Textile recycler signs deal to support air ambulance

Elland-based BIU Group has signed a new agreement with the air ambulance charity – one of 23 such contracts across the UK.

BIU Group was founded in 2005 and to date, the company has raised more than £8.6m for its charity partners.

It is part of Textile Recycling International, one of the UK’s leading reclamation businesses that employs thousands of people processing and exporting used clothing and textiles.

BIU Group aims to provide a regular and sustainable revenue stream for the Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance. There are currently around 25 donation banks across the region – but more are needed.

The Yorkshire Air Ambulance, for example, has worked with the company for over a decade and has around 250 banks that have helped generate more than £2.6m for the charity.

Under the partnership scheme, BIU Group provides clothing banks sited in the car parks of supermarkets, health and leisure centres, pubs, shops and local authority waste recycling centres, where the public can donate unwanted clothes, shoes and household textiles.

As part of the service, the company’s collection teams strive to leave sites clean and tidy to discourage fly-tipping and to attract a better standard of donation from the public. Once collected and sorted, donations are sold to BIU Group’s commercial partners in the UK and abroad, donating an agreed percentage to the charity.

Wendy Yarney, charity partnerships director for BIU Group, appealed for the community to help raise money by hosting a recycling bank. She said: “We currently have 25 banks sited at shops, pubs and village halls across the area but we are aiming to increase this number significantly.

“The Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance has no Government funding and relies purely on donations to continue its extraordinary life-saving work. By hosting one of our recycling banks, you are helping to keep the air ambulance flying 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.”

A spokesperson for the Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance added: “We will be one of only three air ambulance charities in the UK to operate a helicopter 24 hours a day, ensuring the people of Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire have the very best pre-hospital critical care possible. Hundreds of families still have their loved ones today because of the fast actions and expertise of our crew.

“The partnership with BIU Group will help us to continue to provide our patients with the very best critical pre-hospital care possible.”