TJ continues to support Solent Mind

TJ Waste donated a 12 yard skip to Southampton-based charity, Mayfield Nurseries, to capture all the waste generated at a volunteer day they hosted recently. The day was a great success with 16 volunteers attending to help.

The charity is part of Solent Mind, the Hampshire-based mental health charity.  All the money raised by the garden centre sales is ploughed back into helping people with mental health issues.  

Mayfield Nurseries holds volunteering days 5-6 times a year. The opportunity to volunteer is one of the most beneficial activities that employers can provide. The company releasing staff to volunteer benefits from happier and more engaged employees and we benefit from the extra pairs of hands, which help us reduce costs, improve our sites, meet the needs of our service users and raise awareness of the work we do.

Employees from RSM UK Ltd, Insensys Ltd, the MOD and Barratt Homes attended to help at this event, so a big thanks goes out to these companies as well as the individuals for their hard work.

This is the eighth skip that TJ has donated to Mayfield Nurseries over the past two years, something that we’re more than happy to do in support of this very worthy charity. 

On the day, the volunteers achieved a great deal; they cleared a large amount of wooden waste, cleared an attic space in preparation for some roof repairs, and tidied a greenhouse – which is used as a wellbeing area – to improve it for our service users.

In summer 2022, when TJ donated three skips, Mayfield put out a plea to local companies for people to volunteer to help fill the skips to get the job done as quickly as possible. Four companies responded to the plea, with 20 volunteers turning up on the dedicated day to help.  

Following a second plea, an additional two local companies volunteered at Mayfield a couple of months later.  Those volunteers spent the day tidying the site, repairing a roof and building new composting areas using old pallets. Garden centres generate a lot of waste which can be difficult to keep on top of so this is an ongoing project. 

Mayfield Nurseries is a garden centre located in the old walled kitchen garden at Mayfield Park, Southampton. As well as the garden centre selling a wide variety of plants, they also have a garden shop which stocks gardening tools and accessories, and the Mayfield Cafe which is open for drinks and snacks between 10.30am and 3.30pm 7 days a week.

All Mayfield’s plant sale profits are invested back into wellbeing services and they work in collaboration with the national charity, Mind. Solent Mind works to ensure that ‘anyone in our community experiencing a mental health issue has somewhere to turn to for advice, information and support.’

Jo Silsbury of Solent Mind said: “We’re really proud of our lovely Mayfield Garden Centre but we’ve always struggled to manage the waste here as it’s a walled garden and there’s limited room to store large bins. Since TJ Waste started donating skips to us, it has made the waste process much easier to manage.  We’re able to clear large amounts of waste in a day and the skip is then removed immediately from site, freeing up room for us to work and for our customers to visit.”

Find out more about other projects and events TJ has donated to and about our skip hire services…