August’s Waste Thoughts – 2022

Full notes below, quick summary:

  • How should we deal with surplus local produce?
  • Clothes swapping / swishing
  • Guisborough Eco Group held its first meeting
  • Recycle your bicycle at NYCC Refuse Centres
  • Bilsdale Show

Actions:

  • Joanna describe swishing at 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
    Completed – yes NYCC will accept bicycles from anywhere
  • Simon mention to Wendy / Jenny for ideas on how to best operate shared gardening
  • 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

Notes form 9th August 2022 CASaV Waste Group Meeting

Actions from last meeting

Simon – seek extra repair volunteers for Stokesley / work with repair team to determine how the repair cafe will function in the Globe
Action: Simon – send sign-up sheet to Andrew Whitwell
Simon – survey on visit to AWRP
Looking at late August / Very early September or after 26th September
Expressed interest – Joanna, Kate
All – volunteers for Bilsdale Show
See below
All – approach further businesses to involve in the Refill scheme
Ongoing

Updates

Pete
At our age we have stuff, how does one reduce stuff without sending it to waste.  Looking for opportunities for reuse – no pressure to consume once you are old, but very young people feel pressure to consume both from peers, but also from advertising, tv programmes, social media etc..  Who do we moderate this?
Forest school group comes to the woods – so can give them things that help i.e. bits of wood (also helps as price of wood has gone up x 3)
What to do with surplus produce?  Community fridges in Saltburn, Whitby etc..will take surplus.

Joanna / Kate have visited a farm to talk to a farmer who is interested in doing something green with their farm, perhaps a community farm.  Use of surplus produce would be good but location too rural to site community fridge / pantry, could some kind of coordination / distribution use the location?

Joanna
Clothes are a big consumption, so what about clothes swap parties, people can’t let go of stuff – so swap and then be able to get it back.  Lending?  Could do it for adults or children.
These exist as swishing parties (see attached “how to”, http://swishing.com/), a number of climate action groups around the UK running clothes swap / jewellery / shoes / etc..
Action: Joanna describe swishing at next CASaV meeting to see if others are interested.

We have previously discussed “Give or Take” events, a swishing party would be a lot more manageable.

Kate
Looked into reusable nappy schemes – “fillyourpants” – but there is nothing local – Bradford / Leeds.
School uniform reuse schemes are happening locally – Stokesley School has a uniform cupboard people can help themselves, also Kirby / Broughton Primary School has a similar scheme.
Action: Kate check out which schools are operating school uniform reuse schemes locally.
Recycled bicycles: in August if you take a bike to Waste/Recycling sites in Stokesley / Northallerton will transfer to charity groups which then transform the bikes workable bicycles.
Only Weigh Out – closes 31st August, 5 reusable shops in Teesside have closed in last few months.

Fred
Incinerator – How do we stop it being built in Grangetown?  Campaign underway – get involved – they are trying to get maximum exposure, so will be present at Festival of Thrift (24&25 September, Kirkleatham) – https://www.festivalofthrift.co.uk/news-from-festival-of-thrift/.
Glass reuse rather than recycle, plastic free shops – use jars instead of plastic / paper, should be in all shops not just plastic free shops.  Reverse logistics, basically need to go back the route the goods took to the shop, issues over lorry space, could be reduced if jars were made stackable.  Why doesn’t it happen now?  Driven by cost and marketing differentiation meaning every piece of glass packaging is different.
Where can you recycle bikes in Guisborough?  Check out Redcar and Cleveland BC, how about Bicycle Libraries – https://bikelibraries.yorkshire.com/locations/ – nearest is Middlesbrough could one be set in Cleveland?

Action: Kate email North Yorkshire County Council to see if they will accept bicycles from Guisborough.
Yes they will.
Guisborough Eco Group had its first meeting on Monday evening, many items were discussed:

Guisborough Eco Group – Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/groups/1554265941641932/

Some other Guisborough Green things on Facebook:

CASaV happy to help we have been helped by Climate Action Network supported but non-affiliated to Friends of the Earth, gives you a bank account, mailing list system (GDPR), insurance etc.. 
Action: 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
Byline Times – British media’s climate denial (attached)
Climate dimissal: Red tops – readers no interested – journalists trying to keep jobs; GBN – anti-woke / pro-business agenda
Climate denial: Express – planets move we have been getting closer to the sun for years; Journalists reporting to please owners.
Climate delayism: Sensible / offset / deadlines decades away; Guardian carries airline adverts – NUJ motion sea change in reporting; Meanwhile heatwaves reported as fun in the sun
Having read George Monbiot’s Regenesis felt I should read the other side, but this book really disappointed me, The great plant-based con – Jayne Buxton, I have no idea what QANon is all about, but I suspect the conspiracy can’t be bigger than that in this book or more unrelated to reality.  Basically all medical advice relating to eating is wrong, all land use climate science is wrong, and big pea-protein companies are beating up the meat production industry.
Overall – book says you should “Find-out” – “There is an alternative. That alternative is to engage with the ‘awkward’ data. You might not have time to challenge the headlines yourself, or to dissect the studies behind the headlines, but you can seek out the work of the scientists, doctors and nutritionists who have spent the time.”  However the book references the papers and then says they are wrong, not scientific debate.  

