Sustainability

Sustainability is at the heart of what we do. We are extremely passionate about combatting the effects of climate change. The tools that we send to Africa are all collected from people living in the UK. We prevent these tools from ending up in UK landfills and give them a new life.

CO2 emissions saved

Taking into account the amount of tools that we reuse and recycle (around 405 tonnes a year), preventing them from ending up in landfills, we save around 1,134 tonnes of CO2 emissions every single year.

(based on a report by the DEFRA Waste Statistics Team which inferred that recycling 1 tonne of metal saves approx. 2.8 tonnes of CO2 emissions)

Value of tools sent

We usually send 16 containers full of tools to Africa every single year. These tools are all donated by generous people across England and Wales, and if we were to buy them new, they would cost well over £1.5 million.

Tools sent to Africa

We send 225 tonnes of unwanted, refurbished tools to Africa every year. This keeps them out of UK landfills where they would pollute our water and soil systems and instead allows people living in rural African communities to create their own livelihoods.

Metal sent for recycling

Unfortunately, we sometimes receive tools that are too damaged or broken to be sent to Africa. But we're determined not to let them go to waste!

To ensure that they're put to good use, we sell them to Sackers, our local waste management company. Sackers process all the metal using their fragmentiser, separating it into ferrous, non-ferrous, and waste materials, and then shredding it into small pieces. The resulting 3B shredded steel is sold to customers, melted down, and reused.

We also extract copper from wires and salvage any other metal that we can find.

Sustainability

Metal sent for recycling

Empowering people with the tools that create livelihoods and transform lives