July’s Waste Thoughts – 2022

Full notes below, quick summary:

• Regenesis by George Monbiot – how to feed the world without ruining the planet
• A future topic to discuss on nappies.
• Big plastic count the results are in
• Coop Foodshare food being collected every night apart from Sunday, but Foodshare is changing – we await details
• Refill – water in our current heat waves
• Incinerators – more planned when we should be reducing waste first
• Bilsdale Show 27th August – volunteers welcome

Actions:

• Simon – seek extra repair volunteers for Stokesley / work with repair team to determine how the repair cafe will function in the Globe
• Simon – survey on visit to AWRP
• All – volunteers for Bilsdale Show
• All – approach further businesses to involve in the Refill scheme

Best wishes, Simon

Waste Group Leader

Climate Action Stokesley and Villages

https://climateactionstokesleyandvillages.com

07711 771291

If you have just signed up to the Waste Group, 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 upcoming 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, Simon

Notes form 12th July 2022 CASaV Waste Group Meeting

Attendees: Fred Page, Pete Smith, Kate Gibbon, Jenny Earle , Wendy Smith, David Blundell,  Robert Thorniley-Walker, Simon Gibbon

Apologies: Joy Smith, Joanna Whitwell, Karen Jobson, Anne Mannix

Actions from last meeting
Kate to mention milk bottle top collection for charities to the Globe.
Charities seem to down south no collection points up north, but contacted to ask if collection depot could be established in the north.
Wendy mentioned that  Michael and Barbara Rea Funeral Service in Stokesley asking for plastic bottle tops in aid of Marie Curie and the Firefighters Charity – Yesterday’s Facebook post.
It has been shared on the CASaV Facebook page.
Any plastic tops number 2 in the recycling symbol.
Simon to follow up with Peter Chandler / Gill DeCosemo to find out whether they are able to supply insurance to host the Repair Cafe – otherwise additional insurance for a single location annual policy is ~£250.
Globe insurance would require all electrical repairers to be qualified electricians, so the alternative plan is to be buy insurance for Stokesley with a loan from donations already received by Swainby Repair Cafe and then use donations at Stokesley to repay the loan.
A first Stokesley Repair Cafe is scheduled for 24th September at the Globe from 10am-12pm
Action: Simon – seek extra repair volunteers for Stokesley / work with repair team to determine how the repair cafe will function in the Globe.
The Globe has a lot going for it, but we will be limited in terms of refreshments and may not be able to carry out repairs outside due to multi-use nature of the building.
The location will be reviewed after the first cafe – other locations such as the town hall or methodist hall may offer other advantages.
Simon call Coop Foodshare and ask for what other rural groups do to connect food surplus to need.
Coop Foodshare is going on-line – CASaV no longer registered for any of the store, so we have not been sent information on the changes, awaiting information.  Jenny has been told by one of the stores that collection will be app based with groups requesting nights on the app, but awaiting full details.
Food is now being collected every night apart from Sunday, Jenny is still holding it together, having to do 3 days last week as person unavailable at short notice – luckily food is still very variable, so not too much food one day and so it could be stored overnight.
Simon to follow up with Hub in Hutton Rudby about whether they could cover the insurance for the Repair Cafe.
Will follow up now Stokesley is scheduled.
Simon to request potential dates from Amey for additional visits to Allerton Waste Recovery Park.
Potential dates – 8 Aug 10am or 2pm, 10 Aug 10am or 2pm, 17 Aug 2pm
Action – Simon – survey on visit to AWRP

Updates

Pete
Regenesis – George Monbiot – hymn to the earth and it has been and is still being abused over time.  George has infinite capacity for conflict with all farmers – needs some conflict resolution if we are to solve the real problems with farming.
The book makes a compelling comparison between microbiomes – human gut and soil – also how current food choices are not good for either.
Composting toilets have long been an interest, they deal with human waste very effectively, so it is sad that our current sewage system wastes the resource which human waste presents – including filling it with micro-plastics.
We should have a future discussion on nappies – terries vs disposable – huge volume – in landfill they end up being built on for example Askham Barr bus hub.
We should discuss how advice could be given through health service encouraging reusable washes.  New washable nappies are very effective compared to terry and some councils even give grants for new mums to invest in reusable nappies and encourage reusable exchange – https://www.fill-your-pants.com/

