Full notes below, quick summary:
- Community fridges – is it time to get serious for Stokesley?
- Droughts – have happened locally before, just more frequent now and longer, even in our temperate climate
- What state are our streams and rivers in after the drought
- Can’t rely solely on companies to do the right thing, they’ve known for 40 years, we need legislation to guide them to do the right things now
- Advantages of repairability – Fairphone
- CASaV and Bilsdale Agricultural Show – better working together
- #WaveToSaveOurSeas trying to get the political action to clean up our seas locally and nationally
Actions:
- Pete – what happens about environmental reporting of streams
- Simon – find more repairers for Stokesley and Villages Repair Cafe
Notes form 5th September 2022 CASaV Waste Group Meeting
Actions from last meeting
Joanna describe swishing at the next CASaV meeting to see if others are interested.
Kate check out which schools are operating school uniform reuse schemes locally
Kate email North Yorkshire County Council to see if they will accept bicycles from Guisborough
Yes NYCC will accept bicycles from anywhere
Jenny Earle let us know that IPC in Middlesbrough also wants bikes that are in fully working condition to give refugees mobility, key for being able to take up jobs, local Ukranians will also need bikes.
Simon mention to Wendy / Jenny for ideas on how to best operate shared gardening
Wendy Smith has championed in the past, so would be the best person for Guisborough Eco Group to talk to. Such schemes work, everything from somebody just gardening somebody else’s garden as it is too big for them, to a produce sharing arrangement, however if planning to organise then a process to cover safeguarding issues
Simon send joining information for Climate Action etc. – see below.
Details of how get involved in the Climate Action Network – https://takeclimateaction.uk/get-involved/register-a-group
What needs doing in Guisborough – https://takeclimateaction.uk/near-you/local-authority/redcar-and-cleveland?postcode=ts146bs#overview
Simon – arrange on the day needs for Bilsdale Show: litter picker, hoop, green bags / black bags, brand recycling bins, QR codes – for people, A6 leaflets
See Bilsdale comments below
Updates
Joy
Saw the York community fridge, Joy’s daughter in law is involved, it is within Fairfax Corner (26 Fairfax Street, York, YO1 6EB) part of REFILL (https://refillkitchen.org/about). “REFILL is a social enterprise based in the city of York. We rescue perfectly good edible food from local suppliers and supermarkets deemed as waste and destined for landfill. We then revalue, repurpose and redistribute the food making it accessible to all.The café – crafts delicious snacks, lunches and juices: priding itself on using all the surplus food with zero waste ethos. Our aim is to provide wholesome food on a pay-it-forward basis.
Community Fridge – local residents can access surplus food supplied by allotments, producers, independent stores and supermarkets on a give and take basis.
The corner – the café space is available to clubs, groups and campaigns to use as a meeting place on a pay-as-you-feel basis.
Not for profit – REFILL profits will be reinvested in the project making sure of its sustainability and longevity. 5% of profits will go to FEEDBACK to support their campaigns for a better food system that nourishes both people and our planet and supports projects like ours.”
Practically, the cafe uses the surplus food and the community fridge is open 3 mornings a week – basically just take what you need and leave a donation if you can / want to. Interesting that food can even be surplus from food banks.
Jenny
Have looked into location for a community fridge locally, no obvious location for fridge locally, despite Coop funding of upto £4k likely to be available. Looking at other community fridges elsewhere, it appears you either need a social enterprise like REFILL or a voluntary service organisation who has it within their remit, so Scarborough is Coast and Vale Community Action, and it Whitby it is part of Flash Arts – https://www.thescarboroughnews.co.uk/news/people/new-community-fridge-scheme-for-whitby-3179130. Do we have any suitable organisations locally?
Going through my mother’s diaries, it was interesting to read that there were water restrictions in Carlton in the 1950’s. Droughts have happened before, very much why climate scientists until this year have been hesitant to attribute specific weather events to man made climate change, however this year a number of events have been so extreme that statements of very low percentage likely to have happened without climate change and how many times more likely the event was due to climate change are now compelling. Also the number of extreme weather events globally at any one time, changes in seasons demonstrate very directly that the earth is trapping more energy from the sun which is driving changes.
How do you ensure old furniture is reused? Do you want a large old wooden dresser / bookshelf / chair?
There are organisations out there doing what needs to be done, for example Sam’s company The Institutional Investors Group on Climate change (https://www.iigcc.org/).Supports investors to make correct environmental investments. We need more of this and we need governments to both act and put the legislative framework in place which enable companies to do the right things.
