Wastesavers - About Us

About Us

Wastesavers – how it began

Who are we?

Wastesavers are a community not for profit recycling group who run a range of services in SE Wales. Primarily we run the kerbside collection of recyclables in partnership with Newport City Council as well as operating recycling services for businesses in Newport and Cardiff. Wastesavers also run training and educational projects and a furniture reuse scheme.

Our History

Wastesavers began life in 1986 as an environmental, interest group promoting the importance of reuse and recycling. In the mid 90’s it became more proactive and began picking up old newspapers from peoples doorsteps for recycling, and hand sorting these at the local paper mill. In 1995 Wastesavers collected and recycled 22 tonnes of paper. Today Wastesavers recycles more than 11,000 tonnes of material a year and can’t imagine hand sorting the 5,000 tonnes of paper it collects! That’s more than 85,000 trees per year! Progress has certainly been made in Newport with residents now receiving a weekly kerbside recycling collection of not just paper, but cans, plastic bottles, glass, textiles, mobile phones and toner cartridges as well.

Aims, objectives and legal bits

The organisation comprises two elements: Wastesavers Charitable Trust and Wastesavers Recycling Ltd. The dual nature of our structure means that we are ideally placed to deliver professional services, while at the same time developing activities that raise awareness and encourage participation in reuse and recycling, throughout all sections of the community.

Wastesavers Charitable Trust LTD

WCT is a registered charity (No. 1116150).

The primary objectives of NWCT are:

to relieve poverty by providing renovated furniture and other household items to those in need
to advance education regarding the environment and the need for recycling within the community

Wastesavers Recycling LTD

WRL is the socially-owned trading subsidiary of Newport Wastesavers Charitable Trust. With no share capital the company (No. 3842840) covenants all of its profits directly to NWCT.

The primary objectives of WRL are:

to establish, operate and develop a variety of community recycling services for the collection and sale of post consumer waste
to promote and cultivate, within educational establishments and the wider community, the environmental value of reducing, reusing and recycling waste
to involve the unemployed, volunteers and people with special needs in the collection, distribution, renovation, promotion and expansion work of recycling services
to encourage and assist in the development of other initiatives elsewhere in the United Kingdom, which will pursue objectives similar to and compatible with those of the company

In partnership with Newport City Council, Wastesavers operates a number of projects to improve the environment and return added benefits for the community. Wastesavers has a turnover of over £1 million and does not take a profit on any of its projects.