Pictured above: Staff from Wakemans help load the Hall Green Minibus

National property and construction consultancy Wakemans has set up an innovative recycling initiative, which is not only saving a Birmingham school money, but is also helping to reduce the amount of construction waste going to landfill. 

Wakemans is collecting quantities of waste wood and plastic for students at Hall Green School to use in their Product Design projects. The left over materials are odd-sized lengths, unfit for any other purpose, and would otherwise have ended up in skips. 

Senior project manager David Jones came up with the idea when he realised school budgets were being cut and the impact this could have on pupils learning.

He says: "We have had tremendous support from the contractors we work with. They set aside small quantities of waste materials, which we can easily return from site with. What is available depends on the nature of the construction scheme, of course, but the school welcomes pretty much anything so long as it is clean and safe to handle." 

Sisk Group and Ipswich-based Barnes Construction have supplied timber off-cuts from their work on leading hotel projects, while Ashley Signs of Leeds has donated pieces of the acrylic and vinyl plastic it uses in sign manufacture. Enough was collected over two months to fill the school minibus.  

Anglo Holt, which operates a recycling and waste segregation system at its construction site in Elmdon, is also supporting the initiative and has invited Hall Green School to collect materials from the site. 

"We're very grateful to Wakemans because, thanks to this new recycling initiative, the school is maximising its budget and our students are benefiting from working with a range of quality materials," says Head of Design and Technology, Ben Atkinson.

While most of the materials will be used by Hall Green School's students in their Design and Technology lessons, Mr Atkinson says some of the items could be suitable for use in scenery for school productions. 

Wakemans has a longstanding association with Hall Green School, regularly helping out with the Year 9 Product Design projects and advising on careers in the construction industry, and is a keen supporter of initiatives that get business working closely with the local community. The firm is encouraging contractors whom they work with across the Country to adopt a similar recycling scheme to ease the strain on their budgets and help protect the environment.