Issue 7 Spring 2011

Tuesday 19 April 2011

Happy Birthday To Us!

2011 marks an exciting milestone year for SATCoL as we celebrate our 20th anniversary. Despite the economic climate, SATCoL’s profit and collection levels have continued to grow and we've expanded to operate over 5,000 banks and 120 charity shops in the UK and Republic of Ireland, with more planned over the coming months.

Having witnessed many fluctuations in the textile recycling market during our 20 years in business, we're proud of SATCoL's reputation as a robust, trustworthy organisation that offers a reputable charity connection which is held in high esteem by the public and our local authority and superstore partners.

The past 20 years have been incredible but as well as reflecting on our achievements we are keen to look forward. We’re in a great position to expand further and plans are firmly in place to maximise the potential of the company and the brand. We are very optimisitc about the next 20 years!

Enjoy the newsletter.

Paul Ozanne, national recycling coordinator

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Recycling Bank Boost for Isles of Scilly

We recently joined forces with the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company to offer residents on the Isles of Scilly the opportunity to continue being eco-friendly, whilst supporting The Salvation Army. We provided one of our brand new clothing banks and arranged free transportation on board freight vessel the Gry Maritha from Penzance to St Mary’s.

The clothing bank, located on the quay, was in desperate need of refurbishment due to its constant exposure to the elements. Jackie Hayman at the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company helped coordinate the transportation and was full of praise for the new bank.

She said: “The clothing bank on St Mary’s provides islanders with an excellent opportunity to put their unwanted clothing to good use and stop unnecessary waste going to landfill. We’re more than happy to transport the bank to and from the mainland in support of SATCoL’s Clothing Collection Scheme.”

We’d like to thank the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company for its generosity in helping us update our clothing bank on the island. Textiles are the UK’s fastest growing household waste stream and by recycling unwanted clothing and other textiles we can help the environment by reducing what we send to landfill and reusing valuable resources. We hope the new clothing bank will encourage Isles of Scilly residents to continue being ‘green’ as well as raising funds for a well-loved charity.

This story was turned into a nice local news article along with the picture above. If you're planning anything interesting or out of the ordinary that the local media might like to cover, get in touch with our press office team who will be happy to help: Sarah or Kathryn sarah@absoluteprandmarketing.com / kathryn@absoluteprandmarketing.com / 01392 680740.

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Here to Help!

As part of our dedication to provide customers with a professional service, SATCoL has a devoted team responsible for a helpline in normal office hours to assist the general public, together with an out of hours answering service and emergency telephone number.

Dealing with around 2,000 calls per week in relation to clothing banks, door-to-door collections and general enquiries, a team of six fully trained members of staff man the user-friendly helpline at any one time.

Each new member of the team is selected strictly based on their past level of helpline experience, so they’re used to dealing with members of the public. Each member has full access to SATCoL’s internal database with a range of up-to-date information on bank locations and door-to-door schedules, along with mobile numbers for all the collectors across the UK so that any queries can be dealt with as quickly as possible.

The hard work put in by our helpline team is fundamental to our success and we are very proud of the positive feedback we receive on a regular basis.

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Caring and Sharing

Although our main aim is to raise money for The Salvation Army, SATCoL does occasionally work with other charities and partners to broaden the public appeal of textile recycling.

Some of the clothing banks on our Asda sites are dual branded with the famous Pudsey Bear Children in Need logo, which is Asda’s chosen charity. Since 2009 we have added 350 dual-branded banks on top of the 240 Salvation Army banks we already have in the supermarket’s car parks. This has resulted in more than 2,000 extra tonnes of textiles being collected alongside those collected from our normal banks and in the past 12 months alone Asda, in conjunction with Salvation Army Trading Company, has donated over £450,000 to Children in Need.

We’re also working with Morrisons, donating some of the profit from the clothing banks on the supermarket’s sites to its charity of the year. Since the scheme began in mid-2010, we’ve added an additional 100 banks to our existing network across Morrisons’ sites and to date, in the region of £66,000 has been donated to the chosen charity.

