Green Sky Thinking 2017: Encouraging reuse in housing estates

Repurpose event: encouraging reuse in housing estates 19 May 2017

#RepurposeLDN #greenskythinking2017

Event plan Welcome and introduction Overview of the Repurpose project from Groundwork London Perspectives from Genesis Q&A/discussion Tour of the Loop

Wrap up and close

Repurpose introduction: Delivering social, economic & environmental benefits from re-use Graham Parry, Groundwork London

Repurpose - what is it?

EU initiated pilot based on five housing estates across London Run by Groundwork London supported by LCRN and Middlesex University Match-funded by local partners (25%) & additional funding from other funders (25%) Programme ends July 2017 Aims to increase re-use, reduce fly-tipping and increase skills

Repurpose - what is it?

Core activities: Establishment of a re-use hub in unused spaces on 5 social housing estates Running an estate-wide collection service of unwanted household items Repairing items if required Selling items back to residents on the estate, at very low prices

Alongside this: Providing a training and volunteering opportunity for local residents, complemented by a dedicated events and training programme Working with local partners and staff to explore how the programme could be built into business-as-usual Monitoring and evaluation – fly-tipping, project activities, behaviour change Dissemination

Why was Repurpose set up?

Lots of fly-tipping going on which is messy, upsetting & expensive – 936,000 incidents of fly-tipping in England 2015/16.

– On our 5 estates 1,018 items were fly-tipped in 2 weeks (weighing just over 17 tonnes).

– 74% of residents agreed there was a lot of fly-tipping in their neighbourhood.

– Costs Housing Associations/Local Authorities more each year to dispose of.

Many items could be re-used – Of the bulky waste items collected, 24% could be reused straight away, and 40% with repair (WRAP study).

System encourages it & hard for residents to use council wide services – The system on estates where bulky waste teams clean up fly-tipping very quickly means that some residents don’t realise fly-tipping is a problem.

– In our survey 36% considered fly-tipping as ‘normal behaviour as most people do it’ and 38% didn’t think it was a problem as ‘someone clears it up’.

At the same time: Need for low cost furniture – Often high turnover of residents, including those housed temporarily, who need furniture – Social care often sends residents to other parts of the borough to source low cost furniture

Underused, skilled residents – On most estates there are residents who have nothing to do during the day who would benefit from volunteering, many of whom have skills

Skills shortages on repair/re-use – Estates like other areas, have skills shortages; people don’t know how to repair, or make best use of items

Piloted on five estates across London

Each estate differs in size & nature From 250 households in SLT to over 2,000 on White City From large amount of community activities, to no activity on site Recent regeneration, static estates and ongoing regeneration Near amenities and able to pay market to isolated estates Containers on SLT; Underground garages in Pembury; 4 undercrofts in White City, Shop in Grahame Park

What does Repurpose include?

Creation of a re-use hub Base for storage Retail Workshop space for repairs/upcycling Base for volunteering/training if possible

Free doorstep collection service of reusable items Collections scheduled to meet residents’ needs Items also collected directly from fly-tipped locations Carried out on foot

Repairs and upcycling

Resident engagement & behaviour change programme Events with different groups (schools, older groups, etc) To tackle the root causes of fly-tipping and encourage positive environmental action

Training and volunteering programme Helping residents to develop long-term skills via training programmes and volunteering Ambassador training Local staff workshops

Brokering & negotiating ongoing services Working with local partners to explore options for continuation Exploring how re-use could be incorporated into staff contracts, KPIs, tender specifications etc

What impact have we had?

Impact on estates in numbers • • • • • • • •

Removed over 6,700 bulky items (96+ tonnes) from the waste stream 335/month on average. Almost tripled expectations in year 1.

50% items from residents (collection or drop-off), and 30% from fly-tipping.

50% items needed no work done on them, or only a light clean Provided over 3,500 items of low cost furniture to low income and vulnerable families Changed behaviour on waste, re-use and recycling through 104 events.

2,900+ residents have donated items.

Created new community connections and activated unused spaces Provided local volunteering and employment for 65 volunteers – some providing over 900 hours Delivered over £650,000 in social value

Changed attitudes to waste "I love the re-use elf game. It's so great for all ages, from babies to seniors, everyone has learnt something new today and had fun in the process. You can almost hear the children's brains ticking as they decide between re-use, recycle, compost and waste. Thanks for letting me be part of it". Resident, Pembury Follow up behaviour change survey (490 respondents). Initial findings show interesting results: – Only 9% of residents who have engaged with Repurpose would ‘put a reusable item outside’ if they no longer wanted it, compared to 21% of residents who hadn’t engaged.