Fred
Been looking at how to make High Streets (specifically Guisborough) more environmentally friendly.  One opportunity is the 19th century water fountain, could it be reinstated?  (Post meeting found http://www.drinkingfountains.org/ – who give grants for water fountains).
Guisborough has a plastic free shop – What Planet are You On
More bicycle use in Town – how do you make people feel safe – make Guisborough town centre one-way creating space for cycling.  Would need to be highlighted in local plan and then work with highways to develop plans.  Secure cycle parking is also necessary, suitable bike racks in locations that overlooked by people and CCTV.  Approach Cycling UK for advice – https://www.cyclinguk.org/cyclesafety.
Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council – Greener Future – https://greenerfuture.redcar-cleveland.gov.uk/
Continue writing to councils to save money / carbon – reduce use of diesel – for example 4 weekly collection rather than biweekly saves half the fuel cost – this can be over £100,000 per year for one council, or £40 million across the UK.
This may be possible for recycling, just enabling people to reduce the volume, encouraging them to crush items.
RCDC has supplied compost bins free which stops compostable items ending up in black bins.
Many materials can’t be recycled – needed to protect food from going off – balance between food waste and non-recyclable materials, easy when things don’t really need this much packaging.  Discussed in the Rubbish Book – James Piper – see March’s Waste Thoughts.

Jenny
Big plastic count – shocking how much is produced, how little is recycled and so how much will end up in the environment, especially as it was probably mainly filled in by people who are already waste conscious.

• Almost 250,000 people took part with you and together we counted a shocking 6.4 million pieces of plastic.
• On average each household threw away 66 pieces of plastic packaging, which is 3,432 pieces over a year.
• Applied to the UK as a whole, UK households throw away an unbelievable 1.85 billion pieces of plastic a week or 96.6 billion pieces of plastic a year.

All summarised in a Watch and Share video – https://act.greenpeace.org/page/109419/data/1

Wendy
Entangled life – Merlin Sheldrake – is a fascinating book about the importance of fungi, but it states that microbial interactions fungi / mammals differ in how we digest food – but actually your gut is part of the outside world so really very similar processes are involved.
Many other uses for banana skins – gluten free flour, stews, polish silver, vinegar, …
Siphon out bath water / shower water to use for watering plants – our water is highly processed so anything that means we use less water not only saves more water from being extracted from aquifers, but also saves the energy used processing that water too.  Of course if it is warm bath water, you should leave the water in the house until it is cool, so as not to waste the energy used to heat the water.  How to siphon with just a hose – https://www.wikihow.com/Siphon-Water and range of self-priming siphons https://duckduckgo.com/?q=siphon+aid+site%3Auk&t=raspberrypi&iax=shopping&ia=shopping – plus 13 ways to save water.

Kate
With the current heat waves, access to water is becoming ever more critical, hence importance of Refill.

Action: All – approach further businesses to involve in the Refill scheme
The recent event “Richmondshire Meet Heat and Eat“ was a great event bringing together 50 plus organisations built on solutions to the cost of living crisis, but included sustainable  energy, ….  Contacts with Clapham Sustainability Group, ACE Settle and Area, Open North Yorkshire – NYCC transport initiative https://opennorthyorkshire.co.uk/
Radio programme mentioned Groove Armada and Wild Farmed https://wildfarmed.co.uk/

Robert
Been involved with FoE Darlington on Incinerators, as Darlington Borough Council will ship all their waste to Redcar and Cleveland for incineration.
Trying to work with Labour Party Policy to phase out incinerators, however the response was very wet, as more worried about possible leakage from landfills rather than definite CO2 release from incinerators.  Especially with a contract to 2045 for burning waste.
Properly managed it is better to bury waste, landfills preserve things in very good condition for example you can still read newspapers after decades, great way to store carbon.
EU brought in rules to burn waste in different times and this built a momentum to carry out ever increasing incineration.
SINE – Stop Incineration North East driven by Paul Foster is labouring to oppose the new incinerator planned for Redcar, which would burn 450,000 tonnes per year.
Literature – Scottish example – Friends of the Earth Scotland put together a succinct briefing paper attached, as part of their campaign against increasing incineration in Scotland – https://foe.scot/campaign/plastic-pollution/incineration/.  If you want a more thorough but dated analysis of why incineration isn’t the answer the 1997 Friends of the Earth campaign guide still makes very interesting reading – attached.

