Seagulls Re-use - one persons rubbish really is another’s gold

Futurebuilders invested a Small Organisation Tender Fund of £3,350 in Seagulls Re-use to support the organisation tender for a contract with Leeds City Council for waste recycling.

About the organisation

Established in 2003, Seagulls Re-use is a social enterprise working to promote and develop a community recycling resource centre in Leeds.

The project arose from the need to tackle the issue of waste in the Leeds area and find positive and effective ways to encourage people to recycle. The main aim of Seagulls is to promote community participation in recycling through the renovation and the re-use of waste materials, applying creative means to provide the sustainable use of resources while offering training, support, volunteering and job opportunities for local people.

There are so many things that can be re-used, recycling is great, but it’s almost the easy way out - people don’t realise how much money they can save by re-using. We are trying to inform, educate, and most importantly, create a community approach to recycling and re-using that not only dramatically benefits the environment but also promotes holistic community engagement.

Seagulls have a large workshop full of re-loved paint for anyone to come and purchase for extremely affordable prices. It now also runs mosaic workshops and has recently launched ‘Seagulls Redecorate’. This aims to provide affordable and safe home maintenance and improvements to disadvantaged members of the community; provide training, skills and work experience to volunteers, young people and other members of the community to increase opportunities for employment; and empower local tenants by giving them the skills and confidence to make their own home improvements.

“There are so many things that can be re-used,” describes Seagulls co-founder Kate Moree, “recycling is great, but it’s almost the easy way out - people don’t realise how much money they can save by re-using. We are trying to inform, educate, and most importantly, create a community approach to recycling and re-using that not only dramatically benefits the environment but also promotes holistic community engagement.”

For its efforts Seagulls, in 2006, was shortlisted for The National Recycling awards, Community Project of the Year and back in 2004 the Scarman Trust honoured co-founders Cat Pearson and Kate Moree as Community Champions for their early achievements.

How Futurebuilders helped

Futurebuilders invested £3,350 in Seagulls Re-use in the form of a Small Organisation Tender Fund. The investment included financial and legal advice to support Seagulls in preparing a tender for a contract with Leeds City Council. The three year contract is for the collection of waste paint from household waste sorting sites around Leeds, which it then sells onto public, tenants of social housing and supporting housing providers. It currently has an informal grant funded arrangement with LCC for this service which has been piloted at one site.

Everything in the yard gets a lick of paint

Seagulls have an excellent relationship with Leeds City Council, experience of delivery for the past three years and is the only third sector service provider in the area so are confident in winning this contract, yet it is a long process describes Kate:

“It’s a difficult slow process in bidding for environmental contracts. For one, it’s really hard because not nearly enough money gets put into environmental ventures, and two, environmental contracts are a new realm for many commissioners and this means that it’s a turtles pace progression of events, but in saying that, we are quietly confident in winning this contract.”

The future for Seagulls

To date Seagulls now collect from five Council HWSS sites with the possibility in the future of collecting from all eleven in Leeds. Seagulls bring in about 5 tons of paint per month and redistribute about four to its member groups and anyone else who needs paint.

Seagulls currently employ five full time staff and have between two and ten volunteers at any one time. Cat explains:

“we try to create a real family environment here at seagulls, it’s taken a lot of hard work to get here, but it’s the people make the real difference, and of course we hope to grow because this is a much needed service.”

Seagulls’ signature colour kitchen

Seagulls have prospered in knowledge and experience through contact with similar environmental social enterprises and community sector based projects. “We were extremely realistic in our aspirations and have benefited and continue to benefit by getting some really good relevant advice,” declares Cat, “I would recommend to any start up social enterprise to do the same.”

Considering an investment from Futurebuilders?

If you are a third sector organisation delivering public services, or planning to deliver public services, you could be eligible for an investment from us.

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