A NEW repair academy is to be piloted in Melksham where unwanted items in the town will be used by young people to improve their skills and provide affordable goods to low-income households.
The initiative is to take place at the Hills Recycling Centre in Bowerhill where staff will identify goods that can be recycled, repaired and restored. They will then take the goods to a repair workshop set up in Calne for the region’s young people to work on and fix before selling at a reduced cost to low income families in Wiltshire.
The project started as a partnership was formed between Hills Waste Solutions and Wiltshire Council, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, Community First, Kennet Furniture Recycling, Waste Not Want Not and Wiltshire College.
The idea of the repair academy is to create social, economic and environmental value by transforming unwanted products into desirable goods, support people in need by helping them gain skills for employment and life, change public opinion to make used and repaired items more attractive and foster an attitude of re-use and repair of materials.
Staff at Hills in Melksham will identify suitable furniture, certain white goods and bric-a-brac and set these aside for donation to the repair academy. The pilot scheme will run until the end of 2014 after which the academy will be set up as an independent charity or social enterprise.
Cllr Jane Scott said, “By working with Hills Waste Solutions to deliver the new repair academy trial at three of the council’s household recycling centres, we are aiming to achieve more sustainable ways to manage Wiltshire’s waste, by reducing and reusing items which would have previously gone straight to landfill, while also delivering a wide range of local benefits for Wiltshire.”
To follow the latest developments at the repair academy visit www.repairacademy.org