Freegle in Norfolk - Links: Places for your stuff

Links - Places for your stuff

If Freegle has failed to find a taker for your item, don't worry! There are plenty of other places willing to offer a home to your unwanted stuff. We've split them into the following categories:

General - for all kinds of item.
Books & music - Books, CDs, DVDs, Videos etc.
Computers & phones - Computers, printer bits, phones etc.
Household Items & Furniture - Fridges, Water Filters, Beds, Chairs etc.
Paint & decorating - Art projects and others.
Wood & timber - For building, making furniture, burning etc.
Miscellaneous - Milk Bottle Tops, Stamps etc.
Animals - Places that can help you re-home pets.

If you have a link to add, please contact us.

General

North Norfolk Recycle: Not part of the Freegle network, but running in a similar way. Covers all of North Norfolk from King's Lynn to Great Yarmouth (i.e. not just North Norfolk Council area).
Community Recycling Network - Norfolk: Lots of local schemes that are members of CRN, including furniture, paint and compostable waste.
What and where can I recycle?: Information on what can and cannot be taken to Norfolk's recycling centres, and where they are. Note that several recycling centres now have Reuse Shelters where many items can be saved from the skip and sold, with the proceeds split between councils, the recycling centre operator, and local charities.

Remember too that charity shops will usually take good-quality clothes, shoes, books, CDs, DVDs, videos, housewares, linens, and sometimes furniture. They do not usually take electrical items but some do (if they have a qualified volunteer to check the items' safety). You can also look out for local sales run by charities, schools, etc. where donations of saleable items are sought. The Jumbo classified paper offers free adverts for private (non-trade) adverts in most cases (see their website for exceptions).

Books & music

Bookcrossing: Books are registered online and left in public places for people to find. The website can be used as a book treasure hunt! Members occasionally meet up, and books can also be swapped, relayed or picked up at an Official BookCrossing Zone (there are a number in Norwich, look up Bookcrossing member "jackshome" and see her shelf for details!)
Beacon Press: Will take unusable CDs, unwanted CD-ROMs etc. for recycling, turning them into alarm boxes and motor vehicle reflectors. The Beacon Press, Brambleside, Bellbrook Park, Uckfield, East Sussex, TN22 1PL. They do collection for bulk amounts - call 01825 768611.
CD Recycling - Polymer Reprocessors Ltd.: Recycle CDs and cases to produce artificial wood and alarm panels, and reused in production of CD jewel cases and reflective light lenses. The paper is recycled into cardboard. Address: Reeds Lane, Morton, Wirral, CH46 1DW
Anglia Printing Services: Anglia Printing Services no longer (June 2008) offer a CD recycling service unless you are a customer of theirs.

Computers & phones

Recycle PC

This voluntary organisation has strong links with Freegle, and takes any old PC equipment (except CRT monitors) to be refurbished and made into complete systems which are given away to goood causes. Mice, keyboards, printers, scanners, even components and partial systems are all useful.

Computers For Africa

Computers are then gifted to schools and other organisations in Africa.

Crash_IT

Project dedicated to helping disabled people or those with medical conditions.

Donate a PC

'Matchmaking' service for individuals and organisations to donate un-needed hardware.

IT For Charities

The IT Resource Guide for UK Charities.

Guide Dogs

The charity collects and recycles inkjet cartridges and mobile phones.

Epson

Epson take toner cartridges (from laser printers and photocopiers, not ink printers) at their Express centres. See the page for details and your nearest 10 centres, complete with addresses, telephone numbers and opening times: Norwich's nearest ones are North Walsham, Gorleston, Diss, Lowestoft, Thetford, Bury, King's Lynn, Ipswich, Sudbury and Haverhill.

Other places for printer cartidges:

Refill ink cartridges at Cartridge World, Unthank Road, Norwich, also Ink Exchange on Aylsham Road.
Be careful with refilled cartridges, they're usually OK, but if there are any problems (e.g. leaks which damage the printer) the usual response is that refilled cartridges (or any not made by your printer manufacturer) invalidate the warranty.
The "Break" charity shop in Beccles (and presumably their other branches?) takes them, as will many schools.
If all else fails, try PC World and Staples, or contact the manufacturer.
If you have any with chips in, Molly would love to have the chips. She uses them for adding to fundraising merchandise for Klang the dragon. (See link for contact details.)

