Collecteco partners with companies across the UK to donate furniture, equipment and materials to charities, schools, NHS Trusts and other not for profit organisations. Donations of kit means that good causes get to spend their funding on helping people and communities. In return, clients get a report detailing the social value, carbon and CE benefits of their donations. Collecteco can also facilitate introductions to good causes supported to yield future social value opportunities through corporate volunteering, mentoring, etc.
Collecteco make the donation of surplus furniture, equipment and materials (‘kit’) quick and easy. It is a managed process so that Collecteco can ensure that kit is cleared from site on time, within HS requirements and on budget.
Collecteco usually work with clients on a partnership agreement, which means they are ready at the end of phone or email when surplus kit becomes available from across the UK. Impact is greatest, and carbon and costs lowest, when Collecteco can get at the forefront of projects and work with clients to achieve this and anticipate when surplus kit might be available. But they also realise that time is a luxury on some projects, so have a national network of labour, transport and storage partners that means they can get kit off site quickly at short notice.
Once Collecteco have instruction from a client they will identify any of their preferred good causes then we will allocate kit to their waiting list of thousands of not for profit good causes actively searching for donations of kit. If kit is a little out of the ordinary, then Collecteco will “market” it to their good cause network and through this achieve some great uses for kit that wouldn’t normally have been thought of as reusable.
Collecteco report back on carbon avoided by enabling the reuse of surplus kit, the tonnage diverted being broken-up for recycling, energy recovery or landfill and also the social value generated by the donation and the potential legacy. They provide a “paper trail” that details duty of care info and transfer liability from client to Collecteco and then from Collecteco to the good cause recipient. Liability is a major perceived barrier to the donation of kit, but Collecteco state they have never had a problem in this area and good causes are overwhelmingly grateful for donations.
Collecteco usually work with clients on a partnership agreement to understand the their operation and anticipate better when surplus kit becomes available. Usually, so that both sides can get acquainted, Collecteco will do “trial-runs” before entering into a partnership agreement.
When Collecteco can get in front of donation projects, their partnership agreement is based on the weight of the kit donated (actual and average weights). They believe charging by weight is a good way to set expectations and can be more easily compared with the costs for putting kit in skips. The more a client uses Collecteco, the cheaper their rates become.
If a project has a tighter timeframe, or Collecteco need to provide labour, transport and storage, then this is priced on project by project basis. Collecteco will work with existing resource on site wherever possible to keep costs down to make reuse feasible.
Costs are comparable with traditional methods to clear kit with the added benefit of the social value, carbon and CE benefit report.
