Tucked away off a busy Walker street lies a hidden gem community group working to protect the planet and help people learn new skills.
It's easy to miss Newcastle Wood Recycling's Woodyard as you pass it on Welbeck Road, but stop inside and you'll find a vibrant hub for local craftspeople and volunteers where nothing goes to waste.
The community interest company collects scrap and waste wood from individuals and building companies across the North East and works to give it a new lease of life. At the Woodyard, people can pick up good-quality timber for their DIY projects for much less than it would cost to buy it new, while some of what comes in is transformed into gorgeous furniture, planters and other items by volunteers.
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Last year, Newcastle Wood Recycling salvaged 349.1 tonnes of scrap wood, saving an estimated 174 tonnes of CO2. Collecting wood from building sites and working with major construction firms in the region, they say they use less fuel than skip collection, reuse wood more efficiently than conventional recycling, help prevent additional logging and never send wood to landfill.
On top of that, they aim to give people in the North East new, sustainable skills and help get people into work. Working with 'a wide range of disadvantaged people' including ex-offenders and people with substance abuse or mental health issues, they aim to help people build confidence and self-esteem, gain practical skills and 'overcome barriers to employment'.
After being unable to keep on its volunteers during the pandemic, the Woodyard, which has been open for eight years, has recently taken on new staff and is looking for volunteers to come forward to support its work and learn new skills. Staff are also looking at ways to expand and get more people down to visit, including considering plans for a community cafe or for practical skills demonstrations for the public.
Operations manager Jayne Patterson said: "Everything we get in we want to reuse in some way. For example, old palettes make perfect planters. At the moment we don't have enough bodies to make them ourselves, so we work with volunteers at Blyth Man Shed to get them made, but eventually we will be making them ourselves again.
"We want to get back into doing bespoke projects: last year we made the planters for the palm trees for the Quayside for NE1 and we want to do more things like that."
To do that, they'll need more volunteers. The team are inviting 'anyone who wants to get stuck in' to come and help out, and to get in touch if they'd like to be involved and learn new skills. Alongside that, they're also working with local charities as they continued to help people who've struggled with work in the past to get back on their feet.
"We work with Changing Lives to get people in, there are so many people who come to see them who want to get back into work but they don't have the structure for it in their lives, they need that transition period and the support," Jayne added.
It's not just about giving volunteers and staff skills, the operations manager said. One of Newcastle Wood Recycling's aims is also to help ordinary people enjoy the financial and mental health benefits of crafting something for themselves, offering friendly advice as well as affordable materials.
"It's to encourage people to realise that it's not as hard as you think it is to make things. I think that's always the first hurdle for most people, they don't know that they can do it," she said.
"All you really need is the right stuff, once you've got that it's easy to make things, you've got YouTube and all sorts of things now which can show you how to make things. If you give it a go and you mess up, 90% of the time it's fixable. You just need the stuff to do it with, and if you come and talk to us we can help with that
"We try and sell everything here for cheaper than buying it new, but still at the right value, we don't want to undercut ourselves and not be able to function, but we want it to be as affordable as possible, so that people can come and try making things for themselves."
With a special discount offered to Walker residents on everything they sell, the wood recycling team are also especially keen to get their immediate local community involved.
"We're in Walker because it's one of the lowest funded places in Newcastle, and we want to give back to a community that doesn't have as much," Jayne said.
"Walker residents all get a 10% discount and we deliver to them for free, we want to give them that facility to make things for themselves."
Among the volunteers already working in the woodyard there's a friendly buzz, with a team spirit no doubt boosted by staff lunches, which they cook together on a stove which is, of course, heated by scrap wood. People working in the yard say it's helped them 'build confidence' and 'make friends', or given them skills they hope in future to use in jobs.
For 65-year-old expert de-nailer Peter Watt, a role in the Woodyard has helped in keep in touch with skills he learnt over the course of a 40-year career working with professional timber merchants.
He said: "I love doing this - I couldn't work inside, I need to be working outside. I like it here - I've been doing this that long that nobody bothers us."
You can find out more about the Wood Yard and volunteering opportunities there at https://www.welovewood.org/
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