Recycling Lives acquires ninth site

Preston-based waste management charity Recycling Lives has taken over Pick-a-Part in Kent, securing 12 jobs.

The new facility will allow the firm to depollute and recycle end-of-life vehicles. The organisation is also looking to introduce its charitable activities into the South East, having already expanded its food redistribution programme further across the North West this year, including introducing its offender rehabilitation model into the area.

Managing director William Fletcher said: “This move tops off our biggest year to date, where we’ve tripled our turnover and more than doubled our national footprint.

“We’re proud to have secured the jobs of a great team in Erith and are excited to introduce our unique business offering to the South East. We’re already exploring opportunities to expand our charitable and social activities into the Kent area.”

Recycling Lives runs a unique social business model, using its commercial recycling and waste management operations to directly support and sustain and number of its own charity and social programmes.

It manages its own residential facilities to offer a safety net to homeless, marginalised men; runs an offender rehabilitation programme in nine North West prisons; and manages food redistribution in partnership with national charity FareShare to reduce food waste and tackle food poverty.Operations at the Erith Pick-a-Part site will now shift from breaking cars for parts to processing and recycling vehicles down to composite parts ready for reuse or remanufacture.