Car club inspires recycling initiative

When Mark Cooke set up an online discussion forum for his car club, he had no idea that it would lead to a recycling initiative. Three months after establishing the site, there were 65 registered users of the forum, and visitors rose from 400 to 2500. Its success gave him an idea for solving a problem that had arisen in this job at St Vincent de Paul.

St Vincent de Paul often had months where they received more donated items than they could display on their premises, and so had to put them in storage – most often prams and clothes. Mark's idea was to create an online forum which could act as a resource exchange across Northern Ireland. Organisations could advertise excess or unwanted items, giving other charities the opportunity to claim or buy them.

The idea has developed and the forum has now been launched as the Charities’ Reuse and Recycle Partnership at www.charitiespartnership.co.uk . It is open to any not for profit organisation to join, whether they want to advertise unwanted household items, or to claim them.

It has also won the support of the Department of the Environment since the idea fits with its Wake up to Waste campaign - reusing and recycling items for a new purpose.

"The forum is still in the early days of development,” said Mark, “but it is my job now to publicise it so that as many people know about it as possible ”.

For more information about the Charities’ Reuse and Recycle Partnership, either log on to the forum (www.charitiespartnership.co.uk) or phone Mark Cooke on 028 9035 1561.