Recycling for good: Jigjit's donation project

At The National Lottery Community Fund, we live and breathe our values and one of our missions is to support communities to be environmentally sustainable.?

In this blog, Jigjit Kaur Tait, Business Support Manager shares how recycling stationery and furniture from our Scotland Office has helped communities in need.?

“I joined the Fund in 2022 as the Scotland Business Support Manager and having had a career in the third sector for over 20 years, I’ve had first-hand experience of operating with limited resources. I soon made it a goal to make sure our office worked in a sustainable way by donating things we didn’t want to those who were in need, helping us prevent landfill waste.

I really do believe one man’s trash is another man’s treasure!

The opportunities to donate have arisen naturally. When our Glasgow Office recently transitioned to a hybrid working environment, our space reduced from two floors to one to fit our new way of working, and we found we had a lot of resources we no longer needed. We identified what furniture would become excess, and my journey of finding new homes for the pieces began. I do like my spreadsheets, so once I knew of the furniture for donation and quantities, the furniture items were measured and photographed.?

Since joining the Fund, I formed links with a range of small third sector organisations so when the time came for a clear out – I reached out to them. The document was shared with over 50 organisations, with about 30 coming back to me interested. I then began to allocate the furniture fairly across the organisations.?

I made contact with a small charity called Emmaus and through Gus Hamilton, he provided a valuable low cost delivery service for the organisations.?

We donated pedestals, bookcases, computer chairs, meeting room tables and high tables to over 20?charities who were delighted with the donations.?Whenever Fund colleagues visit these organisations, they see first-hand how the donation has helped!?

Part of my team’s work has also been clearing hundreds of boxes stored in Iron Mountain, which resulted in us finding a whole host of excess stationery. We’ve been able to donate staplers, hole punches, scissors, lever arch files, ring binders, paperclips… lots of things that community groups would benefit from.?

Every penny counts for third sector organisations, therefore investing some time to complete a project like this makes it worthwhile.?I was able to reach out to colleagues in Birmingham and Newcastle to donate office supplies to charities in Scotland, and even managed to convince our building landlords to support some of the charities I have been working with too.?

If you’re doing a clear out of your office space, or even your home, please don’t throw anything out as things will always be of use to someone. It may look like a big task donating instead of discarding, but there are so many third sector groups operating with restricted funds. Upcycling is another option available too… Pinterest is amazing for ideas. If I can upcycle car tyres into planters and benches, then you can make use of anything!”?

Donna Foote, Manager of Greater Pollok Service, one of our recipient groups, said:?

“The stationary provided has been a great help, we’ve distributed it to youth clubs, a boxing club, community councils and community connectors and some of our volunteers have benefited from a box of stationary to use with their studies at college and university or their volunteering work.?

“We’ve also provided stationery to secondary school pupils who have come along to community activities as part of the extra learning classes supported by youth staff and teachers.?

“Our volunteer coordinator has managed to make use of the stationery to make volunteer packs to hand out to new volunteers. The boxes have stretched a long way as we received so many, church halls and community?facilities have also made use of them to store equipment or tidy up to create space for more activity.”?