December’s Waste Thoughts – 2025

Our next Zoom meeting is on Tuesday 13th January 7pm – Please contact simongibbon@casav.uk for further details.

Full notes below, after a quick summary – follow links for the detail:

Actions

  • Kate Write article for Positive News regarding Climate Action Stokesley and Villages initiatives.
  • Simon Connect Pete and Robert via email regarding the hazel tree donation.
  • Peter / Robert Coordinate the digging up and transfer of hazel trees for forest school project.
  • Tracey Provide the group with the new “Hard to recycle” leaflets.
  • Kate Investigate a new bra bank – getting hold of box and locations.

Background – Our Monthly Waste Discussions

If you have just signed up to the Waste Group or stumbled across this page, then welcome, I hope these notes of our discussion make sense.

We meet once a month to talk about topics connected to waste and plan / report progress on our ongoing activities such as the Repair Cafes, Foodshare, Refill scheme and events such as the Bilsdale Show.  If you visit the “Thoughts on Waste” page on the CASaV website you can find all our past discussions – https://climateactionstokesleyandvillages.org/waste/thoughts-on-waste/

Please get in touch if you have any questions.

Notes form 9th December 2025 CASaV Waste Meeting

The meeting discussion ranged from the making Christmas more sustainable with jumpers, decorations and toy to blankets for the homeless and fragile newborns, with one thing in common, to do more with less damage to our planet.

Previous Actions

  • Tracey will confirm the exact distribution figures for the Halloween costume exchange for inclusion in the minutes.
  • Tracey will investigate solutions for the remaining 70-odd Halloween costumes (e.g., chopping them up for craft use).
  • Tracey will look into finding existing baby clothes swap models and contact Trading Standards regarding compliance for baby equipment.
  • Wendy will bring the offered teasels to Kate for use in Christmas decorations/stall.
    Teasels made a lovely display on the Christmas stall
  • Kate follow up on the remaining non-Halloween specific costumes for potential use by charities.
  • Kate following this weekend’s events, initiate a full promotion campaign for the Christmas Jumper exchange.
    Operational in libraries
  • Simon connect Tamzin to Jane Mercer to understand the reasoning behind excluding children’s clothes from the previous clothes swap event.

Updates

Kate

Media Opportunity: Positive News (an online and print magazine focused on constructive journalism) contacted Climate Action Stokesley and Villages to request an article about the group’s positive climate initiatives in Stokesley, such as the sustainability stall, food share, and repair café. Kate will write the article and use photos taken by Joy at the recent event, for which attendees gave consent.

Action: Kate Write article for Positive News regarding Climate Action Stokesley and Villages initiatives.

Eco-Climate Crafting: Run multiple sessions turning waste materials (paper, CDs, pine cones) into Christmas decorations to discourage buying plastic items. A recent session in Stokesley was popular, and discussions underway to consider making this a monthly / bi-monthly event with the librarian. In a similar vein Craft Climate Cafes are being run by Festival of Thrift in Stockton.

Bra Recycling: Looking into setting up a “Bra Bank” to recycle used bras. Collecting 300 bras warrants a free collection box. The materials are repurposed, and proceeds support Breast Cancer Research. Will investigate placing a box in Stokesley Library or Great Ayton Library or a local shop.

Tracy Flint

Christmas Jumper Swap: NYC is running an internal event at council offices (Northallerton, Selby, Scarborough, Harrogate) where staff can take or swap or donate Christmas jumpers to reduce waste.

Reuse Initiatives: Currently no plans for recycling centres to accept electrical items for reuse due to the difficulties of PAT testing and trading standards liability.

Toy Rescue: Yorwaste’s “Reuse Santa” toy appeal at recycling centres has collected 1000s of toys for charity. Worn teddies (without plastic eyes/noses) are donated to the Dogs Trust. A valuable teddy bear was identified during sorting and will be auctioned for charity.

New Literature: New leaflets regarding “hard to recycle” items are being produced.

