Michelle Whitfield MCIWM, ACIM, Head of Communications & Behaviour Change at GMCA, explains how the Renew Hub is delivering environmental, economic, and social benefits.
The Renew Hub is more than a reuse and repair initiative – it’s a social enterprise model:
- Providing affordable goods to residents.
- Funding grassroots projects to reduce waste and promote sustainability.
- Offering training in repair and green skills, supporting employability and inclusion.
The Renew Hub demonstrates how waste management can deliver environmental, economic, and social benefits simultaneously. It’s a blueprint for industrial-scale reuse, helping cities transition to sustainable consumption patterns while supporting vulnerable communities.
Launched in 2021, the Renew Hub is the UK’s largest reuse and repair facility, located in Trafford Park, Greater Manchester. It is a pioneering initiative by SUEZ recycling and recovery UK in partnership with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and nine local councils.
The Hub has been developed in an empty former In-vessel composting facility and is designed to tackle waste, reduce consumption, and promote a circular economy by repairing, refurbishing, and reselling pre-loved items that would otherwise go to waste.
Household items are donated at the 20 household waste recycling centres and transported to the Renew Hub for repair and upcycling before being sold to the public.
GMCA and SUEZ have been working in partnership under the Greater Manchester waste and resources contract since 2019. They have prioritised creating social value on a world-leading scale. They are delivering social, environmental and economic benefits for Greater Manchester, and in the last year, this accounted for almost three-quarters (73%) of all social value generated by GMCA and its supply chain.
Reducing waste
Since 2021, the Renew Hub has sold 455,000 items that would otherwise have been thrown away, moving waste up the hierarchy. The items are sold in three Renew shops located at household waste recycling centres, on the eBay store and on the Renew online market.
This generates funds for local charities and community projects. The revenue provides two guaranteed annual charitable donations, the first being a £100k donation to the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity to support reducing homelessness in Greater Manchester and the pioneering a Bed Every Night scheme.
Additionally, £200k per annum is guaranteed to the Renew Community Fund and to date, £1.1million has been distributed to 110 local community groups for projects like bike repair and tool libraries, creating long-term behavioural change and fostering community engagement.
Supporting green skills
The Renew Hub provides training and employment opportunities in repair and upcycling. SUEZ recruited two apprentices on a Level 2 Furniture Restoration Apprenticeship, where they have learnt techniques in restoring and preserving antique and contemporary furniture pieces. They worked in the woodwork and upholstery repair pod to develop valuable skills in woodworking, refinishing, repair, upholstery, and craftsmanship.
The repair pods at the Renew Hub also support around 10 regular volunteers who are given the opportunity to develop their skills in sewing and upholstery under the guidance of a qualified upholsterer and seamstress. Volunteers support stripping back furniture, cutting and glueing new foam and sewing and fitting new material.
The Renew Hub supports the rehabilitation of offenders through various initiatives, such as providing bikes and household items to prisons as part of a pilot project helping prisoners learn new skills.
HMP Buckley Hall received a donation of household items, including musical instruments and furniture items that were upcycled through the Novus run workshops. Inmates benefited from training and skills development in furniture restoration, upcycling and creative thinking.
HMP Risley has received bikes that are beyond repair from the Renew Hub, and instead of simply being recycled, they are used to train inmates in bike maintenance and repair.
Since 2021, SUEZ has supported 11 research projects with local colleges and universities, the most recent being interior design students from Salford University who designed one of the display pods using pre-loved items from the Hub.
Support local community projects
Through the Renew Community Fund, 110 community projects have received funding.
Emmaus Salford are a charity that supports people who have been homeless by providing them with a home and work experience. They collect unwanted furniture, clothing, bikes and books from house clearances. Items in good condition are sold in the Emmaus shops.
Items that need a new lease of life are repaired by homeless people who, as well as preventing waste, are employed and learning vital new skills they can use in the future. Funding from Renew helped them recruit another van driver to expand their house clearance offer across more of Salford.
The Little Green Sock project collects children’s clothing and other items no longer needed and distributes them to the families that need the support through referrals from health and social care professionals and other charities supporting families in poverty.
Funding has enabled them to coordinate and digitalise the referral process so that they can be more responsive to requests for support.
In less than a year, they supported 350 children with clothing, shoes and essential items and saved local families approximately £35,000 in clothing support and a further £7,000 in additional support such as prams/buggies/newborn starter kits.
Promote the circular economy
Being able to repair furniture and bikes and PAT test electricals means a wider range of items can be sold to the public for affordable prices. To date, the Renew Hub has repaired and resold over 455,000 items, helping thousands of households access low-cost goods during a cost-of-living crisis.
The onsite visitor centre also helps to educate the public beyond recycling to encourage them to think about reusing and repairing at home, taking inspiration from the team of skilled repairers. Community groups and students are given a guided tour and practical advice on how to think more carefully about buying less, reusing, sharing, donating and repurposing household items to reduce their own waste.
Setting up the Renew Hub and network of shops required a range of skills that would not be considered standard waste management roles. From upholsters and bike mechanics to retail staff and interior designers, SUEZ worked with partners and experts to get the right skills and set up the systems and processes that were needed to launch Renew. Across the three shops, logistics and the Hub, the Renew project now supports around 20 green jobs.
Daniel Carolan, Greater Manchester Contract Director for SUEZ, said: “The debate is over as to why we need to move to a circular economy – we can’t continue to consume the Earth’s finite resources and then just discard them.”
“Setting up the Renew project was a deliberate step outside of standard waste management. To make this work, we had to establish strong links with the community and specialist repair experts, while also employing staff with essential retail and warehouse experience.”
“It’s a completely different skills profile, demonstrating how these 20 green jobs are genuinely non-standard roles for our sector, on reuse and repair rather than just disposal.”
Can you replicate it even at a smaller scale?
There has been a huge amount of interest in the work happening at the Renew Hub. There have been visits from local authorities, businesses and policymakers from across the country and internationally to see how parts of the approach might be replicated.
SUEZ has used the learning in Greater Manchester to expand their reuse offer in other parts of the country. Following the example of the electrical pod at the Renew Hub, SUEZ has employed staff in Devon and Cornwall to PAT test electricals donated at recycling centres.
Previously, these items would not have been available to reuse, and by employing a PAT tester, SUEZ has opened a whole new stream of items for reuse that would have otherwise been recycled.
You do not have to recreate everything happening at the Renew Hub, and some elements can succeed on their own, such as PAT testing and functionality testing electricals or servicing and repairing bikes.