Mobile Phone Recycling

Local company employing local people to reuse and recycle mobile phones, parts and chargers. They provide freepost envelopes for you to send off your unwanted mobiles in and you get to choose the charity that benefits!

Household items & furniture

The Furniture Re-Use Network: Thanks to the 300+ FRN member organisations, "1.5 million items per year are re-used and passed onto low income families. 63,000 tonnes of waste is diverted from landfill and 5000 people are working in the UK to collect and deliver furniture and appliances." Norfolk organisations exist in Great Yarmouth, Norwich, King's Lynn and Long Stratton.
Norfolk Homemakers Furniture Association: NHFA collect unwanted good quality furniture (all sorts of items including bric-a-brac) and pass it on at low cost to people on low incomes. They make a charge to cover overheads but are a non-profit making organisation. Unit 4 Aylsham Way, off Aylsham Road (just down the side of what used to be the car auctions) near Mecca bingo. Usual opening hours are Mon - Thurs 12 - 4.30pm, Sunday 11am - 4.30pm, tel. 01603 487444. Number corrected 7th January 2007.
Water Filters - Brita: Brita cartridges can now be recycled by taking them to most branches of Argos. To find your nearest recycling location, please email News_UK@info.brita.net, look at their web pages or phone 0844 742 4800.
Household goods, clothes and child-related items: A member wrote: a local health visitor would often be happy to take household items, clothes, shoes and especially unwanted baby and children's goods as they can frequently find homes for them with people who have had to be rehoused in an emergency or low income, young parents. I have taken lots of stuff to my health visitor to be passed on in this way and wonder if other people might think about approaching their local health visitor to do the same with goods that have not found a home on Freegle. - Contact health visitors through your local surgery or health centre.
Blankets, towels and bedding: Animal shelters and similar operations are often glad of bedding that would not be considered good enough for human use! Locally, you could try:
RSPCA Norfolk Wildlife Hospital, Station Road, East Winch, nr. King's Lynn, Norfolk, PE32 1NR. Tel: 01553-842336,
and
Save Our Seals, Winterton Seal Hospital, Low Farm, Winterton on Sea, Norfolk, NR29 4AW. Tel: 01493 393947.

Paint & decorating materials

Mini Scrapbox: A Reepham busness taking in reusable items for use by schools, community projects, etc. Unfortunately Community RePaint Norfolk has wound down, as funding ceased 17th March, 2007.

Wood & timber

ReelFurniture: Timber wanted - old oak garden posts, scaffold boards, timber from oak, yew, apple, ash, elm trees. Attleborough/Norwich area. Wanted by David Meddings to make eco furniture and houseware.

Miscellaneous

Milk Bottle Tops and Silver Foil: Lots of members ask us about these items, but we don't have many leads. If you know of somewhere, please contact us. Some charities sometimes collect (plastic) milk bottle tops - do a search on our Cafe group for posts requesting them. Also we have been told that Wells recycling centre accepts tinfoil - maybe others do too?
Stamps: It's best to find a local collection point for stamps rather than trying to post them to a specific charity - postage costs mean that if you send them (unless in large bulk amounts like 15kg), Royal Mail actually get more than the charity do (not to mention the emissions from trucking and flying them around the UK first)! Stamps are collected by all kinds of charities, so if you ask around friends, neighbours, colleagues and charity shops you will surely find a way to pass them on without posting them.
Plastic (polythene) wrap: A member wrote: Polyprint are a company based in Norwich who make those polyfilm envelopes that magazines get delivered in. They accept used ones for recycling. They will not collect and do not pay anything for the used film envelopes - but it still keeps it out of landfill. Pack them up in a recyclable envelope(!) and sending them to Polyprint Mailings Films Ltd, Mackintosh Road, Rackheath Industrial Estate, Rackheath, Norwich NR13 6LJ.
Worn out clothes (not suitable for charity shops): Playgroups/schools may take these for craft boxes. Some charity shops have contacts for companies that take unsaleable clothes as rags for processing (e.g. into felt)
Waste cooking oil: Anglia Oils will take used/waste cooking oil, but may be more suited to commerical operations (they say they collect as little as 15 litres, as required).

Animals

East Anglia Pets4Life: A Yahoo Group working along similar lines to Freegle (but not connected with Freegle.org) that aims to help people who have tried all other ways to re-home their pets without success.