LAWR

WASTE PREVENTION Waste Prevention 'will' help reduce poverty for millions of UK households In these challenging political and economic times, Furniture Re-use Network's Helen Middleton argues why waste prevention is needed more than ever to help tackle poverty. here is a direct link between current waste management approaches in the handling of unwanted household goods – such as furniture and electrical appliances – and poverty levels in the UK. In addition, much policy and consultancy work, and public money is being spent on looking at ways to stimulate demand for pre-used furniture and household goods. The Furniture Re-use Network (FRN) says much of this work and public money is a waste – the demand already exists as austerity measures and the cost of living impact upon low-income households. The major issue for our sector of furniture reuse charities and social enterprises is getting access to the unwanted, but reusable household goods. Since April 2013, many FRN members have experienced a 100% increase in demand for low cost furniture, electrical appliances, clothing and other household goods, but do not have the supply to satisfy this need. Unfortunately, current public sector waste management commissioning approaches – which may well be exacerbated by the lack of a reuse target in DEFRA's Waste Prevention Plan - means that the impetus and opportunity to work with the third sector, to create workplace opportunities for the hardest to employ, to minimise waste and to reduce welfare bills and the effects of poverty, are being lost. As a result of this poor access to the waste stream, our sector is forced to buy new goods. This is a moral, environmental and financial failure at Government and local authority level. The response from the panel of local authority and waste management personnel at the Westminster Forum on 21 January 2014 suggested that the lack of a reuse target in Defra's Waste Prevention Plan isn't an issue; that the economic case needs to be made in order to encourage investment in reuse; and that the `Social Value Act' will encourage local authorities to work with the third sector, and to open up the access to reusable goods. But will the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 be a strong enough lever to prevent waste and maximise reuse? Oscar Wilde's definition of a cynic is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Therein, lays one of the possible challenges for reuse organisations to access the waste. Many of our members say that price is now the key determining factor in local authority contract tenders, way above multiple, beneficial social outcomes. FRN has seen little evidence of commissioners integrating social value into contract tenders since January 2013 – admittedly, it is still early days - but its incorporation is crucial for product supply to our sector. In some respects, local authority/reuse organisation partnerships have taken a backward step. Social value was beginning to be understood by recycling and regeneration managers. From FRN's research of members, successful local authority/third sector partnerships, such as Doncaster Refurnish's sub-contracted bulky 8 Local Authority Waste & Recycling March 2014 T Bulky waste collection crew WASTE PREVENTION waste collection service with SITA, all emanate from before the pre-2010 Comprehensive Spending Review. The secret of the success behind this and other third sector service delivery is knowledge of the market- place and its capacity and capability; long-term relationship building and the determination of local authority champions – who recognise the triple bottom line benefits for the community in working with third sector organisations – to ensure that social clauses and outcomes were embedded in contract tenders. Do local authorities have this luxury now? So far, we've only mentioned contracts that subscribe to EU procurement rules. FRN has developed and implemented, with its members, a range of service options, either for bulky waste collections or accessing HWRC sites, that don't need to go down the EU procurement route; services which fall well below the EU financial procurement threshold and provide enormous value for money for local authorities. FRN is now working with SITA to help them identify and work with reuse organisations at a local level across the UK. And where one organisation may be too small to execute a contract or sub-contract alone, consortia- working – a natural step for regional furniture reuse fora set-up by FRN – is an option. The Cheshire Furniture Forum – a consortium of three furniture reuse organisations - is now providing the bulky waste collection service for Cheshire West and Chester. This approach creates the critical mass and confidence of service delivery demanded by public sector commissioners. FRN's partnership will enable SITA to incorporate meaningful and quantifiable social outcomes in contract tenders. If SITA wins the waste management contracts, our members get access to the reusable `waste'. FRN is also working with a number of well-known high street retailers on furniture take-back schemes which helps them to reduce their waste disposal bill, offer a valuable customer service and ensures that FRN members have access to excellent reusable furniture. The third sector is often criticised for a lack of professionalism and an inability to step up to the contractual plate. We disagree. We have over 60 members who are Approved Re-use Centres (ARC) - audited and certified to ISO-based quality management standards and robust product specific standards. A number of ARCs have secured fully tendered local authority bulky waste and national commercial contracts on the back of the FRN quality management standard. Large private sector corporations wouldn't work with our sector if we could not provide a centrally co-ordinated, high quality, legally compliant, quality service. Most importantly, the low income households who we exist to support cannot wait, as the Westminster Forum panel suggested, for the market- place to devise a commercial business model that will drive the reuse/waste prevention agenda. Action is needed now. Over 3.5 million children are living in poverty in the UK, and 6 out of 10 children living in poverty are in working families on low incomes [source: The Children's Society]. If the commercial case for reusing furniture for social benefit made economic sense, the private sector would have been running reuse operations years ago. Our doors are open. We think it's time that commissioners and waste managers – both in the private and public sectors - came to us to see what enormous value our sector can bring to local communities, local budgets, future waste services and the broader waste prevention agenda, and to access the highly knowledgeable, practical support we provide. People in poverty are waiting. Helen Middleton is market development manager at Furniture Re-use Network. For more information contact helenm@frn.org.uk The Social Value Act was introduced by the Government in January 2013 as 'a radical step' towards improving the way public bodies and local authorities commission their services. The Act called on local authorities to "consider" some fundamental issues. It stated: "Firstly, how what is proposed to be procured might improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of the relevant area" and, secondly, "how, in conducting the process of procurement, it might act with a view to securing that improvement." The Social Value Act Repairing electrical appliances Reuse volunteer March 2014 Local Authority Waste & Recycling 9

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