Updates
Kate has been working on Upcycling of textiles etc. She has started a website which she plans to update with new ideas of how to upcycle materials https://swainby.org/upcrafted. Planning to do activities / events with other groups to encourage others to think about upcycling rather than disposal, started by donating upcycled items to a fundraising event at the Hub in Hutton Rudby and hoping to get more engagement through the Swainby Jubilee craft events.
She was kept busy at the Repair Cafe with clothing repairs, everything from holes in jumpers to zips on jackets. Also as Kate used Sugru to replace the broken bottom on a Barbour jacket zip, we sent the photo of the repair to Sugru, who rewarded us with 20 further kits. What do you need repairing with Sugru?
Bridget attended the Repair Cafe and found it useful, her jacket with broken zips on the pocket, now has robust toggles to seal the pockets instead.
Unfortunately due to Covid she was unable to visit Allerton Waste Recovery Park – when is the next trip planned?
Action: Simon will seek interest in another trip to Allerton Waste Recovery Park.
David found the trip to Allerton Waste Recovery Park (AWRP) useful, giving real insights into what happens to our waste. Scottish report on Energy from Waste, implied that they were potentially a bad idea – https://www.zerowastescotland.org.uk/content/climate-change-impact-burning-municipal-waste-scotland. Landfill sites obviously generate methane which is often not captured, but as the rotting is slow release of CO2 is slower than in instant energy from waste. Reinforced need to reduce waste, but also importance of not contaminating the recycling bin, possibly err on the side of caution as there is still a chance things will be recovered at AWRP.
Our local waste collection is complex, with Hambleton District Council (HDC) collecting waste, but it is disposed of by North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC). HDC don’t deal with commercial waste, but Ryedale District Council do. Of course also recycling is different between all the NYCC district councils and Teesside councils are also different.
Anne has taken over co-ordination of the Refill scheme locally – https://www.refill.org.uk/. She is looking for volunteers to help, suggestion was that people volunteer to approach the shops/cafes/pubs/restaurants in their area.
Kate/Simon volunteered to do Swainby/Faceby/Carlton
Action: Anne will bring details of the Refill scheme to April CASaV meeting to get volunteers on board.
Stokesley Household Recycling Centre now has a Repurpose where you are encouraged to put things in good enough condition to be repurposed – https://www.northyorks.gov.uk/ways-reduce-and-reuse.
Wendy:has been collecting coffee grounds from West Green Deli in Stokesley to use around seedlings to deter slugs, but upto 30% in compost is another way to put the grounds to us.
Caroline Kitching is interested to know about local car sharing schemes, for example for people attending an event opr going shopping to reduce the number of car journeys. Liftshare appears to operate locally, but looks like it is mainly focused at commuting – https://liftshare.com/uk/how-it-works.
What to do with leftover cheesecakes from a wedding – freeze them, hold a spontaneous party, community fridge, local charity organisations (JPC), Olio app
Free hire of wooden bodyboards around the UK has been started by Surf Wood for Good to stop the use of almost single use polystyrene boards – https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/12/free-wooden-bellyboard-hire-scheme-aims-to-cut-plastic-pollution The 24 sites are listed here – https://dickpearce.com/pages/surf-wood-for-good – nearest to use appears to be in Grimsby.
Helping at the Repair Cafe felt very purposeful. Even got a kettle repaired, spring up lid wouldn’t stay closed, but Gary and Pete managed to disassemble the lid and reseated the clip in its correct place, so the lid now stays closed.
Middlesbrough Tools Repair Shop – https://www.facebook.com/middlesbroughtoolsworkshop/ – started as part of tools for Africa, but now also mending/sharpening tools – gardening, woodworking, automotive, … Take in old tools to refurbish and sell. Based at Southlands Centre with garden tools at Acklam – garden tools
Visit to Allerton Waste Recovery Park – what do we think about waste now?
