ENTERPRISING Helen Fox has been providing bedding for horses and other livestock for two years.
Now Green Mann Bedding pioneer Helen is hoping to do more.
‘She said: ‘In working with businesses I realise that there is much more that we can do in the island to divert waste products from landfill.
‘There are many scrapstores set up across the world and they are a fantastic way of safely disposing of corporate or manufacturing waste while firms also fulfill their corporate social responsibility by helping grassroots community groups.’
Helen, who also runs the art department at Isle of Man College, said scrapstores can take a variety of waste as long as it could be reused for creative art materials.
‘This can be as diverse as cardboard tubes, sheets of die cut plastic, containers small and large, off cuts of paper, card and textiles, paint, canvas, posters, wallpaper, paper cups, foam, fabric, cord, ribbon and string. The list is endless.’
She is hoping clean reusable scrap materials, which businesses find hard to recycle, so would be otherwise land filled, can be made available for children and community groups to play or work with through a central collection point/store.
Helen said she was in talks with an established charity in the island to run the store as a joint venture which will be non-profit making.
Green Mann Bedding has been running for two years and is based at the Isle of Man Business Park.
The business, which is big on recycling and the environment involves using unwanted corrugated cardboard and processing it into bedding.
Helen says it is suitable for all kinds of animal husbandry including horses, lambing pens, poultry and game rearing.
The business is based in a 1,500 sq ft unit and the company has always promised to provide the ‘most comfortable sleep animals can possibly have.’
Helen said there is space available at the unit to establish a scrapstore.
She said only scrap that can be used as a creative resource is collected.
The idea is that the scrap is stored and then scrapstore members come along and collect the resources they need. ‘As a member you receive access to the warehouse and low cost scrap creative resources. In the future we hope to run workshops, hold exhibitions and set up a shop,’ said Helen.
She added that membership would be open to any group or individual working in a creative play, care, educational or therapeutic setting in the island.
Helen added: ‘We are currently looking to establish the breadth and range of materials available.’
Anyone interested in the project can contact Helen on 494727 or email helen@greenmannbedding.com