A day at the recycling centre: treasures, upcycling and rising waste

When an embalmed rabbit in a Perspex box arrived at the Kings Road Reuse and Recycling Centre in Chingford last year, Lisa Charlton rescued it from landfill, sure a regular who liked the macabre would buy it. Charlton, who has worked in the onsite ReUse shop for a year and a half, has salvaged furniture, old toys, lampshades and walking frames, and set aside cast-iron cauldrons for her sister, who runs a shop in Cornwall.

Items that pass through include vintage crockery, antique crystal vases with solid silver rims, a spindly 1920s chair and an old ammunition box; Charlton waits for “the Del Boy moment.” The centre sits on a former playing field and hums through the morning: debris clatters against a garden-waste chute, brightly coloured signs direct visitors to containers reached by metal staircases, and crews in orange hi-vis swap full skips for empty ones.

recycling centre, reuse shop, upcycling, landfill, chingford, kings road, lisa charlton, salvaged furniture, cauldrons, embalmed rabbit