Paint reprocessing specialist Seagulls Reuse has relocated to Water Lane within the heart of the Temple district of Leeds where it recycles about 400 tonnes of household paint every year.
Seagulls will recycle, mix and sell paint as well as running a series of creative workshops close to the city centre in its new 31,150 sq ft warehouse.
Cat Hyde, co-founder of Seagulls, said: “We’d love to have the capacity to collect leftover trade paint but, at the moment, we have enough paint from Leeds households to meet our customers’ needs. But we are hopeful that this new city centre location in the fast-growing Temple district will hopefully entice new painters through the door enabling further expansion.
“So this is a plea to people across the city to pop in and see significant savings on quality paint, varnish and timber care. Whether painting your home, office, community centre, shed or garden furniture – we have something for everyone no matter the colour.
“The new space will also enable us to expand the range of workshops we run, from beginners decorating courses, to mosaics, murals and terrazzo, we will also have decorating pods available for hire.”
Seagulls Reuse launched in 2005. It is the brainchild of Cat Hyde and her co- founder. Keen to find new pathways into employment, with a shared passion for environmental sustainability they wanted to create a social enterprise that would benefit their community. They engaged with Leeds City Council and agreed to collect and reuse paint disposed at the nine Household Waste Recycling Centres across the city.
They now divert almost 400 tonnes of reusable paint each year, checking and reprocessing it for resale. Bespoke colours are mixed and matched by the team and its helpful volunteers before being resold from as little as £1 per tin.
The process is labour intensive and has provided an opportunity for employment, volunteering and training. Ruksar Ajmal started as a volunteer with Seagulls Reuse when leaving prison in 2007. A colour-blind paint mixer, he now works full-time helping to train other volunteers and decorators, assisting customers and managing the bespoke paint-mixing service.
Ruksar said: “Seagulls Reuse is a vibrant and vital environmental social enterprise. It has been life changing for me, and many others. In the last 17 years, I’ve learnt many skills and am now expert at creating bespoke paint colours by and using a spatula and paddle drill along with a splash of intuition and creativity!
“I love training our new volunteers from all walks of life. Many have been through struggles similar to mine and I’m keen to pass the support I’ve been given onto others who need it. We offer a fantastic community service and look forward to welcoming many more happy customers through our doors as we make the exciting move to Temple.”
