ONE of the region’s largest furniture retailers increased its recycling efforts by 15 per cent last year, and has struck up a new partnership with the British Heart Foundation (BHF).

Barker and Stonehouse, whose head-quarters are in Middlesbrough, has eight stores across the North and is currently building a new £4m store at Teesside Retail Park. It has a long-term environmental plan to recycle all packaging, reduce carbon emissions and put the company at the forefront of energy efficiency.

The business has worked with The Carbon Trust and introduced a unique, energy-efficient lighting system in its stores which has already saved up to 60 per cent on its annual fuel bills.

Company figures show that in 2014 it recycled 212 tonnes of cardboard, 40 tonnes of plastic and 10 tonnes of polystyrene – 15 per cent more than the previous year.

Vincent Lithgo, company operations manager, said: "A policy has been in place for some time to recycle all packaging products and this increase in recycling is largely due to the fact that we are delivering more products.

“If we deliver and set up furniture in a customer’s house we will take all the packaging materials back to the warehouse to be correctly recycled, something we take very seriously.”

Customers buying new furniture can have their old furniture collected by the retailer to be recycled. Working with the Furniture Recycling Company, 137 mattresses, 92 divans, 296 armchairs and 531 sofas were sustainably disposed of last year.

The new partnership with the British Heart Foundation also makes use of old furniture collected from customers’ homes. Anything in a suitable condition is donated to the charity to be resold in their own furniture store – with all proceeds going to the cause.

David Ayre, area manager at the British Heart Foundation in Middlesbrough, said: “We’re thrilled to be working with Barker and Stonehouse and we’ve had quite a few three-piece suites, beds and mattresses from them which we’ve been able to resell, raising vital funds for the fight against heart disease.”

James Barker, managing director at Barker and Stonehouse, said: “For us, responsible retailing is incredibly important and we’ve invested heavily to meet this demand.

“Working with partners such as The Carbon Trust, Furniture Recycling Company and British Heart Foundation means that we send nothing to landfill. Instead furniture is either resold for a charitable cause or recycled, which provides a source of raw materials for a range of alternative manufacturing processes.”

The company's sustainability strategy also sees it choosing ethically-sourced furniture, specially-designed lighting and insulation, sustainable buildings and shipping goods to Teesside from Southampton to reduce road miles in bringing goods to its North East stores and warehouses.