Meet Roz from Fulbeck who saved 40,000 mannequins from landfill

Sacet jewellery is on a quest to become the first producer to have a 100 per cent carbon neutral jewellery-making workshop but is also promoting other like-minded enterprises.

Sacet has singled out Roz Edwards, 51-year-old director of mannequin hiring business, Mannakin, founded in Fulbeck in 2008, which has since saved 40,000 mannequins from landfill.

Roz explains: “When we hire the mannequins out, they have a lower carbon emission because they are not being manufactured, creating a circular economy. If you buy them, many are made in countries like China, so there’s all the shipping and logistics involved, and then they sit on a shop floor for four to five years, and then are sent to landfill. Mannakin closes that loop.

​”We work with a lot of big retail names and they bring their mannequins in to us where we put them in our hire catalogue. If we have too many, we will sell some on as they are - fully functioning - or we also renovate them by respraying so they can be reused.

​”However, some mannequins do come to us that are beyond repair. So, I created a massive mountain in our yard, which we call ‘The Body Part Heist’. “

People come and do a ‘supermarket sweep’, given 15 minutes to grab as many body parts as they can.

Roz said they don’t just hire out to shops: “We’ve hired them out for a range of reasons, including for TV and film sets. Recently, we had Gaz Coombes, the lead singer of Supergrass, come to do a music video within our Mannequin Graveyard!”

The attraction has become a permanent set after its Halloween success.

“We have them scattered around our yard to create an immersive experience for guests. Lots of local people and people as far away as Scotland and Brighton have been to visit,” said Roz.

​"For Halloween, we do a spin on Cluedo and call it ‘We’ve Found A Body At Mannequin Hall’, where the heir of the mannequin fortune has been murdered, using six other mannequins as the suspects - just like Cluedo. People have to walk around in the dark with actors jumping out - it’s a really super fun way to prevent these mannequins going to waste.”

She​ was inspired to create the attraction when in Somerset and Banksy had just launched ‘Dismaland’ at the Tropicana amusement venue. Roz said: “Every year since, we’ve run our Halloween event. It’s low cost and appeals to many families, and also a lot of artists love it as a great location for their films and TV shows.”Roz has plenty of suggestions rather than seeing the mannequins buried, polluting the planet: “A lot of people make them into brand new purposes, including lamp bases and planters for plants. If you’re looking to renovate your mannequin and freshen it up, a good clean can be enough. Use superglue to fix, sand them down in a similar way you would to prepare a wall for paint and then apply a new coat of fresh paint.”