St Luke's and Aspire Community Enterprise recycling partnership aims for change

29th October 2021

The team at the St Luke's Crookes shop are cutting back on waste with a new recycling project that has seen them join forces with city charity Aspire Community Enterprise (Sheffield).

The team at the St Luke's Crookes shop are cutting back on waste with a new recycling project that has seen them join forces with city charity Aspire Community Enterprise (Sheffield).

All electrical items donated to their shops have to be checked and tested for electrical safety before they can be resold.

Some items, however, will have reached the end of their useful life and it will no longer be possible, practical or economically viable for them to be made fit for resale.

But now their Crookes shop has joined up with Aspire Community Enterprise (Sheffield) to ensure that any potential waste is kept to a minimum.

Parson Cross-based Aspire is a social enterprise organisation specialising mainly in computer recycling with the intention of providing a stable job and a supported working environment for vulnerable or marginalised people.

The charity also operates a recycling centre which accepts most types of electrical, electronic or IT related products including computers, laptops, monitors, cables, wires, bits and parts in any condition.

It can also take larger items such as washing machines, cookers, dishwashers, microwaves and audio equipment.

And the new partnership means that even the most damaged item coming into the St Luke's Crookes shop can find some practical use through recycling with Aspire.

“We have ways been very concerned that badly damaged and unusable electrical items would just go to waste but this new partnership with the Aspire team really does ensure that every donation reaches its maximum potential,” said St Luke's Crookes Shop Manager Emma Hawnt.

“It’s a fine example of how two very different Sheffield charities are working together to support the local area, local people and the local economy while at the same time demonstrating a positive response to the increasing awareness of environmental responsibility.”