Brighton & Hove Wood Recycling Project

There is something fishy going on here. They charge vastly over the odds. I bought a door which I later found out was more expensive than the off the shelf price of one in the big d.i.y. suppliers. I was also quoted a price that was more than double what you would pay in the D.I.Y. for timber.

One of the best not for profit organisations to emerge in the South East is the Brighton & Hove Wood Recycling Project. Started in 1998 by a small group of committed environmentalists, it has grown into an award-​winning social enterprise. The original aim of the collective was to rescue and re-​use waste timber from local businesses and they now recycle over 450 tonnes each year.
Aside from selling timber and off-​cuts directly to local builders and craftsmen, they also make and sell recycled furniture to the general public via their Wood Store. If you have a couple of spare hours or days each week and are passionate about wood, recycling and the environment, the company are always on the lookout for new volunteers. They are also happy to collaborate or assist in environmentally friendly projects involving recycling wood.

This is a weird sort of category for this to be in, but it currently seems the best one. This project is an absolute star, a credit to the city. It used to be in not much more than a shed, off somebody’s yard. Its now moved to the south side of Circus Street, the eastern side of the street, over the road from the Art Department of Brighton University. They’re in a sort of barn type place — it may originally have been part of the old wholesale fruit and veg market, I think, I’m not sure.
Its obviously a labour of love. Its aim, literally, is to recycle wood. They will strip and sell wooden doors, they’ll make furniture to order for you, for a deposit, they provide fine pieces of wood, parts of furniture to be re-​made into something useful and beautiful, they’ve taken some pieces of wood and constructed plant troughs and hanging baskets (they’re not baskets I’m not sure what to call them, but thats the function they fill)…
They also take offcuts of wood, which people may well have hanging around in their garages or whatever — they’ll cut them up and sell them on for firewood. Obviously, they don’t pay you to provide the offcuts, that bit is more about ethical living and using resources that would otherwise lay dormant. I think its a wonderful, wonderful idea, and its what first took me along to the site, to check out whether what was clogging up my garage could be decluttered to the project. And it can, as long as it isn’t painted!
They do have a website, check it out at the three ws then
.