“This book is the culmination of my two years spent doing just that. What I have found has disturbed and shocked me, but I feel better equipped to go into battle in this war on meat and stand up to those who are waging it.”
To my mind this doesn’t stack up when in the first chapter it is stated:  “We can’t have a conversation about the health benefits of eating meat, without addressing the long-standing controversy about the links between saturated fat, cholesterol and heart disease.”  What controversy?  In science nothing is open to not being proved wrong, however that doesn’t mean it is wrong unless you can find the evidence, then things have to be repeatable, so one study which disagrees doesn’t disprove 1000 of previous studies, so you can normally find a paper which shows variations.

So that was health approach – why meat is ok.

Cruelty book’s answer is local nice farming
“Another point on which I must be clear: industrial, factory farming is abhorrent, and the wholesale clearing of the Amazon’s forests for the raising and feeding of livestock must be halted. We need to be eating animal-sourced foods that have been sustainably and humanely reared. As individuals wanting to make a difference, we could do worse than to follow Joanna Blythman’s advice: “if you want to eat meat, poultry, eggs and dairy foods, buy less of them but maintain your spend by trading up to buy higher welfare, more extensively farmed, free-range, grass-fed products”. Those who place environmental concerns and animal welfare at the heart of their purchasing choices will find, as Matthew Evans has, that they have more in common with those who abstain from eating meat than many who consume it.”
GHG book implies livestock farming is or can be carbon negative
Water book no real engagement
Land book n real engagement
Fairness/Justice/Scale not addressed, fails Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative: “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law” i.e. what happens if everybody eats like you do?
Only Weigh Out will close at the end of August, it would be great to turn it into a Climate Emergency Centre but that doesn’t change the economics or produce workers.

Government has rolled back on implementing sugar and salt restrictions, been implicated as part of unnecessary nanny state, going against what was said by the government to young activists – Biteback2030  – https://www.biteback2030.com/

Matter Arising
Refill – ongoing
Bilsdale Show – plan

Action: 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

Plan email shared with volunteers.

”            2 shifts
                Thank you very much for volunteering to help at the Bilsdale Agricultural Show on the Climate Action Stokesley and Villages stand and with recycling.
                I have put together my thoughts on what we will do, but please let us know if you spot something I have missed or think of something else we could do.
                Through our presence at the show CASAV hopes to help the Bilsdale Agricultural Show improve its environmental performance and raise awareness of the need for climate action which is very much in line with CASaV’s aims to act locally and think globally.
                As well as the encouragement of the show’s organising committee, it is great that we also have support from Hambleton District Council (Tracey Flint), who will enable recycling at the show, and the North Yorkshire Rotters (Jeff Coates), who will be joining us on our stand to get across the love food / hate waste messages.
                We need a presence on the showground from 8am – 5pm, so I suggest we have two shifts covering the morning and the afternoon, I have allocated you to a shift, if the time doesn’t work for you please could swap with somebody from the shift you can make and let me know.
                Morning (8am-12.30pm): Anne, Joanna, Karen, Bridget
                Afternoon (12.30pm – 5.00pm): Eileen, Mike, Caryn, Fred
                All day: Simon, Kate
                We will all be wearing CASaV branded waistcoats (photos attached), please wear these when you are “on shift”, so that it is obvious to all attendees why you are there.  My idea is that we split our time between the stall and walking around the field litter picking where necessary, helping people to recycle and engaging with people.
                The stall will be set up with a number of CASaV displays and a lot of leaflets / giveaways from NY Rotters.  The aim will be to engage people approaching the stall in conversation on climate action, understand what they think / are doing about climate change, ways they could do more, let them know what CASaV are doing at the show / more generally and encourage people to sign up to our mailing list.  As always, it is good to do a lot of listening.
                When not on the stall most of us will be walking around the site, litter picking, encouraging recycling and engaging in conversations with everybody about climate action.  Don’t limit yourself to what I suggest, if you see other ways you can help to make the show run smoothly then don’t hesitate to help.
                Please could you read the attached show policies on environment and health/safety.  I am producing a risk assessment for our activities which I will share when complete.”

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