We're in bulk

BULKY Bob’s has recycled its millionth item of household waste in Liverpool.

The announcement comes after Liverpool City Council recycled its own budget cut plans last month.

A fee had been proposed for the service, which picks up unwanted stuff from homes, but a last minute U-turn by councillors meant collection would remain free, after all, to city residents.

Bulky Bob’s, seen as one of the UK's leading social enterprises, is based in Brunswick Dock where it runs an award-winning training programme targeting the long-term unemployed and people with "challenging backgrounds".

Chairs to that: BB worker
John HeratyIt has carried out bulky household waste collections for Liverpool City Council for the past 11 years, making over half a million visits to homes and collecting over 1.8 million items. It now claims it has saved one million items from landfill, dubbed “pre-loved” furniture, much of which has been donated free of charge to local families in crisis.

Shaun Doran, Bulky Bob’s CEO, said: “We are delighted to hit such a milestone of recycling and we are also very pleased to be able to continue to collect items for free from Liverpool homes. Our service helps the city to reduce its landfill costs, increase its recycling rates, keep fly-tipping rates low, and offer a very valuable service to the residents.

“We also work hard to direct our pre-loved furniture to low-income families through our shop on London Road and we also run a furniture roadshow called Bulky Bob’s on the Road which makes available affordable furniture to people who may find it difficult to travel into the city centre.

“We are always looking for new and creative ways to reuse and recycle as much as we can from the items we collect and these latest figures demonstrate our success.”

Bulky Bob’s overall recycling rate is 70 percent, the highest recycling rate in the country for this type of service.

It collects a wide range of bulky household items booked through LDL, although how many serviced computers this might include is not known.