Gems uncovered at ‘scrap swop’

The Mayor of Rochdale, blowing the the whistle to start the scrap swop, joined by the Mayoress Gillian Brown along with Tina Wright (far left) and Alison Sharkey (far right) of PEARLS.

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One person’s rubbish is another person’s treasure, so the saying goes. With that in mind, a number of gems have been uncovered at a ‘scrap swop’ hosted in Rochdale.

The resource centre and scrap store PEARLS hosted a scrap swop at its headquarters at the Globe Park Industrial Estate, on Moss Bridge Road in Rochdale. Blowing the whistle to commence the proceedings was the Mayor of Rochdale, Councillor Alan Godson, and Mayoress Gillian Brown.

Along with PEARLS, eight other scrap stores from across the country, including Manchester and Blackburn, gathered to exchange between 16 to 18 tonnes of safe and clean waste materials, which have been donated by businesses. These items are then given a new lease of life by being reused in creative ways by schools, youth and adult groups and community artists.

As well as silver foil, colourful paper and fabrics switching hands, some of the more unusual items exchanged on the day included plumbing piping and green felt used for piano keys.

Tina Wright, one of the directors at PEARLS, which was established as a workers’ cooperative in April 2010, explains why these events take place: “Businesses donate all sorts of weird and wonderful items which can be reused for creative projects.

“However, we have a rule that no scrap store can source materials in another store’s area. So when we all get too much of a good thing, we meet up and have a scrap swop, so everyone can widen their stock range.”

Once all the materials had been unloaded from the vans, each scrap store is allowed two people to grab as much stock as they could.
Braving the rain, the appointed runners made short work of the scrap swop, clearing the area and loading their vans up in under 30 minutes.

Phillippa Superville Blackford, Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority’s community liaison officer, said: “It’s surprising the amount of waste that has been brought to the scrap swop, so obviously businesses are thinking about reuse rather than throwing it away, which is really positive.”

“It was good to see businesses seeing reuse as an option” 

Items that could not be recycled would be sent to landfill if they could not be reused.