aboutus

SOFA Project is a reuse, recycling and rehabilitation charity

We sell good quality

second-hand furniture, appliances and homewares at

affordable prices to all

By collecting, repairing and selling unwanted household furniture and appliances
SOFA Project diverts waste from landfill and provides employment and training opportunities for people excluded from the workplace

Although we're called, 'SOFA', we sell and do so much more than sofas!

Our charitable purpose is to help relieve poverty, promote social inclusion and protect the environment through reuse and recycling.

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Our Trustees

SOFA Project is governed by a board of Trustees.

To find out who they are and a bit about them, click here

Affordable

Helping you to furnish your

home on a budget

Reuse & Recycling

Protecting the environment

by reducing landfill waste

Rehabilitation

Providing training and employment opportunities 

How we work

Most of our stock has been donated from local households and businesses.  We can collect bulky donated items for free and deliver for a small charge.

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Our aim is to divert as much as possible from going to landfill and to supply furniture and white goods at affordable prices for all.

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The money we make by selling furniture and white goods is used to help us to achieve our social and environmental objectives.

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SOFA Project also supports low income families by providing furniture and white goods to people under the Local Crisis and Prevention Fund voucher scheme run by Bristol City Council.

Bristol Warehouse

We have a large warehouse where the furniture is cleaned and sorted and the electrical appliances are fully refurbished before going into our shops. 

The warehouse has electrical, flatpack and upcycling workshops and it’s where we can offer training and support to local people excluded from the workforce.

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Electrical items that can’t be re-used are broken down and stripped of key components which are then recycled as parts for other appliances. SOFA Project is an Approved Authorised Treatment Facility (AATF) which means that we are licensed by the Environment agency to dispose of electrical waste.

We're part of a nationwide paint reuse network called

Community RePaint which aims to collect and distribute leftover paint at an affordable cost. We work in partnership with Bristol West Household Waste Recycling Centre.

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An estimated 50 million litres of paint of the 320 million litres sold in the UK each year is wasted or unused. This paint is either thrown away or stored in homes despite a large percentage of it still being usable.

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Both of our shops are stocked with brilliant reuse paint. Come and choose from a wide range of colours including interior and exterior paints.

You can also donate paint at our West Street shop. The paint tin must be at least half full and in usable condition.

Our History

The SOFA Project was founded in Bristol in 1980 as a local project run by volunteers in the local community and funded by a grant.

‘Shifting Old Furniture Around’ (SOFA) aimed to collect unwanted household furniture and make it available to people in the local community on low incomes.

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The project had identified the need for a service to help local people more easily dispose of their unwanted household goods. At the same time it could reduce the number of perfectly re-usable items going to landfill and meet its environmental objective.

The project was so successful that the organisers decided to set up a charity and open a shop.