Kingston Community Furniture - About Us

How We Got Started

Kingston Community Furniture was established in 2005 to supply quality reusable furniture to people in need in the Royal Borough of Kingston.

At The same time it was recognised that significant volumes of bulky waste could be saved form landfill and a substantial, positive enviromental impact would result.

Originally, the project was funded by the Borough of Kingston, The City Bridge Trust, the Big Lottery (CRED Fund) and the European Social Fund.

It is managed by Kingston Voulntary Action with the Chief Executive fulfilling the role of Project Director. Three full time paid staff and approximately 20 volunteers are currently engaged in running the project. Notably all of the paid staff started out as volunteers.

Our Growth

Since 2005, Kingston Community Furniture have become heavily involved in reuse and recycling across the whole of London as a very active part of the London Reuse Network. Through investment secured from the London Waste and Recycling Board we will increase the scope and effectiveness of our activities to provide bigger and better services to the community.

Additionally we have expanded our services to cover the Surrey Boroughs of Elmbridge and Spelthorne and must thank Surrey County Council for their foresight and support by investing in this enterprise. Kingston Community Furniture are proud to be a founder member of the Surrey Reuse Network.

We are delighted to have developed special collection services for bulky items in all of our areas of operation. This has only been possible with the collaboration of the the councils covering our geographic areas and reflects very positively on their desires to increase reuse and recycling.

The Future

As mainstream participants in both the London Reuse Networks and Surrey Reuse Networks we aim to increase the scope, effectiveness and efficiency of our services by attracting investment to increase our resources. This will help us to stimulate new employed and voluntary positions as well as reaching deeper into the community with bigger and better opportunities to access reusable and recycled products.

Currently, we are actively exploring retail options with the aim of coming to a high street near you.