Podcast 13: Rick Brown: Seagull Centre, Thames

In August 2017 we interviewed Rick Brown, the Business Manager of Seagull Centre in Thames. The Seagull Centre is a much-loved resource recovery shop that has been operating since 2004, encouraging the community of Thames to bring in unwanted items from households, businesses, farms and workshops, rather than dumping them at the Refuse Transfer Station next door. Seagull Centre diverts these valuable items and materials from landfill by on-selling them back to the public at very affordable prices through its Re-Use Shop.

The Seagull Centre has had much success, being almost entirely self-funded, providing local employment, and running education and training services on environmental management. In 2017, Seagull Centre won the Hauraki Coromandel Business Awards for Excellence in Sustainable Practices, and was nominated as a finalist in the Partnering for Good category of the Sustainable Business Awards.

In this podcast, we talked to Rick about Seagull Centre, its value to the community, and the work it is doing to continue diverting more of Thames’ waste from landfill, and spread the message about waste minimisation. Throughout the podcast you will hear Rick discussing upcoming development projects planned for Seagull. In February 2018, the building work for this expansion project began, so much of what Rick described will soon become reality!