Next Door Wood Store – transforming timber, transforming lives - 11th May 2011

I don't normally use my blog to shamelessly plug clients, but this is such a fantastic product that I couldn't hold back. See for yourselves...

The National Community Wood Recycling Project has launched an online shop, the Next Door Wood Store (www.nextdoorwoodstore.org.uk), selling timber products created by its members.
 
The recycled products sold online – from unique tables and chairs for the home, to bird boxes for the garden – are handmade by a network of social enterprises around the UK. These organisations work in partnership with building firms to rescue waste timber from landfill and provide valuable work placements for disadvantaged people.
 
Each product is unique and crafted to a high standard. Richard Mehmed, Managing Director of the National Community Wood Recycling Project (NCWRP), who founded the first wood recycling enterprise and has since supported 25 start-up enterprises, says: “The quality of the products manufactured by our members is second to none. Until now these have only been available to local customers but we're really excited to be able to offer everyone in the UK access to genuine recycled products through the Next Door Wood Store.”
 
Wood enterprises collect and sort unwanted timber from building sites before selling it back to the public as DIY material or manufactured products. Mehmed says: “Our model is about offering the building industry and other organisations that have waste wood a far more social and environmentally sustainable way of dealing with that waste and providing the public with low cost, quality timber.
 
“Because our activity is very labour intensive, the by-product includes a wealth of opportunity for people who want to get back to work but who can't because they've got baggage: ex-offenders, people with learning difficulties, or people who've been unemployed for so long that they don't have any confidence or skills. So when you buy a chunky coffee table or a blanket box for the living room, you not only receive a lasting piece of handmade furniture, you are also offering a new lease of life to a piece of timber, reducing the need to log virgin forest, and helping a disadvantaged person gain the confidence and skills needed to live a richer life.”