As an independent business serving customers in our home counties of Suffolk and Essex, caring about where we live and being a locally run business, it’s also important to us that we do what we can, to support the local community surrounding us. As we have been so busy with various different community initiatives and volunteering recently, we thought we’d share what we have been getting up to so far in 2023.  

As our focus at ATS Skips is removing waste from businesses and homes around the Colchester area, when it comes to helping to give back, our first port of call with this, has been in volunteering to provide extra waste removals in our local vicinity.  

One such recent volunteering opportunity came about, when listening to customers in the Colchester area – when we’ve gone to collect their skips. The collective concern we’ve found, is that although we can provide them with effective ways to get rid of their own rubbish from their homes and businesses – there is a wider problem locally of littering.  

To help combat this, ATS pledged a couple of months ago to add an extra element to our Saturday morning routine. As well as picking up filled skips in the area, we now also dedicate 30 minutes each week to litter pick in the CO1, CO2, CO3 and CO4 areas. We are passionate about doing our bit personally to keep our city clean. With this being such a growing problem in our area, we also use our platform online as Essex waste disposal specialists, to encourage other local people to do the same and litter pick in their own neighbourhoods too.  

Another exciting community project we were involved in back in 2022 (but because of its high profile, we can only now share about it.) was our involvement with the big ITV hit show – Love Your Garden! We were contacted by the production team early last year to see if we could help and we happily said yes, such an honour being able to contribute and help to give back to those that have spent their lives doing the same.  

The programme focussed on a couple that lived in Great Cornard Suffolk – a charity shop worker Eileen and her husband Roy who has Parkinson’s disease and were seeking a peaceful and safe place to share. The show aired on 11th March 2023 and we were thrilled to see the three eight yard skips we donated for the duration of the project appear on our screens with Alan Titchmarsh during the TV programme. The episode is now available to view on the ITVX on catch up. 

With the cost of living crisis growing throughout Suffolk and Essex, another prevalent issue locally is the cost of food. Conscious of this and the difficult impact this is having on charities, another way we have been giving back to our community is by recently donating goods from Asda to the homeless shelter and charity CENS. We done this twice now – providing essential items such as cleaning products, personal hygiene items, tooth paste and deodorant and basic food and drink items, coming to a total of £200.   

As a local company we are proud to be involved in our community in whatever way we can.