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Leo Chapman with some of the items he has rescued from bins and skips, where they were destined for landfill |
‘Our throw-away culture is rubbish’
A BRITPOP guitar, commemorative plates, a load of old books and a bag of sex toys – these are among the items uncovered by a Finsbury campaigner in his quest to reduce landfill.
For the past few years, Leo Chapman has made it his business to recover discarded old junk from bins and skips, restoring things where possible, then donating them to jumble sales.
He is now urging Islington Council to promote more jumble sales and encourage estate caretakers to keep an eye out for things left out in bins and skips that could be put to good use.
Mr Chapman said: “I hate to see anything useful go to waste. They get thrown away and crushed in vulture trucks. Hilary Benn said he wants a 50 per cent reduction in goods going to landfill. And landfill tax is going up so that’s quite an incentive for councils to do something about it. They should promote jumble sales. Caretakers see all this stuff. They should collect them and have some way to store them. People should think twice before throwing things out.”
Mr Chapman has come across a number of strange items during his rummages.
The corridors of the Peabody Estate building where he lives are adorned with pictures found in skips.
He said: “It’s amazing all the items that get thrown out because they’re not valuable enough to advertise. They all end up in landfill. I found a decorative plate in a Peabody Estate bin. I found a guitar under a bin outside Legonia House, you could probably get a fiver for it. I bring them home and store them. If anything needs simple mending I fix it and then I give them to jumble sales. They raise a good deal of money.”
Town Hall environment chief councillor Greg Foxsmith said: “Jumble sales are a good way of reusing unwanted goods and if residents contact our recycling team when they’re organising one, we’d be happy to put details on the website. Islington Council offers a whole range of similar services for recycling clothes and household items.” |
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