Member Article

A wood deal all round

A North East construction company is going greener to help build careers as well as homes.

By engaging a local social enterprise to collect waste wood from its Tynedale Drive site in Blyth, Galliford Try Partnerships North East is helping to create jobs while saving money and reducing its carbon footprint.

Social Enterprise ReBuild North East aims to work with the region’s building companies to minimise waste by collecting timber which would otherwise be put in a skip and ensuring as much as possible is reused - building the skills of previously unemployed people.

Over the past year it has diverted over one hundred tonnes of materials from landfill and brought everything reusable back in to community use in the region and further afield. Affordable second hand wood is sold from its Middlesbrough base. For every tonne of wood reused a tonne of CO2 is saved compared with alternative means of disposal.

When ReBuild Executive Director Chris Kemp approached Galliford Try’s Site Manager Paul Thompson to see if the initiative would appeal, he jumped at the chance and said: “I think it is a tremendous idea. Waste wood gets put to much better use and people get work to collect it and learn new skills making products out of our timber. For us it is also less expensive so everyone wins.”

Anthony Gallant and Daniel Kennedy, both from Middlesbrough, made the first collection from Tynedale Drive. Anthony said: “I lost my job as a warehouseman after 25 years and was out of work for two more before I got the chance to do this.

“Now, as well as collecting the wood I am learning joinery skills to turn it into things like garden furniture or fencing. It’s varied work and very enjoyable.”

Galliford Try is building 60 new homes on the site of the Tynedale Middle School on behalf of Homes for Northumberland, under the county council’s affordable homes programme. If the venture with ReBuild proves successful it will be extended to other nearby projects and possibly to the Gateshead BIG scheme which will deliver around 2,500 homers.

ReBuild is the North East regional franchise holder with the award winning Community Wood Recycling, which last year collected 8,510 tonnes of wood from building sites around the UK.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Paul Dobbie .