– 82% of those engaged with the project are concerned about reusable items going to waste, compared to 45% who hadn’t been engaged.

– 68% of those that have engaged with Repurpose report they ‘re-use more, throw fewer items away, fly-tip less or recycle more’ as a result of their engagement.

Strong social outcomes Volunteering has proved extremely impactful for high-needs individuals and teaches new skills and forms new relationships “I was doing nothing really before volunteering. Coming here motivates me to get up in the morning. It makes me think I could focus and do other things with my life. I didn’t think I would ever work again but this makes me think I could do it. Since I started working here I’ve applied for an adult literacy course. I’ve always avoided applying for jobs because I’m dyslexic. That affected my confidence. But now I feel motivated to try and learn.” Volunteer on Samuel Lewis Trust estate “I have gained exceptional team work skills as we all work together to help each other out on a task. Also, I have gained a high level of customer service skills which are very useful for future work in life, as I can now engage with many people and resolve any queries. I have gained practical experience, and I have the tools that I need and can refurbish any piece of furniture there is! I have also been educated on how important it is to recycle and reduce land waste.”

Volunteer on Grahame Park estate

Created social cohesion and an opportunity for residents to interact and engage in on-estate activity “The Loop has provided a real meeting place in the community for new relationships; I have met many people through the Loop. It has strengthened my ties with the White City community.” Resident on White City estate “Whenever I have mentioned the loop to other people they have sung it’s praises, so many people have been helped on Grahame Park and have helped other by donating furniture.

People love this place and have never seen another place like, it is the most amazing place to come to and I’m really grateful it’s here as it’s the only place that is genuinely there to help the local community and people in need.” Customer, Grahame Park

Provided furniture for those who need it at a cost they can afford Customer, White City: “My name is Catherine, I am suffer from mental illness, physical disability. I was introduced about Loop by my housing officer from Hammersmith and Fulham Council. Because I just moved into a temporary accommodation from woman's Refuge so I had absolutely no furniture. Loop has gave me a care-warm stress-free experience. I will support you, and recommend you to people is also in furniture crisis.”

Customer, Grahame Park: “My home was wrecked by two floods, I went to the housing association but they weren’t helpful. The Loop has come in and helped me put my home right.

I’m unable to repair furniture and do DIY myself because of my health conditions and I don’t know what I would of done with out them. We need places like The Loop everywhere!”

Customer, Pembury: “What’s cool about this is it’s good for the local community and bridges the gap between low and high income households on the estate in which we live.”

Plus… FRN Re-use Organisation of the Year Award Winner 2017!

The Loop @ Grahame Park

Sharing key lessons learnt

Two documents published, helping others to set up similar programmes

Policy pack Background to the project Why re-use is important and the benefits it offers Current policy context at EU, national and regional level Policy recommendations at EU, national and regional level Links to other sources of information

Headlines Huge social value from programme- social impact as important as environmental Not one size fits all- service evolves to respond to need of particular location Size matters- need minimum size estate and hub to run a full service Community activity helps- existing community groups help the programme establish itself quickly Volunteers need support- most are high needs and running a full-scale service is beyond their capacity or interest. Volunteers could continue a community based workshop centred approach only.

Needs an active partner- the greater the partner support the better Embedding re-use programmes into estate BAU takes time- waste contracts are long-term and engendering organisational change without policy drivers needs commitment and vision Needs more onsite staff- e.g. in Repurpose we were asking a lot of one re-use coordinator with a wide skill set on each estate

What are we doing with Repurpose now?

All hubs continuing with legacy funding for varying periods (3 - 12 months) Local partners looking at embedding re-use across their estates – but this takes time Talking to further housing providers interested in replication programme – and still keen to identify others Continuing to promote programme and need for re-use to be supported by policy at events and meetings, including this one

Perspectives from Genesis

Jade Christie, Genesis Housing Association

Q&A / discussion

For more information Contact Hannah Baker, Programme Manager, at: hannah.baker@groundwork.org.uk Visit the project website: www.repurpose.london Follow @GroundworkLON on Twitter, and search for #RepurposeLDN Please help yourself to a copy of our Implementation Guide and Toolkit – these (and the Policy Pack) are also available online

Tour of the Loop