Furniture retailer Furniture Village has reported that it has managed to fulfil its zero waste commitment by recovering furniture for reuse and recycling any remaining materials through partnerships with furniture reuse organisations and recycling and waste management company DS Smith Recycling. This, says the retailer, has resulted in 2,500 tonnes being diverted away from landfill each year, the equivalent of 40 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Andy Long, Group Warehouse Controller at Furniture Village, said: “Over the past five years Furniture Village has been investigating ways to reduce its impact on the environment, by supporting charitable works via diverting useful furniture returns to local and national charities. This has the added benefit of reducing the environmental impact by diverting waste from landfill.”

Furniture Village collects over 20,000 items of old items of furniture from customers while delivering new stock, enough, on average, to fully furnish over 1,300 two-bed flats annually.

In the past four years, Furniture Village has donated 3,500 pieces of furniture to the British Heart Foundation (BHF), the biggest second-hand furniture and electrical retailer in the UK with 725 shops and over 153 dedicated furniture and electrical stores. This donation has generated more than £43,000 of revenue, which helps the BHF provide care, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of heart and circulatory disease. The company has recently started to work with the Furniture Reuse Network (FRN).

DS Smith Recycling, meanwhile, is helping Furniture Village to divert all remaining waste, and segregate paper, plastics and card for recycling.