Our research, evidenced by our collection levels, shows that by building partnerships between charities in this way we are not only encouraging even more people to recycle their unwanted textile items, but making charities more sustainable. By growing our network of banks rather than substituting the existing Salvation Army banks, we’re confident that The Salvation Army does not lose out on any funding – in fact more textiles being recycled means that all charities involved benefit from additional funds and it’s better for the environment too.

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Mastering Bank Maintenance

Providing safe and secure clothing banks that are regularly refurbished and designed to prevent theft is pivotal to increasing the amount of clothing collected for re-use and recycling.

We currently operate over 5,000 clothing banks nationally and have a rolling programme to ensure they are always in good condition. These vital updates are completed by one of our contractors or, if they’re in need of minor repair, by one of our in-house team (pictured here). This ensures that any necessary attention is given within 48 hours.

In order to maintain our ever-expanding network of clothing banks, a fleet of vehicles including hiab and flat bed trucks transfer the banks to and from our Northamptonshire processing centre to allow for repairs to take place.

Our aim is to drive expansion with 500 more robust and reliable banks planned for the year ahead in order to reach out to an even bigger audience and help reinforce our recycling message.

We take every precaution to minimise vandalism and theft and over the last 20 years we have seen nearly 70 adaptations to our standard clothing bank. The latest developments include the installation of additional flaps to the chute mechanism and a specially designed locking mechanism, making it very difficult to enter the banks. We are pleased to announce that these new developments, combined with the use of CCTV, have already reduced the number of thefts considerably over the last 12 months.

The industry as a whole is working with Government agencies and the Police Authority to address the issue of theft, particularly from bogus or illegal collectors, and SATCoL has had regular representation at these consultations.

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All In A Day's Work!

As well as our nationwide team of collectors, SATCoL’s Clothing Collection Scheme also has a dedicated team based at the processing station in Kettering. Here’s an insight into a typical day …

• The team arrives for work at around 7am. Their day’s been planned based on information received the previous day from our operations room, which is at our head office in Wellingborough.

• Led by Jack Murray (manager, above middle), John Webb (site supervisor, above right) and Lee Oliver (goods-in supervisor, above left), a team of around 50 people get to work unloading the trailer units that are frequently arriving from their regional bases all over the UK and Republic of Ireland.

• The team screens the contents for non-textile items and re-bag the items before loading them on to lorries, ready for export. A calibrated weighbridge forms the heart of the operation, logging all items in and out to ensure the accuracy of our collection records.

• In addition to our trailer units, which act as regional drop-off points for the vans the local clothing bank collectors use, we also have a fleet of vans to collect the door-to-door bags. After being weighed, the donations from these vans are sent to warehouse 2 for unloading.

• In warehouse 2 the team identifies items suitable for sale in our network of over 100 charity shops, including bric-a-brac, CDs, DVDs and other household items. Clothing is also made available to meet the needs of our shops and is sorted at the shops.

• As well as the donations, we also have a steady stream of clothing banks coming in and out of the processing station. New banks are delivered to sites identified by our operations room and older ones are received for refurbishment, before being redeployed.

The hard work put in by our processing station team is central to the success of our Clothing Collection Scheme. They’re a cheerful, friendly and professional team and we couldn’t do it without them!

99% of items donated are reused or recycled with up to 80% being reworn. The rest will be broken down to make mattress filling, industrial wipes, or soundproofing in cars. Less than 1% cannot be used again.

The Clothing Collection Scheme is accredited with ISO 14001:2004 Environmental Management System and the station is responsible for generating accurate paper trails which will withstand any audit by local authorities, superstores, or government agencies, and complies fully with our hard-earned ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System accreditation. The operation at the station is also fully compliant with OHSAS 18001:2007 Occupational Health and Safety Management System.

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