Dr. Sarah Miller:

There are a few ways to scale up. The way we have looked it in the past is that one can scale up or scale out. Here we have a huge opportunity to engage communities and social enterprises at a local level to deliver services of reuse-repair and community-based recycling. Yes, there are challenges in that the financial models do not necessarily add up, as we discussed. However, with some small adjustments through, for example, a community services programme for these types of services then one could have social enterprises all over the country working in tandem with their civic amenity sites, with their local authorities, to create solutions so that every local authority and civic amenity site has a partnership with a social enterprise delivering real services in their local community. That creates jobs, addresses the environmental issues and has a big economic impact on the local community.

Yes, while the commercial route allows us to scale up, it adds a little bit of concern as to how they can work in tandem. I am not saying that it cannot be done. Of course it can but we would really like to see the social enterprise sector be given support to work in their local communities.