16 members of CASaV visited Allerton Waste Recovery Park (AWRP), which is where all our black bin waste goes, it is run by Amey on behalf of North Yorkshire County Council and City of York Council. AWRP deals with up to 320,000 tonnes of waste each year from North Yorkshire, York and some commercial waste. AWRP is in fact 3 different plants, a materials recovery facility (MRF), an anaerobic digestor (AD) and an energy for waste (EfW) plant. All the waste goes through the materials recovery facility where all metal, some paper, some plastics and food waste are removed leaving the residual waste. The metal, paper and plastic are bundled then sent for recycling. The food waste is sent to the anaerobic digestor where it generates methane which is burnt to heat the digestor and produce electricity (1MW). The residual waste is sent to the energy for waste plant where the waste is burnt to generate electricity (27MW). AWRP diverts 90% of waste from landfill and recycles around 5% of the waste.
Allerton Park
You can get a good of idea of what the plant does by watching their YouTube and studying the complex process diagram. However, only a tour gives you an appreciation of the sheer scale of the plant, the smell of what our waste is like even on a cold day in March (luckily a briefly limited experience), just how much of our waste is plastic packaging/bin bags or the benefit of the both passionate and knowledgeable host who engaged actively with all our questions.
Waste process –
AWRP had a rocky birth with local objections and withdrawal of government funding part way through building so finally started waste handling on 1st March 2018. None of this is visible when you visit what seems to be a largely shiny factory site, no smell by the visitor centre (a converted farmhouse), with no visible emissions from the smokestack and lots of landscaped mounds covering the landfill that preceded AWRP in this old quarry site. However, AWRP has not met its targets for recyclables, Amey says due to the poor quality recovered and hence difficulty to find a market, which resulted last year in £652,903 being deducted from the payments due to Amey.
We had hoped to hold a Waste Group meeting during our visit, but unfortunately as Simon Gibbon was self-isolating this didn’t happen, so these views are largely Simon’s.
“AWRP does get rid of our waste and ensures that most of it doesn’t go to landfill, but as Amey stress our national target must be to reduce waste in accordance with the ‘Ideal Waste Pyramid’. AWRP does stop methane getting into the atmosphere, but so should a properly managed landfill. AWRP generates electricity, but the carbon footprint is relatively high and 27MW is only 1/100th of a typical power station, so the contribution is equivalent to about the same annual energy output of solar panels that could be fitted on the site.
Ideal waste pyramid –
Personally, my visit to Allerton Waste Recovery Park strongly reinforced my belief that we must start doing things differently if we want to get different answers, not just using sticking plasters like AWRP to business as usual. Rather than an ‘Ideal Waste Pyramid’ where dispose is minimal compared to reduction, AWRP made me think we have a ‘Waste Thingy’ where disposal enables our economic growth meaning reduction is currently minimal.
Waste thingy –
I do wonder what the next generation will think of us, will they see us as irresponsible just like we see people from the 1960’s. In the 60’s I threw waste “away” and “away” was mainly a hole in the ground, now “away” is recycling and AWRP so a lot of carbon dioxide, a bit of digestion, some extra recycling, some aggregate and a smaller hole in the ground. For climate change, nature and our environment we need to move rapidly to a truly circular economy, from ‘Our Waste Thingy’ to the ‘Ideal Waste Pyramid’.
Unfortunately we can’t visit a recycling plant in the same way, but the Waste Group plans to ask Tracey Flint from Hambleton to come back after her 2019 presentation on the whole waste cycle, to tell us more about the recycling side and explain how new regulations will bring about long needed improvements in our waste. These changes will result in change in the waste composition going to plants such as AWRP, which a recent study says will make such plants worse than landfill.
Meanwhile we are continuing working to reduce waste through Repair Cafés and looking at other ways such as Give or Take events.”
Recycling – how do we do it right?
It doesn’t look like there are any opportunities for a tour in the same way as Allerton Waste Recovery Park – clearer recycling instructions would help – the Rubbish Book by James Piper is very informative, but strictly it does conflict with HDC advice – for example over whether lids should be left on jars or not (Rubbish Book advice is leave them on, as they will be removed as part of glass recycling and as with many other lids, they will be recycled).
