The Salvation Army has launched a new initiative which displays regional reports of tonnages of textiles collected on its website. The system works by linking to the hand-held computer data capture system used by collectors on the streets.
National recycling coordinator for the Salvation Army Trading Company, Garth Ward, said: “There is much talk about data capture in the recycling arena and how best to present the results. This unique system uses tried and tested technology in a novel way.”
The hand-held monitors, which have been used by the company's clothing bank collectors for two years, are linked to the website by a database programme developed in-house. Records for each council will only be available to local authority officials with passwords.
Mr Ward said the innovation would save 3-4 tonnes of paper a year which would have been used to post paper copies of tonnage reports to councils. “Additionally, efficiency will be markedly improved as local authorities will be able to view their textile collection tonnages virtually instantly,” he said.
The Salvation Army operates 2,300 clothing banks, 100,000 kerbside collections per week and collects 10-15% of total textiles collected in the UK.
The online database of collection weights was launched at this month's RWM show. Mr Ward said visitors to the stand who looked at the database were “gobsmacked”.
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