From ‘making do’ to renewal: Britain’s new repair and re-use revolution

Your parents or grandparents will remember “the war years” and hard times of the 1950s – rationing, ‘digging for Britain’ to grow vegetables, darning socks and patching up clothes. That generation’s values were shaped by shortages of basic necessities. Today people in the UK know of a new age of austerity and cost-of-living crisis. But what I saw on my visit was about much more than thrift (another outmoded term).

The repair and re-use revolution

A repair and re-use revolution is gathering pace across the UK, driven by a mix of environmental, social and economic factors. North Tyneside is just one example of this new movement aligned to our strategic goals at SUEZ in the UK and more generally, which draws on past ideas even as new technologies like artificial intelligence reshape the economy and society.

In March this year, SUEZ and North Tyneside Council opened the authority’s first re-use shop. It’s stocked with donated items collected from the nearby household waste recycling centre. These reusable goods – refurbished and repaired, where necessary – are diverted from disposal and given a second life.

The shop is run by our team, but the operation goes beyond retail. Working with Whitley Bay Big Local, we are bringing our vision of a community re-use hub to life. Volunteers support on-site repair activities, share skills and safety-test electrical items. Elsewhere, this charity also runs a surplus shop for food and hygiene items, plus an Energy Café offering advice on cutting bills.

A growing network – from Cornwall to Aberdeen

SUEZ in the UK has been pioneering re-use initiatives for more than a decade, creating practical solutions that benefit the environment, community and local economy.

To give a few recent examples:

• In Cornwall, the Kernow re-use shop network has grown rapidly from zero to eight branches in under two years.
• Building on the success of pop-up shops in Luton, we have opened new permanent re-use outlets at the borough council’s two Tidy Tip recycling centres.
• As our customers upgrade household waste recycling centres, we are putting new re-use facilities at their centre, as in Walsall and Aberdeen (the second stop on last week’s site visits itinerary).

Passing the million mark

Through our contracts with local authority customers, we operate more than 40 re-use shops in total. We’ve opened five new outlets so far this year, following seven in 2025, when we reached a significant milestone. For the first time, we diverted for re-use more than a million items (including those captured through our bulky waste collection services and cardboard box re-use programme).

The total volume exceeded 5,000 tonnes – our strategic target for 2025. And we’re on track to set a new record in 2026.

This achievement has not gone unnoticed. Our CEO, John Scanlon, appeared on ITV’s Tonight programme to explain how unwanted items can be turned into valuable resources rather than waste. He highlighted the growing public appetite for shopping pre-loved items (borne out by our SUEZ-commissioned consumer research), the need for infrastructure to support re-use, and the exciting opportunities for the repair sector and wider circular economy.

Safety, Solutions, Success – and partnership

The SUEZ approach to re-use promotes sustainability in its widest sense – environmental, social and economic. Our Group strategy: Safety, Solutions, Success.

• Safety: Re-use helps create stronger, more resilient communities. Affordable reconditioned goods ease pressure on household budgets, while donations support people in need. Shops and repair hubs also provide safe, supported opportunities for employment and skills development.
• Solutions: Repairing and refurbishing items preserves intrinsic value that would otherwise be reduced by recycling or incineration and lost in landfill. Diverting discarded goods not only lessens environmental impact; it also reduces the need to extract raw materials.
• Success: The revenue stream stays in the local area, helping councils fund regeneration and community projects, and the incomes made by employees and social enterprises boost the local economy.

This virtuous cycle depends on local partners. We work with a range of organisations and groups to reuse everything from wet suits and office furniture to computers and bicycles.

One of our key partnerships is with HM Prisons Service and Surrey County Council. In HMP Feltham, young offenders clean, sort and prepare medical equipment, ensuring it can be safely reused in local hospitals. They also pick up useful skills for future employment. Similarly, HMP Ford has a dedicated workshop for bikes. And HMP Downview runs a sustainability course teaching prisoners to upcycle furniture and earn a City and Guild Award.

The Manchester model

Prison-leavers are also among those that have benefitted from training and work placements in Greater Manchester’s Renew Hub – probably the best example in the UK of what community-based re-use can achieve.

This award-winning facility serves the city region’s nine boroughs and its network of Renew shops. Under our contract with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, we designed and equipped the Hub and its repair pods for a range of products from bicycles to electrical goods – as well as hosting community events. Renew is operating on an industrial scale. Within its first few years, around half a million items were sold in Renew shops and online, more than 20 green jobs were created, and over £2 million was shared with good causes across the region.

Time to renew, nationally

If we are to grow the circular economy – and move away from the unsustainable ‘take, make, and dispose’ model – the UK needs initiative of this form and scale. Early in 2025, SUEZ in the UK published a Repair, Reuse, Reform manifesto to accelerate progress. It sets out seven steps to create a vibrant re-use and repair sector, including cutting VAT on reconditioned goods, encouraging the public sector to prioritise re-use and extending Right to Repair legislation.

The potential is huge. Just look at the national spread of repair cafés and the growing popularity of vintage clothing apps, charity and swap shops. Yesterday’s second-hand has become today’s pre-loved, and the values of earlier generations are coming full circle.

Meeting colleagues in North Tyneside and Aberdeen, it was clear that the skills, energy and commitment are there to power this re-use and repair revolution.