Every year in the UK around 1.6 million tonnes of furniture and bulky waste are thrown away, most of which is buried in landfill or burnt in an incinerator. Re-using as opposed to recycling or incinerating can save valuable resources, create employment benefits and provide affordable items to local communities. The ‘SOFA’ Project is a reuse & recycling charity & social enterprise, operating in Bristol since 1980. The charity aims at conserving and re-using furniture and appliances in order to divert waste from landfill, create work placements to those currently excluded from employment, and help those in need by supplying low cost household items through their retail activities.

Every year in the UK around 1.6 million tonnes of furniture and bulky waste are thrown away. Due to its size and perceived low value (as reflected in the name), bulky waste is awkward to manoeuvre, expensive to break down and transport, and is therefore often buried in landfill or burnt in an incinerator. However, RSA’s Great Recovery Project report 'Rearranging the Furniture' finds that 32% (by weight) of bulky items are in fact re-usable in their current state, and this figure rises to 51% if items requiring a slight repair are taken into account. Conserving and re-using this furniture would save valuable resources, create employment benefits and provide affordable items to local communities. As the RSA report points out, re-using as opposed to recycling or incinerating 1 tonne of sofas would save almost 1.5 tonnes of CO2 emissions while creating additional employment opportunities.

Named from the acronym to Shift Old Furniture Around, ‘SOFA’ Project is a reuse & recycling charity & social enterprise, operating in Bristol since 1980. The charity collects good quality furniture and appliances from local households and businesses on a daily basis, with the goal of reducing waste. The items are brought back to the premises, repaired and refurbished if needed, and made available at a low a price as possible in two retail outlets and one online shop. These can then be delivered to the new owners. The company sells a variety of household furniture, office items, white goods, clothing & paint, and, in partnership with other charities, also supplies items free to those most in need. Alongside this, they offer a variety of other activities including an electrical workshop and a flatpack workshop. In particular, ​the electrical workshop has the potential to repair and refurbish up to 100 major appliances a week. This is usually a mixture of items collected from households, items that are bought in from retail operations (the ones that are taken away when a new machine is purchased) and those that are purchased from manufacturers (graded) having been returned as a result of damage or failure under warranty. ​The SOFA Project is able to support all these activities by offering work placements and volunteering opportunities to those, who, for a number of reasons are currently excluded from the job market. They are currently working with a number of local organisations, including the local open prison HMP Leyhill. Working to refurbish the items that we collect provides good training and work experience opportunities.

By providing all these activities, the SOFA project:

1) Diverts items from landfill and unnecessary recycling by collecting unwanted furniture and electrical appliances from households and businesses and then extend their life through re-use;

2) Provides work placements and volunteering opportunities to those currently excluded from employment, while providing good training and work experience;

3)​ Helps those in need by supplying low-cost household items through retail activities and delivering items free to those most in need.