South Molton Recycle Limited (SMR) is an ethically-driven, non profit distributing community recycling business. The Company was founded by Steve Portsmouth in 1991 with three core aims:

1. To reduce the volume of waste being sent to landfill by educating the public about the benefits of recycling and making it easy for them to recycle.

2. The creation of jobs for local people by direct employment and through the sourcing and supplying of services, vehicles and equipment within the local economy wherever possible.

3. The ability to offer job opportunities to disadvantaged people in the local community who may otherwise find it difficult to find work.

SMR is a self sustaining Community Business with all profits put back into the business to enable diversification and expansion for the benefit of the Community.

South Molton Recycle is a non-profit distributing community business operating green box and bag kerbside recycling collections under contract to Torridge District Council and, until 6th May 2008, North Devon District Council. It also operates a Civic Amenity Site under contract to Devon County Council. We run our own Bulk Materials Storage Depot for the collected recyclables to be stored and processed prior to them being shipped to the big recycling plants. We also undertake trade collections of various materials and, until 31 March 2008, run our own re-use shop. (From 1st April, the shop will be run by our sister charity, SMR Phoenix.) We design all our own collection vehicles and have them built in Devon.

Our aim is to protect the environment by reducing pollution and to save resources by cutting down the amount of waste going to landfill. We provide employment for local people, support educational visits on recycling to local primary and secondary schools, give employment to disadvantaged members of the community as well as supervise workers on community service.

Our belief in re-use, repair and recycling is demonstrated in the recycle shop in South Molton which sells everything from buttons to antiques. (From 1st April 2008 it is to be transferred to a sister charity, SMR Phoenix.) We accept donations of all resaleable items and aim to provide a vast range of reasonably priced household, electrical, garden and leisure items, white goods, furniture, tools, books, clothes and bric-a-brac for the local community. A free collection service is available for large items.

We have been featured on television and radio programmes, both local and national, as well as being given considerable coverage in the newspapers. We have received awards for the quality of our work and our recyclables from Shell Better Britain, North Devon Conservation Society, British Glass, National Lions Club and Aylesford Newsprint.

The continuation of our success is totally dependant on the commitment and hard work of each and every employee. For our part we try to be a fair and considerate employer who values and cares about its employees and tries to be as supportive as possible.

A Brief History

This is how it all came about:-

In 1989 Steve Portsmouth read and responded to an article in the North Devon Journal about the appointment of two new directors at Creation Restoration and which asked for volunteers. At that time the Company was a charity with two employees, a number of work experience scheme workers, several volunteers and one vehicle. 560 tons of waste was recycled that year. It was not long before Steve was appointed a Director and Creation Restoration became the non profit distributing company, South Molton Recycle.

In 1991, following on from EU and Government recycling initiatives, Friends of the Earth ran a County Recycling Award which, largely due to Steve's enthusiasm, Devon won and was designated 'Devon Recycling County'. Recycling was on the map!

South Molton Recycle gained contracts with Devon County Council, North Devon District and Torridge District Councils and went into partnership with other community groups. We were inundated with visits from organisations from all over the country - community groups, councils, radio, television, newspapers - all wanting to know how to do kerbside recycling as we were the pioneers in this type of work.

The re-use shop at South Molton was improved. There were County wide 'bring systems' developed for paper and glass.

In 1991-2 Civic Amenity Recycling Centres were developed from the old 'dumps'. These new CA Sites were able to achieve high diversion rates from landfill by recovering and recycling a lot of the domestic household waste that was brought in. South Molton Recycle managed the Civic Amenity Recycling Centres at Seven Brethren in Barnstaple and Maclins Quarry in South Molton.

In 1992, NDDC and TDC took up an idea that Steve had had and Recycling Pavilions were introduced into rural parishes throughout North Devon, Torridge and Mid Devon Districts for small communities to have their own recycling point to recycle their paper, glass, food tins, plastic bottles, drinks cans, aluminium foil and textiles. SMR serviced these Pavilions which numbered 90 at their peak. The fortnightly green bag kerbside collection service of paper and textiles began in South Molton.

In 1993, NDDC, TDC and South Molton Recycle launched the weekly green box and bag Multi Material Kerbside Recycling Collection Scheme of paper, glass, food tins, drinks cans, plastic bottles, aluminium foil and textiles into all the major town across North Devon and Torridge Districts.

From 1993 to 2001 the emphasis was on improvements to the kerbside service, the design of our own collection vehicles to collect all the segregated materials and improvement of the facilities at the Bulk Storage Depot for handling all the materials collected. As a pioneering recycling organisation we had to devise our own methods of collection and decide on the types of materials collected based on the availability of sustainable markets. Strong links were formed with community recycling groups and Steve was a founder member of the Community Recycling Network through which information, support and encouragement were shared. The number of staff increased along with the number of vehicles and Steve continued to champion recycling locally and nationally.

In 2002/03 the expansion of weekly multi material kerbside recycling rounds continued to all the larger villages in North Devon and Torridge. Steve Portsmouth was invited to No 10 Downing Street in recognition of his services to recycling and the environment.

In 2004 South Molton Recycle won CRED funding from the Big Lottery Fund to increase the weekly kerbside recycling collection service to cover 100% of households in North Devon and Torridge Districts. This further innovation was part of our ethic of pushing out the boundaries to prove that kerbside recycling in rural areas could be done successfully and sustainably (despite denials from other parts of the country) and working with our Councils to fulfil their recycling targets.

In 2005 the 100% kerbside green box and bag collection service was rolled out across the 811 square miles of North Devon and Torridge Districts increasing our collections from 55,000 to 70,000 households per week. 10,800 tons of materials were recycled during the year, with a staff of 60 and a fleet of 24 collection vehicles. Recycling Pavilions started to be removed now that full kerbside collection coverage was in operation.

Tragically in August 2005, after a long battle with cancer, Steve Portsmouth died. His daughter, Sarah Portsmouth, then took over as Managing Director.

Sarah said soon after the appointment 'it has been a very tough year but we have managed to build a strong management team for our kerbside recycling collections, Bulk Storage Depot and our Civic Amenity Recycling Centre in South Molton. We have appointed a new Manager, Helen Bone, to lead our strongly committed team in the shop. Helen is very enthusiastic and is packed with ideas for raising the profile of our re-use shop in Southley Road and is a great asset to SMR. It is our ethic to divert as much as we can from landfill by removing as much from the household waste stream as possible. We do this by collecting recyclable materials at the kerbside, sorting, baling, storing and onward shipping them to be recycled, managing the Civic Amenity Site at South Molton and by selling reusable items in our shop in South Molton. This enables items that are no-longer required by one household to be used by someone else.'

In 2007 the kerbside contract with North Devon District Council was lost as the Council decided to take the service in-house. This provided the impetus to SMR to consider other avenues for promoting recycling. For example, further processing of recyclates and even local reprocessing are being investigated.

To date, sadly the land on which the shop and head office with vehicle parking stands is due for redevelopment, and when this happens we will be looking for a new location for both sites.
'Since its inception in 1986, the shop has always been a meeting place for local people and particularly for the elderly of the town. The community in South Molton has given great support to our shop and we are very keen to remain in the town and are continually looking for alternative premises'.