per litre.

Alison Farr, Marketing Co-ordinator at the Unique Scrap Store stated “As a local community organisation, we are very pleased to be working in Partnership with Newark and Sherwood Homes. Over the past few months we have found numerous ways in which both organisations can benefit from each others experiences and skills.

Unique Scrap Store also offers a wide variety of products suitable for home decorating and interior design at highly competitive prices. When a purchase is made from Community RePaint, Newark all profit is used to support Unique Coffee Bar’s work with Newark and surrounding areas disadvantaged young people.

The national Community RePaint Scheme, which boasts over 65 affiliated groups, is very excited about this project and will look at ‘rolling it out’ across the Country, if successful. Newark and Sherwood Homes are forward thinking organisations who obviously want the best for their tenants.

Karen Willis , Chairperson of the Federation of Tenants and Residents Associations stated “The Federation fully supports anything which can improve the lives of tenants and leaseholders in the district.”

Resource conference 2014

On Tuesday 4th March, a panel discussion took place, ‘From End of Life to New Innovation’, which featured paint as the main subject.  Sam Reeve, Operations Director – Resource Futures, gave a short presentation on the aims and achievements of Community RePaint, alongside David Cornish – AkzoNobel Decorative Paints, who talked about Dulux’s link with Newlife (Recycled) Paint. The Technology Strategy Board’s grant to develop new equipment to assist in the processing of reusable and recycled paint was discussed by David. He also spoke of the long association and sponsorship by AkzoNobel of Community RePaint, which has 73 local branches across the UK, and collects surplus and leftover paint and making it available to charities, community groups, and individuals and families in social need.

Sam Reeve said “Re-use and recycling play a major role in retaining the value of secondary materials, as pressure mounts on manufacturers and designers to move away from the use of raw materials, our expertise provides the answer to a lot of product conundrums.”

Memorial garden using paint from Community RePaint Wirral

The memorial garden is reminiscent of the famous commemoration for the First World War Centenary outside the Tower of London. Community groups, schools and individuals in social need can get paint for similar projects from their local scheme. Just search using your postcode Do You Need Paint? section of our website.

A splash of paint at Green’s Windmill and Science Centre

The Green’s Mill and Science Centre is the only inner city windmill in the UK, producing award winning spelt and wheat flour. Paired with the George Green Museum and Science Centre the site preserves its milling heritage and provides educational and public activities.

When the Centre was closed recently for other work, they took the opportunity to refresh the toilets while there were no visitors around. Remarking on the changes on social media, the centre commented that the toilets were looking drab and dirty, however,

‘now a shade of green (what else…!) the ladies toilet is now clean and refreshed, ready for the year ahead.’

They got the paint from Community RePaint Nottinghamshire run by Veolia (Nottinghamshire County Council’s waste contractors) at Warsop, Newark, Beeston and Calverton Recycling Centres.  Members of the public are able to donate their leftover paint from decorating jobs year round at the Recycling Centres. The paint is then given to schools, community groups and local residents to prevent it entering the waste stream and to improve the wellbeing of people and the appearance of places across the county.

Members of the public can pick up paint during evening events each summer. The dates of the events are confirmed each year. Community groups, schools and charities can pick up the paint at any time by arranging an appointment online via the Nottinghamshire County Council website.

Green’s Windmill Trust sourced their paint from the Beeston Recycling Centre. They are now looking to secure more paint from the scheme to continue freshening up the whole centre. They have plans to paint all their doors at the centre and the walls of their old office which currently has three colours on the walls, so that they can convert it into a tea room.

‘right now we would like to say a huge thanks to Community RePaint and everyone that donates their unwanted paint to them, it makes a real difference to a charity like ours!’