Pete
Taking my redundant spectacles to Cooper and Barr made me think that we really should reglaze the frames, instead everytime your eyes change you are only offered new lenses combined with new frames. However, it appears there are some companies offering to reglaze existing frames – https://duckduckgo.com/?q=glasses+with+replaceable+lenses
Sewage into rivers has been in the news, locally our personal waste treatment plant discharges clean water into Grange beck which is now dry, only 2nd time in 33 years. Upstream and downstream no doubt farm slurry and with thunderstorms run-off from land will still be happening, so how long will it take for stream biology to return to normal? Who is responsible for the water quality in such a stream? Environment Agency / Tees River authority
Action: Pete – what happens about environmental reporting of streams
In terms of navigation the Barrage and the river upstream is managed by Canal & River Trust. The river below the Barrage is tidal and is managed by PD Ports, successors to the Tees and Hartlepool Port Authority. PD Ports do not encourage navigation by recreational vessels, and charge for use of the tidal river.
Tees Rivers Trust – “Water Management: We work on improving water courses within the Tees catchment. Improving water quality and habitats, also assessing physical barriers that impact fish migrations and modifying them to reduce these impacts. We work with angling clubs and local interest groups to make the rivers a better place for nature. We carry out surveys and assessments to help plan appropriate and natural solutions to river pollution.”
Simon
In 1991 Shell made a compelling film “Climate of Concern” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VOWi8oVXmo, which predicts the migration that will be caused by climate change causing local famines and attributes blame on companies such as Shell. So why didn’t Shell do anything? The BBC drama “The Shell Seven” (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00162v0), about the trial of the protesters who damaged / disrupted Shell’s headquarters on the Southbank, makes a compelling case that it is governments’ not companies’ fault. Shell published its scientific understanding but couldn’t act alone as national law governing corporations meant it had to maximise profits for its shareholders while obeying any laws. So without the necessary legislation / regulations Shell had no way to act. While it may not let Shell off the hook, it makes a strong case for the need for legislation to direct markets.
I dropped my Fairphone 3+ into my shaving water, immediately removed the battery and dried out all of the phone, all seemed to be working, but then I found it wouldn’t charge. However, as it is a Fairphone, after a bit of fault finding, I identified the bottom module was likely to be damaged, I was able to buy the bottom module direct from Fairphone for £16 and using the screwdriver supplied with the phone and Fairphone supply all the instructions here – https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/360047728592-FP3-Replace-a-module, basically just following a YouTube video of instructions fix it (take non-charging phone then remove 13 screws, detach screen, remove 4 screws, remove bottom module, put in new bottom module, reassemble – fully working and charging phone).
We have been involved in Reclaim Our Sea (https://www.facebook.com/groups/555606846306223) and the #WaveToSaveOurSeas on 28th August bringing attention to North East Coast mass sea-life die-offs that started in October 2021 when work started on the Tees Freeport jetty and the national scandal of raw sewage being pumped into the sea. There will be another mass protest on 2nd October – https://fb.me/e/pA0kYeWAs – the sea around the UK are regularly full of our shit and locally it looks like dredging for the new freeport has killed most of the marine life, so go to a beach on 2nd October and #WaveToSaveOurSeas.
Local advice in Saltburn on swimming is check the Surfers Against Sewage Safer Seas app and if no sewage alerts in the last 2 days should be safe – the SAS App can be found here – .https://www.sas.org.uk/safer-seas-service/ – tells you the current state of the sea around monitor points and gives a history.
Matters Arising
We had a stall and helped with recycling at the Bilsdale Agricultural Show (https://www.bilsdaleshow.co.uk/) on Saturday 27th. Prior to the show we had worked with the BAS committee to implement the first environmental policy for the show (https://www.bilsdaleshow.co.uk/docs/BAS_Enviromental_Policy_2022.pdf). We worked with Tracey Hambleton Hambleton District Council Recycling Officer to have recycling (https://www.hambleton.gov.uk/recycling) at the show and were visible in CASaV waistcoats picking litter and helping people to recycle. Alongside another Yorkshire Rotters engaging on food waste, we engaged with visitors on climate and environmental issues. We had many great conversations and hopefully will have triggered more actions from some of the people we spoke to. Overall we interacted with several 100 people, including many locals, plus people from Yorkshire near and far and a number of holiday makers. We told people in our area about what is happening in Stokesley and Villages, people from areas around us about the local groups we knew about, while encouraging people from further away to find a local group to join.
Repair Cafes
24th September in Stokesley Globe Community Library
12th November in Swainby Village Hall
Climate Action Stokesley and Villages 