OMs Set Up Green Business

Peter Adams (SU 2006-11) and Oliver Brown (SU 2006-11) both left city jobs to start Green Merchant, a company set up to make it easy to upcycle, recycle and reuse goods all while raising money for charity.

“The circular economy is at the heart of what we do. We sell people’s unwanted household goods on their behalf – taking out all the hassle, saving them hours of time and using our trading experience & data to get them the best price. From an environmental perspective it acts to promote material reuse. Examples of customers we have had include those who are moving house, decluttering or renovating but we have found it is not exclusive to these.

All customers have to do is contact us with a few items they wish to sell, we will then pick up those items at a time that suits them. We run the selling process across multiple marketplaces – whichever optimises the selling price for the individual item. After two weeks the customer will be paid (minus fees) and any unsold items will be handed back to the customer or donated to charity if they so choose.

For items with little/no resale value, which often end up in the bin, we also offer a sustainable disposal service for your old CDs/high street clothes/books etc. These will go to charity or be upcycled, nothing will ever end up in landfill!

We ultimately want Green Merchant to be a do-good business. So we encourage our customers to donate a portion of the funds raised through our services to charity, we will then top up any donation made by a further 20%.

Primarily, we service the north London area due to our current small size but can go much further afield for larger orders.”