Chairman of trustees Bill Smith with a pair of the safety boots Crow Recycling celebrates after receiving £350 in National Lottery funding Crow Recycling based in Coventry is celebrating after being awarded £350 in funding from The National Lottery Community Fund.Crow Recycling has used the funding to pay for steel tipped non slip safety boots for people to use on work experience. Crow’s mission is to provide work placements for disabilities by recycling office waste paper and cans and running a Scrapstore selling reused items for arts and crafts. At the moment volunteers on placement are expected to provide their own safety boots but now Crow has a supply to lend.This new National Lottery funding will support disabled volunteers, particularly those on short term placements from school or college who don’t own safety boots.National Lottery players raise over £30 million a week for good causes across the UK. The National Lottery Community Fund distributes a share of this to projects to support people and communities to prosper and thrive.Chairman of Crow Recycling trustees Bill Smith said: “Thanks to National Lottery players, this grant means that we can lend safety boots to our volunteers. That means they don’t have to buy them or ask around to borrow them and removes a barrier to volunteering with us.”Crow Recycling is in Orchard House, Sparkbrook Street, Hillfields, Coventry, CV1 5LB.

From left to right volunteer Tracy Windross, Scrapstore manager Kathy Heart and volunteer Jan Stanley The Crow Recycling Scrapstore celebrated its 10th anniversary this month. The membership shop selling a host of reused items for arts and crafts was set up in 2012. Since then it has been providing bargain resources to crafters, families, schools, nurseries and childminders. The occasion was celebrated with cake at a recent Saturday opening.

Crow Recycling is open Monday April 11 to Thursday April 14. The Scrapstore will close at 2pm on Thursday instead of the usual 3.30pm Crow Recycling is closed Friday April 15 (Good Friday) to Tuesday April 19 (the day after Easter Monday) Crow is open again after the Easter break Wednesday April 10 Thursday April 21 After that opening times go back to normal. Please note normal opening times don't include Fridays  

Here at Crow Recycling we need some help after getting a very generous, huge donation of around 12 large boxes of CDs and DVDs The problem is that we no longer accept CDs and DVDs. We have no way of recycling or repurposing such large quantities, they are not what our Scrapstore customers usually buy and we don't have the staff and volunteer time to sell them elsewhere. The outfit that takes our surplus second hand books doesn't do DVDs or CDS. Lucy Lynch, admin and external relations officer at Crow Recycling said: "You don't have to be a Scrapstore member to take up this offer and if you would like to Ziffit or car boot them be our guest. You just need to be able to collect some or all of them during our opening hours which are Mondays to Thursdays 9.30am to 3.30pm. E mail us on info@crowrecycling.co.uk to let us know you are interested and sort out a date and time to collect them."

The Crow Recycling Scrapstore will be open from 10am to 1pm on Saturday April 2. Fabric, plan and patterned paper and  card, sketch books, jewellery making supplies, wool, haberdashery and a host of other reused crafting supplies are in stock. Come and have a browse. The Scrapstore is a membership shop. Annual membership costs £10. Once membership is paid supplies are at bargain prices such as £1 for a ball of wool and £1.50 for a metre of fabric. Crow Recycling is a charity providing work placements for disabled people. The stock is donated and Scrapstore takings go towards keeping Crow up and running. More information here.  

Part-time Van Driver Wanted. Crow recycling requires a van driver to collect cans and paper for processing and to deliver bales of shredded paper and bales of crushed cans to customers, mainly in the Coventry and Warwickshire areas. The role requires a reasonable level of physical fitness, reliability, good organisational skills and accurate record keeping. Hours: 9am to 3.30 pm on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. There is a degree of flexibility for the right candidate. Salary: £9.50 an hour with statutory holiday entitlement Note: As Crow Recycling is a registered charity working with individuals with learning disabilities, this post is subject to completion of DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) checks. To apply send a CV and covering letter to Bill Smith, chairman of trustees, Crow Recycling, Sparkbrook Street, Hillfields, Coventry CV1 5LB. The e mail address is info@crowrecycling.co.uk Closing date Friday March 4 2022. Crow Recycling is on 02476552444

If you're visiting Crow pause in our hallway to have a look at this art work made from rubbish. It's a Crow made from Guinness cans collected by staff and volunteers at Crow as part of the organisation's used drinks can processing operation. Crow  staff and volunteers collect used cans, crush and bale them and sell them on to scrap metals dealers for recycling. The ones from this art work were selected by Coventry artist Val Hunt for reuse instead of recycling. Find out more about how Val Hunt creates art from all kinds of  rubbish as well as drinks cans here.

Part of a large recent fabric donation The Crow Recycling Scrapstore will be open on Saturday February 12 from 10am to 1pm. Thanks to a generous corporate donation there will be a large variety of fabric to choose from. Once the Scrapstore annual membership of £10 is paid fabric on the roll is only £1.50 per metre, sample books are from £1 to £2.50 per metre and larger and scraps and remnants between 50p and £3 each. Anyone planning a home made Valentine card for the special person in their life can buy patterned and plain card, card making stamps and back copies of craft magazines full of ideas. That's as well as all the usual wool, haberdashery, paint, pencils, crayons, paper, craft books, jewellery making supplies and embroidery thread. And of course the odds and ends all second hand shops get given that sometimes turn out to be just the thing someone had been looking for. Everything on sale is being reused so none of it costs the earth whether in cash or the planet's resources. The Scrapstore is an annual membership shop with membership at £10 for individuals or organisations. More information here.  

Christmas bows The Christmas and new year holidays are almost here. Crow Recycling  is closing at the end of the day on Thursday December 23 and reopening at 9am on Tuesday January 4. There will be a three day closure in January for staff and volunteer training. Crow will be closed on Monday January 10, Tuesday January 11 and Wednesday January 12 to give key staff and volunteers chance to complete training courses. Have a good break and a happy new year.