Globechain, the leading British reuse marketplace, has announced it has helped charities and small businesses save over £2 million over the past five years.
By offering them unwanted corporate items for free, it has diverted 5 million kilos of waste from UK landfill – the equivalent bodyweight of almost 65,000 people.
Set up by UK entrepreneur May Al-Karooni in 2013, Globechain connects corporates to charities and small businesses to redistribute unwanted items in the B2B sector, including retail, corporate and construction fixtures, fittings and materials. With over 10,000 organisations currently registered on the platform, it has helped over 14,000 communities and 82,400 people globally to date.
Globechain provides a vital resource to charities, social enterprises and businesses of all sizes. Charity partners include Cure International, Emmaus, APRODEJ and Middleton Community Trust who receive alerts from the site when items of interest are available.
The marketplace specialises in large consignments of goods with a record 13,000 pallets of kitchens requested in 48 hours benefitting seven separate charities – from those helping the homeless to refugees and domestic violence.
The most popular items to date include refurbishment materials – from chairs and dressers, to tiles, carpets and fire doors, white goods, artwork, lighting and retail fixtures and fittings.
In addition to dramatically reducing capital costs and freeing up funding for social purposes, charities also benefit from Globechain’s extensive corporate partnerships with major brands including M&S, B&Q, Nando’s, Radisson Hotels and the NHS.
In exchange for their unwanted items, corporate members choose recipients and receive personalised waste audit and social value data reports on all items. This includes the amount diverted from landfill, the cost saving to the charity and wider community benefits– providing a measurable approach to social impact and meaningful CSR engagement.
May Al-Karooni, founder and CEO Globechain, commented:
Globechain connects local charities and social entrepreneurs to some of the largest brands worldwide. We provide access to thousands of items for free and empower people to think differently about waste. Our mission is to create social value by being the world’s largest reuse marketplace – disrupting the corporate waste cycle, providing meaningful social impact data and enabling charities to offset capital costs, so they too can focus on their social purpose.”
A spokesperson for APRODEJ, a Guinea based charity with volunteers in London and working throughout the UK, said:
We have been members for five years and have saved over £10,000 to date – allowing us to focus on education and training, poverty relief, health promotion, safeguarding children workshops and our campaign to end FGM. So far we have collected office chairs, office tables, carpets, extensions, drawers, mirrors, mattresses, printers, paper and scanners to name just a few. They have been used by local communities in the UK and some were sent back to Guinea for local offices in need. We have received tremendous support from the Globechain team and strongly encourage others to sign up.”
A spokesperson for Blackburn-based Community & Business Partners CIC, said:
We have collected over 70 chairs and two delivery trolleys so far – saving us an estimated £2,000. Half the chairs were repainted and now take pride of place in our Community Café. The remaining chairs will be used as part of an upcycling craft session for the community to create and keep.
We run several not for profit projects, some for the community and some for businesses including Waste Not Want Not Blackburn and Sams at Blackburn upcycling initiatives. We are also involved in the local Game Changers Group – encouraging local people to make a difference and are proud to be members of Globechain which is promoting that message to a global audience. We look forward to seeing what else it has to offer and encourage others to sign up.”
Darryl Walsh, Manager, at Manchester-based Middleton Community Trust, said:
Having signed up just a few months ago, Globechain has already become a vital resource for our charity and those we work with. As a local charity for the prevention of poverty we have a community hub, where we provide surplus food, clothing and furniture to those in need. We have so far passed on chairs to families with no furniture and used the benches we collected as seating for our clients in our food bank saving over £500 to date.”