There has been a huge increase in incineration recently and lots more plans in the pipeline, as you can see on this extensive website – https://ukwin.org.uk/incinerators/

Incineration is solving the wrong problem, rather than what to do with waste, we need to reduce waste, now get recycling improved to help reduce amount being burnt, overtime increase reuse ideal, decrease production.

Incineration creates three problems, generating carbon dioxide, destroying valuable resources and creating local pollution.  Incineration is driven by concerns over landfill, about use of land, contamination from leaching and release of methane, in fact these concerns are minimal in an appropriately sited and managed landfill.

Energy from waste is not renewable energy, we are just substituting most of the fossil fuel with waste,  and the amount of energy generated even from 100,000s of tonnes of waste per year is equivalent to just a few wind turbines.
The contracts being written now also contain big traps that for example if the levels of combustibles drop then councils would have to pay more according to the contracts now being signed.  So if the councils are successful at removing too much plastic then the waste won’t burn as well.

The short attached document from the US Incineration vs Landfill puts it best “Landfills are bad, but incinerators (with ash landfilling) are worse”.  The longer document from Montgomery county Maryland also covers the issue of energy justice, as incinerators are often placed in run-down areas and create few local jobs, compared to other ways of dealing with waste.

The more one reads about the issue of incineration the more it becomes obvious that as with diesel we are tackling the wrong problem, and that efforts should be focused on reduction of waste not on dealing with its end of life.
Policy proposals to Labour – every garden over 200m2 should have fruit trees if not then higher council tax, planning control on carbon content in construction and as a way to avoid demolition (VAT on refurbish not on new build also doesn’t help), implement personal carbon budgets.

The Labour party invites policy suggestions – https://www.policyforum.labour.org.uk/make-a-submission – this seems to be more open than other parties (please correct me if I am wrong – Simon).  However, no matter which political party you favour or are a member of, we should be working to get them to adopt policies that will address the climate and 
The result of emitting carbon dioxide can be shown in very stark terms and how much worse it is getting the longer we delay taking action – 12 tonnes per death in 2000, now 2 tonnes per death.  So our focus has to be to stop emitting CO2 now by every possible means.

Simon
Ministry for the Future – Kim Stanley Robinson – as Pete has mentioned before a great novel which makes many truths very clear.  For example the finance system with discount rates works against taking action on the climate – as it says that future action will be very cheap so don’t do anything now, taking no account of how much worse things will be then, how individuals how enable continuing carbon dioxide emissions are effectively murderers.

Matters Arising

CASaV AGM 21st July
Jos Holmes – North Yorkshire County Council Climate Policy Officer.
Action: Simon share letter from Fred to CCN share with Jos.
Repair Cafe 25th June – Swainby Village Hall – over 50 items examined with 70% repaired, next one scheduled for 10th September.

Bilsdale Show – 27th August
CASaV will have a stall and work to improving recycling at the show.

Volunteers – Anne Mannix, Joanna Whitwell, Karen Jobson

Action: All – volunteers for Bilsdale Show

Refill – continuing to approach local businesses to get involved.

Action: All – approach further businesses to involve in the Refill scheme

Recent online / physical meetings

NYCC Executive impressive to be able to watch local democracy in progress on YouTube, and great that they decleated a Climate Emergency, less impressive that they did not discuss the climate report at all.  5th July 11am Executive meeting – https://www.northyorks.gov.uk/live-meetings  NYCC Beyond Carbon – https://www.northyorks.gov.uk/beyond-carbon

AOB
North Yorkshire Climate Coalition – https://www.nyclimatecoalition.org/ – was set up to survey candidates ahead of the council elections, is now being extended as an active collaboration between all the climate groups across North Yorkshire to engage with primarily the council to help get North Yorkshire implementing climate and environment actions.