Skiggle - Net Zero

The UK Government is committed to protecting our planet and people and ensuring a greener, more resilient future for us all.

It’s Net Zero target is a part of that, as was it’s work at the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 in November 2021. The conference brought together world leaders to commit to urgent global climate action.

The COP26 looked at uniting the world to tackle climate change, and one focus was #OneStepGreener. This showcases how people from all over the UK are already doing their bit for climate change and Skiggle wants to be a part of this movement too by tackling the throwaway culture we’re bound by within the disability community.

You can help our commitment to net zero in so many ways. Get in touch with us to find out how you can help.

Throwaway Culture

At Skiggle, we’re hugely passionate about the environment, particularly the throwaway culture we’re bound by within the disability community, leading to huge amounts of waste and plastic waste being generated every single day.

In our opinion, the disability and special needs world is an environmental disaster waiting to happen, exacerbated by the amount of equipment needed by disabled people - aided by their families and carers - just to get through the day.

We might be part of the problem, but we’re determined to offer a solution, which is where the Skiggle Marketplace comes in. Our Marketplace was created to try to address the throwaway culture of the healthcare and disability world by providing a platform where people can safely rehome unopened, unused items instead of putting them straight into the bin.

What is the problem and why does it exist?

With the nature of the disabled world involving the likelihood of often vulnerable individuals being at increased risk of infection, the official advice from healthcare bodies is that anything allocated to you that you don’t use for one reason or another, should be thrown away. It can’t be returned.

So, even if you receive an incorrect or duplicate delivery, it can’t be taken back at any point by the delivery driver. It could remain boxed and sealed in a shed or garage, but it still can’t be returned.

You could even realise it’s the wrong product whilst it’s still on the back of the delivery van, but still it can’t be returned.

So, every day across the length and breadth of the country, there’s hundreds of thousands of pounds of unopened disability equipment, feed, pads, and other care products, being thrown away – often straight to landfill. This table shows the increase of the total value of products on the Skiggle marketplace from March - December 2021.

The final total in was December £390,354.16

Not only is this an exorbitant amount of money to disappear onto the scrapheap, but due to regional variations between healthcare trusts, there could be someone in Lancashire desperately short of the product that someone in the West Midlands is throwing away.

Every month the cost of what our Skiggle community keeps out of landfill goes up by an average of 5%! 

This is a break down of the cost of some of the most essential and most expensive care comsumables. 

Can Skiggle help and if so, how can I make a difference?

There is a much bigger conversation needed around healthcare processes and accountability for waste, but while practices within the healthcare industry are to throw perfectly good and usable items away, we will continue to drive people to use the Skiggle Marketplace to safely rehome as much as we possibly can.

The Skiggle Marketplace is growing daily and provides a safe, regulated place where people can give away disability products and equipment. By registering for free to become a Skiggle member, you’ll be doing your bit to help us reduce unnecessary disability waste. Instead of throwing away your unwanted or surplus sealed and unused products and equipment, you can give them away to someone who needs them via the Skiggle Marketplace.

It’s small steps, but the more people we have with us, the further down the road we can go to helping influence much-needed change.

Click here to find out how to use the Skiggle Marketplace whether you’re giving away or looking to get hold of a vital product or piece of equipment.

Get Involved

You can help our committment to net zero in so many ways. If you would like to get involved either by rehoming surplus products on our marketplace, or via a more corporate avenue by repurposing our plastic waste into alternative products - please do so and get involved today! 

"Your charity is crucial for those with disabilities, reducing harm on the environment and reducing spending!"

(J Rankin)

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