Avoid wish-cycling – putting the wrong thing in the blue recycling bin decreases the quality of the recyclate, ultimately if the recyclate is too low quality it won’t be recycled, in which case it would definitely be better to put things in the black bin. So if you are not sure then use the black bin this time, check for next time.
Even in the black bin there is still the chance of items being recycled, metals almost 100%, other materials will be lower but still possible.
Feedback from first Repair Cafe – Swainby 26th March – next one 14th May – https://climateactionstokesleyandvillages.org/waste/stokesley-and-villages-repair-cafe/
CASaV wants to not only increase recycling but also reduce waste in 2022, we have signed up to the international Repair Café organisation and we held our first Stokesley and Villages Repair Café in Swainby Village Hall on Saturday 26th March.
Repair cafeMore than 30 items were brought in for repair with over 70% going away fixed. We received some great feedback too
“An excellent idea, well organised, very helpful team, added extra – it bought the community together. I learned a bit about wiring :-)”.
The idea of a Repair Café is not just that things are repaired for, but that you sit/work with a confident experienced repairer while your item is being repaired. So, while many people came in just wanting their things fixing, most of them appreciated the benefits of being there during the repair, while it does mean you wait a little longer.
Repair cafe – fixedAmong the items bought in for repair were 6 electric household appliances, 6 textile items, 4 clocks, 2 non-electric household appliances, 2 electric toys, … These items have got extended lives, not ending up in waste yet and saved people some money and there is a certain satisfaction to being involved in repairing things. This first Repair Café was only possible because of all the people who volunteered to help, so thank you very much to all of them and please get in touch if you want to help at future repair cafés.
Don’t forget to bring your broken items for repair to our next Stokesley and Villages Repair Café on Saturday 14th May, once again in Swainby Village Hall, but upstairs to give more space for even more repairs.
Interest expressed to do Repair Cafes in Stokesley and Hutton Rudby.
Did menders enjoy it? Yes, they are keen to do the next one, but will need to find extra repairers if we are do cafes in more locations.
Next time – more front of house (Anne) – getting people to their repairer, more electrical repairers, more sewing support.
Recycling Proposal to Stokesley Show – response
The Stokesley Show Committee thanked us for our proposal to set up recycling at Stokesley Show having persuaded HDC to provide recycling bins and collection. The Committee said they were going to continue with the previous existing arrangements where everything is collected in skips from which recycling is sorted after collection.
We are obviously disappointed as any recycling is not visible to show attendees and suspect the quality of anything recycled will be poor.
Is there an opportunity to showcase upcycling as part of the craft tents?
Helmsley Give or Take Event
It is obvious having attended the recent event that there is considerable organisation before the event, with continuous support required while it is open.
Items could be given in advance or on the day. In advance was encouraged as all electrical items given for example had to be PAT tested before being made available to take.
The room was set up with a series of tables with items being distributed between books, electrical items, kitchenware, automotive, etc..
The items varied between very good and not very impressive.
At the end, while much of the material left will have been sent to charity shops, it was essential to have a method of dealing with any waste. In Helmsley Ryedale District Council can do this as they deal with commercial waste, in Stokesley HDC don’t deal with commercial waste so we would need to arrange for a commercial waste company to agree to take the waste away.
Action: Waste Group revisit potential to hold Give or Take event in future locally.
North Yorkshire Rotters – Faceby Village Hall – 7.30pm 28th April
There will be a talk by the North Yorkshire Rotters in Faceby Village Hall on Thursday 28th April 2022 at 7.30pm. Please Join us for a green evening learning about home composting, how to ‘love food, hate waste’, and what goes on at the waste facility at Allerton Waste Recovery Park. Free resources available. Tickets £4 to include refreshments. Please phone 01642 700111 or 01642 706370
Virtual Share Shed – https://climateactionstokesleyandvillages.org/casav-share-shed-mock-up/
Thermal Camera – update
Climate Action Stokesley and Villages 