Working in close partnership with Care and Repair Swansea and Recipro, CEW has set up a builders’ surplus centre at Swansea Enterprise Park. The principle behind the centre is that it provides a cost effective solution to the common problem on construction sites of surplus unused materials. These surpluses arise for a variety of reasons and all too often end up being disposed of as waste. The surplus centre model ensures that these materials never enter the waste stream but instead are diverted to the centre for use in community based projects. In the first place Care and Repair as a Third Sector organisation will have the chance to make first use of these surpluses but they can also ensure that materials that they cannot utilise will be redirected to another worthy cause.

The service has got off to a flying start thanks to a donation of nearly 19 tonnes of brick and block by Bouygues/Leadbitter from their Swansea University Campus site at Fabian Way Swansea. These materials would have been destined for the skip without CEW’s intervention. This first success was due in no small measure to the generous help of W D Lewis Ltd of Aberdare who kindly arranged to collect the materials from site and back-haul them intact to the centre.

Thanks to the work of Jim Owen of OPS working on behalf of CEW a number of other significant construction companies have signed up to the surplus scheme and we are hopeful that over the coming weeks BAM at Morriston Hospital, Carillion at Morriston Comprehensive School, Dawnus at Burlais Primary School and Vinci at Swansea University Campus will all be donating surplus items into the centre.

We will be updating you on future successes.