Action: Tracey Provide the group with the new “Hard to recycle” leaflets.

Peter Smith

Waste Sorting: Has been dealing with waste management, including disposing of broken fairy lights and sorting furniture and items left behind by Ukrainian guests,.

School Project: Working with Grangetown Primary School children on the “Wisdom of the Woods” project. Children have been spreading compost and planting hazel trees to learn about soil and nature,.

Award: It was noted that Pete received a “Make a Difference” Green Award from Radio Tees for his approach to re-wilding/not weeding – “The BBC Radio Tees make a difference green award winner is…”.

Robert

Transporter Bridge: Robert is working to save the Transporter Bridge. There a budget discrepancy, estimating useful work could be done for £4 million rather than the £30 million official estimate, and expressed concern over heritage steel being sold as scrap. See Tees Business – “The Transporter Bridge in jeopardy? Business leaders and mayor have their say.”

Hazel Donation: Robert offered cultivated hazel trees (worth approx. £20 each) to Pete for his school project, provided they can be dug up.

Action: Simon Connect Pete and Robert via email regarding the hazel tree donation.

Action: Peter / Robert Coordinate the digging up and transfer of hazel trees for forest school project.

Simon

The River Tees was used as somewhere to get rid of things for over 100 years, so its river sediment is highly contaminated. Yet in order to remove over 2 million cubic metres every year for 10 years, only 31 samples were taken to characterise this contamination and licence disposal of over 25 million tonnes of dredged sediment at sea. The UK is a signatory of the London Convention / London Protocol and OSPAR Convention which protect our shared oceans. The OSPAR convention guidelines specifies that: “The location and depth of sampling should represent the horizontal and vertical extent of the area, and the quantity of material to be dredged.” The licence is granted by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) which follows OSPAR Guidelines.

River Tees Dredging (Legal Action): Launching a legal challenge against the Marine Management Organisation (MMO). The legal challenge argues that the MMO is allowing the dumping of 2 million cubic metres of dredged material at sea based on insufficient sampling (31 samples vs 600 to comply with OSPAR Convention Guidelines (OSPAR Convention and OSPAR Agreement 2014-06).

Status: A formal letter has been sent. Depending on the MMO’s response due on 18 December, the matter may proceed to a Judicial Review. The legal costs are considerable, so looking for donations via CrowdJustice along with support from the local fishing community, the Northeast Fishing Collective.

The War between the Land and the Sea – presents a different take on our use of the seas and shows us what what we do to the sea is like for those who live in the sea – BBC iPlayer.

Anne Mannix

Soft Toys: Preloved Soft Toys is company who take pre-loved soft toys, clean, packaged, and sell them to extend their life and prevent landfill waste. The toys are sourced from the public, charity shops or online.

Wendy Smith

Wrapping Paper: Noted continuing tradition of reusing “dilapidated” wrapping paper to reduce waste.

Joy

Media Comment: Mainstream media (e.g., Radio 4) focuses heavily on consumerism during Christmas rather than sustainability.

Matters Arising

“Sleigh Waste” Campaign: The group discussed the NYC “Sleigh Waste” graphic produced by Michelle Bailles in NYC. While the “tree” hierarchy design was debated, the group appreciated the pun and the effort to promote waste reduction.

Repair Café Update:

    ◦ The Swainby event went well with a COP30 theme.

    ◦ The Stokesley Repair Café is scheduled for this coming Saturday. Catering: Wendy will provide vegan/gluten-free mince pies; Kate is making Moroccan almond biscuits (ghoriba).

    ◦ Future Ideas: The group discussed ideas for 2025/2026, including inviting council representatives to talk about repurposing and finding ways to engage younger people.

Meetings

Repair Cafe – 13th December Stokesley Globe Library 10am – 12pm, 13th January Swainby Village Hall – 10am – 12pm

CASaV Group Meeting – 16th December Stokesley Library – 7.30pm

AOB

Next Meeting

Tuesday 13th January 7pm – Please contact simongibbon@casav.uk for further details.