In the Face of Disaster: how Local Community and Businesses Unite to Help

Fifty-four minutes past midnight on June the 14^th, London’s Grenfell Tower caught alight. Twenty-four hours later, little remained of the twenty-four-storey block. Countless lives were lost.

Hours after the tragedy, people from “as far afield as Birmingham” poured into West London to help residents with aid operations (The Guardian, 17^th of June 2017). Carrying “flowers and supplies,” they joined locals providing help, amid “complaints that the local authority … [was] failing to coordinate operations” (The Guardian, 17^th of June 2017).

So far, the victims of the fire have received record numbers of donations. These have spurred controversy.

In particular, a “lack [of] co-ordination of … relief” is resulting in a vast number of donations going to waste (Telegraph, 17^th of June 2017). As “The Telegraph” reports, donations such as food are deteriorating before they can be passed on to the victims, which is an issue (Telegraph, 17^th of June 2017). The council is proving unable to administer the situation.

The lack of direction has caused an abundance of “unwanted” donations, too.

In specific, surplus unwanted items have piled up below the Westway flyover. These, due to their volume, risk obstructing the work of the authorities in the area. Residents, as well as the emergency services, have both expressed their disappointment with the state of the area surrounding the flyover.

In response to such chaos, KwikSweep has offered its help.

Forty-eight hours after the fire, the London-based waste disposal service was already in the area to help the authorities cope with the aftermath of the fire. Working with the Westway Development Trust, KwikSweep has collected “unwanted” donations, making the area around the Westway flyover clean, tidy, and accessible to all.

KwikSweep has thus guaranteed the disposal of surplus goods in as much an environmental way as possible.

In the face of disaster, KwikSweep has worked in and with its community to minimise waste to landfill and maximise waste recycling.

This is what we commit ourselves to. Everyday.