Emmaus Cambridge is passionate about recycling; we aim to give as many items a second-life and strive to send less unnecessary waste to landfill.
The Emmaus Movement is built on recycling. Emmaus began in France in 1949 with Abbe Pierre, a French MP, Catholic priest, and former member of the French Resistance. Abbe helped people who were homeless and provided them with a home and work opportunities, building houses for other people without a home. The very first Emmaus social enterprise involved the early companions becoming ‘rag-pickers’ and collecting things that people no longer wanted and selling them on.
Today, our social enterprises in Landbeach are based on the very same ideas, we collect and sell donated goods that we receive via our donation hub and house clearance service. Our team works incredibly hard to sort and organise donations and separate anything that isn’t good enough condition to be sold. Items that can’t be sold or used within our community is broken up and the wood is meticulously packed into containers so we can maximise every inch. This applies to everything from sofas to wardrobes.
We don’t stop there, cardboard is packed in the same way into containers to be recycled and metal items and parts are detached and broken down to ensure they can be recycled correctly.
Our shop offers customers a choice to buy second-hand instead of new. In the era of fast fashion, we offer a wide range of pre-loved clothes and accessories. Any clothes that can’t be sold get sent to a rag merchant who recycles and reuses the fabric. Similarly, books in poor condition are sent to a dedicated company that makes a donation to us for the items.
At Emmaus Cambridge, we have a specialist tech recycling service, Emmaus Reboot. The team in reboot collect unwanted laptops, tablets, desktops and phones and refurbishes them to a high quality, ready to be used again by a new customer. Emmaus Reboot is a great place to buy new-to-you IT equipment at affordable prices.
Our community also recycles energy, we have a number of solar panels that enable us to generate our own energy to heat an light our community house, where 50 companions live.
This #recycleweek we’re encouraging you to get recycling, go around your house and de-clutter and instead of throwing things out, donate them to Emmaus! You can book a free collection here or drop items to our donation hub on site, Tuesday – Sunday, 10am – 3pm.