Wyevale Garden Centres has announced its 2016 Tools For Change project, in partnership with The Conservation Foundation’s Tools Shed, which repairs garden tools in prison workshops, giving old and broken hand tools a whole new lease of life.
Gardeners across the country are invited to bring their unwanted garden hand tools to any Wyevale Garden Centre across the UK, between May 9 and June 9, and in return they will receive a 10% discount on all new hand tools, including existing offers.
The unwanted tools will begin their journey of being refurbished by being delivered to three prisons – Dartmoor, Edinburgh and Wandsworth – where they will be reconditioned by prisoners before being distributed to local schools, charities and community groups throughout England and Wales in early 2017.
Wyevale Garden Centres chief executive Roger Mclaughlan commented: “In this modern throwaway world it’s immensely important to reduce, reuse and recycle wherever possible. Our Tools For Change programme with The Conservation Foundation is not only helping to reduce the amount of waste from old, unwanted or broken tools, but also providing an opportunity for prisoners to learn valuable skills in workshops. Wyevale Garden Centres is proud to support local communities up and down the country, so the fact that we can in turn support schools and garden projects is a wonderful incentive to have a spring clean – out with the old!”
Leatherhead Youth Project Limited senior youth worker Oli Bell added: “Leatherhead Youth Project works with young people, particularly from deprived communities, and one of our projects ‘Dig It’ sees our young people create and maintain an organic growing space. Through this project we help these young people learn to grow, produce and cook healthy meals. We were fortunate to receive a donation of Tools Shed tools of fantastic quality which enabled us to extend the work we do and increase the number of young people who can take part in our projects.”
Conservation Foundation director David Shreeve said: “We recently celebrated the tenth anniversary of Tools Shed and what amazes me is that there is still no shortage of tools looking for new homes – and no shortage of schools and community gardens needing them. It is great to have so many Wyevale Garden Centres collecting tools for so many good causes.”
Any local school or community group that would like to receive free tools once they have been reconditioned can contact The Conservation Foundation by emailing tools@conservationfoundation.co.uk .
