About Us

Hi, I am Sue Wellfare BEM* and have lived in Lancing since 1972.

My husband John and I are passionate about recycling and reducing the need to fill precious land with waste.

I found out about Terracycle on the back of a coffee refill packet so looked into it further.  I found that the funds had to go to either a charity, youth group or something similar.

A really nice aspect of doing this; I get to choose which charities/youth groups the money goes to.  I am a fanatically supporter of my local village, which in the past has been overlooked by the big neighbouring towns of Shoreham-by-Sea and Worthing.

I was already  a “friend” of the Lancing & District NSPCC fundraising group so they were my first choice.  Although they get a donation every time, we now share the money raised across a large range of community organisations and charities.

These are just a few of the charities we have helped: Care for Veterans, Home for Disabled Service People; Worthing Mencap and the local Scout groups.  We like to support local charities as the waste for recycling comes from local people.  For the full list of charities we have helped over the years please CLICK THIS LINK

As of May 2021 the people of Lancing and parts of Worthing have helped to raise over £50,000 for local charities and kept a load out of landfill!

We cannot claim back any expenses such as petrol, this is a real labour of love for us.  We probably spend about 26 hours a week, collecting the items and special collection points around Lancing and Worthing.  We then have to sort all the items out into their separate boxes, which is then collected by courier.

So PLEASE help us to keep simple household waste items out of the bin and raise money for important local charities and organisations!

King's New Year's Honours List 2023

Sue was honoured to have been awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) in the King’s New Year’s Honours List for Services to the community of Lancing in 2023.
 
Both Sue and John felt the award was just as much the people who have collected the waste products over the years and is it was her’s (and John’s).  Sue said: “It’s you that have collected, sorted and sent to us all the recycling we collect (as per the list please!). We couldn’t have done it without you. We have now raised over £70,000 for good causes in the community over the past 12 years!”
 
Sue will be presented with the Medal of the Order of the British Empire by the Lord-Lieutenant of West Sussex at a local ceremony and will be invited to attend a Royal Garden Party with the other honourees.
 
 
 
On Thursday 6th July 2023 Sue and John attended Arundel Castle to receive the British Empire Medal from the The Lord-Lieutenant of West Sussex, Lady Emma Barnard.
 
John and Sue Wellfare organisers for Recycling in Lancing
Photo: Katherine Hollisey-McLean / Sussex World
The Gazette announcement Sue Wellfare awards the British Empire Medal (BEM)
Photo: Screenshot of the news on the Government website
Fromt page of the Lancing Herald
Photo: Front Page of the Lancing Herald 13 December 2018

We feature in episode three of The Secret World of your Rubbish documentary on Channel 5 TV.  The programme  focused on the work of Refood, which diverts rotting food from landfill and plugs it into the National Grid. If all the food wasted by UK homes was turned into energy, it could power more than 1.2 million homes.

There is also a look at us as we’ve made it our mission to recycle the unrecyclable.  You will see the behind the scenes of the work that we do; from collecting the waste, to sorting it and sending it off.

The TV programme first aired on Sunday 19th August 2019 with the Mail Online writing an article about it the day after.  To read the article CLICK HERE and a similar article appeared on the Sussex Argus website CLICK HERE to read.  The programme is currently available on My 5 TV Season 1 Episode 3 CLICK HERE 

We also featured on BBC One TV back in December 2018 when Walkers Crisps launched their crisp packet recycling programme.  We’ve put the clip we feature in on our YouTube Channel, to watch CLICK HERE 

We also featured on BBC Radio Four programme You and Yours CLICK HERE    Broadcast on 13 May 2019.  Scroll on to eight minutes to hear from the Walkers spoke person and Sue about why over two million crisp packets have been collected as part of a nationwide recycling scheme but none has been recycled yet. You’ll hear why it takes longer than you might think.

We were featured on TerraCycles Blog page.  To read the article please CLICK HERE

Sue and John Wellfare with a donation to sussex Serv

John and Sue with two riders from Sussex Serv.  Recycling in Lancing has now raised over £3,300 for this great cause (March 2022).  SERV is a registered charity (No. 284455) we provide a free out of hours transportation service for NHS Hospitals across Sussex between 1900 and 0600, & 24hrs weekends & all Bank Holidays. to find out more please FOLLOW THIS LINK

Recycling in Lancing defibrillator donation

John and Sue with the owner of Fircroft News in North Lancing with the defibrillator that was partly paid for from the funds of Recycling in Lancing.  Further funding went towards the defibrillator on the Mash Barn Estate in Lancing.