End Furniture Poverty

Reducing carbon with Claire Donovan from End Furniture Poverty captured as part of the Zero Carbon Tour.

Our story

by Claire Donovan from End Furniture Poverty - Zero Carbon Tour interview.

Across our organisation since we were founded over 30 years ago, we have always done furniture reuse and recycling. Now we have our ultra-clean mattress machine, which cleans 12,500 mattresses per year. There are six million mattresses – at least in the UK – that go to landfill every year. We are now able to clean 12,500 of them, which is a good start. We use ozone, infrared heat and deep steam to clean them. Every mattress we reuse saves 79kg of CO2 – by cleaning 12,500 mattresses, we are hoping to save 987 tonnes of CO2, which is the equivalent of taking 175,000 cars off the road for a day.

The main reason we have to do something is for the survival of the planet and our children. There are lots of other reasons as well: it is profitable; it does not just save your organisation, it can make money as well.

For the full story, please watch the video! Discover more here: www.zerocarbontour.com.

Image: Unsplash stock image, Haley Owens

Our advice

Don't give up! Be bold, but do not take too many risks – there is a fine line between taking risks and surviving and being sustainable as an organisation.

Our metrics

Number of mattresses repurposed for use.
Amount of carbon savings.
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