July’s Waste Thoughts – 2021

Pete
Pleased that we provided feedback to DEFRA on waste consistency.
Found a new use for Tetra packs to grow celery through to blanch.
Up to page 450 of Mark Carney‘s Value(s): all companies need to produce ESG reports and hence address Environmental, Societal and Governance issues.  As most companies are owned at least in part by pension funds, many of us through influence on our pension funds can potentially hold companies responsible for their ESG performance.  ESG is now part of company reports, making companies more responsible.
Waste: locally we have mixed recycling, so this is hand sorted which seems crazy / not a great job.  How about running competitions to reduce waste – perhaps via the local Facebook groups – could CASaV provide certificates / prizes?  Need to make it easy for people to reduce their waste and their recycling, don’t forget “Only weigh in”.
Do mini composters exist?  Nearest we could think of were wormeries, but may not be ideal for flats.

Karen
Clothing – how could textile waste be reduced?  Bring and buy / swap clothes / sharing / toddler group cloths hand ons / toy swaps / uniform swap shop / offcuts – Percy / home crafting / school crafting / John Paul Centre / IPC / Circular economy has been mentioned by some clothing companies: Seasalt & Primark.
Hub in Hutton Rudby – Diane Coatsworth – Tea / coffee to Karen from Hub
How do we get those who are not interested in recycling to recycle?  Stress: Climate change is real – California / Austraila / Canada heat; Germany/London floods
Tesco taking old make-up
Online – The Only Weigh In / Riverford – avoiding plastics / little brown paper bags
Hambleton Council – do we have any multiple street bins?

Graham
Separation of different types of plastics
Does cellophane compost?
Self-fill milk bottles etc..

Kate
Wear 1 item of clothing for months – Guardian / Observer article
Reduce need to replace / wear for longer – reduce washing

Simon
Food left over redistribution now up to 6 nights a week – Jenny co-ordinating.

Stokesley Show
We have offered the Stokesley Show committee to help with recycling as in previous years everything seemed to be just going to waste (landfill/burn).

So we collected idea about some of the approaches we could take:

  • Dress
    • Tabards branded
    • Wombles
  • Tools
    • Waste pickers – councils: Hambleton
    • Multiple bins for different materials: Hambleton?
  • In advance
    • Get list of stall holders from committee
    • Approach stall holders about waste from their operations on the day
    • What waste will their stall produce – packaging, utensils, sticks in toffee apples, etc.
    • Encourage them to reduce/reuse/recycle own waste
    • Insist all packaging materials are returnable, recyclable or compostable
    • Avoid polystyrene fish and chip boxes
  • Green award for show – best stall approach to waste / most climate friendly stall / ?
  • Paid kids to brings back cups
  • Composting toilets
  • Volunteers to help

(Unfortunately Stokesley Show 2021 was cancelled after our meeting, so these ideas will be useful for next year).

Action: Simon engage now with Stokesley Show Committee for 2022: process to find out / engage with waste sources prior to show; agree our input to recycling / waste in show.

Input into Government Consultations on Waste

We submitted comments on 2 of the recent DEFRA consultations on waste – Extended Producer Responsibility and Consistency of Collection across England.

Both of the documents are to be welcomed as addressing some of the more fundamental issues behind waste – making producers who produce non-recyclable packaging pay (polluter pays principle) and making recycling collection consistent to reduce confusion and improve recycling amounts and quality.
Concerns are that in the consultations many of the necessary/positive changes can be delayed or even stopped due to commercial considerations – cost or existing contracts and that the documents envision all processes being industry led rather than government led.  Both of these could be seen as ways of the government avoiding any blame if the appropriate actions are not taken or delayed – industry / commercial issues.

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