June’s Resource Thoughts – 2026

Actions from Previous Meeting

  • Simon – 200-Year Life for Landfill Liners: Environment Agency’s requirement for a 200-year design life for hazardous-waste landfill liners. This timeframe is based on several factors: a risk-based safety margin to cover the period of highest contaminant mobility; material durability limits of geomembranes and clay; practical predictability for modeling behavior over centuries; alignment with post-closure management expectations; and a balance of environmental protection with technical feasibility.
  • Simon Other Outstanding Actions: Simon is coordinating the Bilsdale Show, Festival of Thrift, and looking into weights to hold CASaV gazebo down at shows etc..
  • Wendy / All: Could we have a plastic tree guard recycling project?

Updates

Jenny

Positive update that mangrove swamps are thriving, which provides some hope amidst depressing global news, such as research funding cuts by the US president.

Fred

Asked how the People’s Emergency Briefing addresses resource sustainability.

Disappointed that Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council reject entire lorry loads of recycling due to minor contamination, arguing that blaming the customer is unfair and that councils should instead invest in public education – see NYC approach below.

Michelle

Reuse and Refurbishment: Highlighted a York-based Community Investment Company (CIC) that collects and refurbishes used bikes from recycling centers.

WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment): Suggested placing pink collection boxes and pull-up banners featuring ‘Hypnocat’ at local libraries and Repair Cafes to collect small unrepairable electricals, pending an insurance check – Materials Focus has great resources to encourage WEEE recycling. Another approach is the “Great Cable Challenge” for schools during Recycle Your Electricals Week.

Bin Contamination and Rollouts: Bin lorry educational visits to schools in Scarborough and Ryedale have been highly successful in combating local contamination. The standardized WRAP-colored bins (blue for paper/card, red for the rest) have successfully reduced the amount of waste going into general rubbish. Richmondshire will see the new bins by the end of the year.

Reusables: The pilot scheme for reusable period products was incredibly successful and has exhausted its budget, though funding for reusable nappies remains available. Michelle is working with the health team to encourage schools to spend their £1,000 annual period product budget on reusables.

General Updates: Registration at Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRC) is going well, allowing 12 visits a year for vans.

Robert

Confirmed he has signed up for an event in York on July 11th before having to leave the call early.

Joy

Shared she is enjoying driving her new EV Leaf and making soup out of foraged chickweed and fat hen. She mentioned missing Chris Packham’s talk on a UK Nature’s Rights Bill at the York Festival of Ideas. Joy also reported spotting brand new pillows fly-tipped in a verge, which Michelle advised reporting via the North Yorkshire Council online customer services portal.

Pete

Discussed an economic report referencing Thomas Piketty on the concept of “sufficiency” versus gross overconsumption. He critiqued the modern EV market for prioritizing luxury gadgets over basic utility, suggesting that society needs to transition to a state of having “far less stuff” and doing less work.

Helen

Shared an appeal for her granddaughter, ‘M’, who is selling donated clothes on Vinted to fund a 2027 trip to Africa and needs donations of reusable packaging (shoe boxes, envelopes). Helen also shared a positive observation that the Highways Agency is actively managing A19 verges to promote wildflowers, resulting in large populations of ox-eye daisies and yellow rattle.

Kate

Shared positive environmental observations from a trip to Cornwall, including better hedgerow biodiversity, more insects, and the successful implementation of 20mph zones that have statistically improved road safety without hindering travel times. She praised Cornwall’s community artwork made from recovered beach litter. Finally, she announced that the Repair Cafe reuse tables will focus on travel/leisure books and outdoor games in June and July, followed by back-to-school stationery and textbooks in August and September.

Simon

Recent lecture regarding Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), given by LanzaJet who plan to alcohol from waste agricultural products to manufacture kerosene as SAF. The lecture gave a very detailed overview of the whole infrastructure around SAF, from 1st generation SAF producing using for example alcohol from corn, to what could be truly sustainable SAF, called power to liqud (PTL), where electricity is used to split water to hydrogen which is combined with captured carbon dioxide. However, today the airline industry annonuced it will not hit its Net Zero by 2050 target, raising concerns that SAF is just a way to prolong the burning of fossil fuel.

Matters Arising / Festivals / Events

  • Upcoming Festivals: Volunteers are needed for the Bilsdale Show on August 27th, and the multi-group Repair Cafe at the Festival of Thrift on July 4th and 5th.
  • Circular Economy Success: It was noted as a great success that leftover bric-a-brac from the recent Repair Cafe reuse table was taken by ‘M’ for her fundraising, creating a perfectly circular system.
  • Resource Sharing: Links are to be shared for the Keep Britain Tidy “Litter Heroes” Ambassador role profile and the Recycle Now Refill locator. Mention was also made of a Freecycle end-of-year fundraising appeal.

Next Meetings

  • People’s Emergency Briefing (PEB) Screenings: Upcoming local screenings are occurring in Stokesley, Guisborough (June 19th), and Northallerton (July 8th), with a link to the screening map provided for members.
  • Repairer Gathering: A summer lunch for Repair Cafe volunteers will take place after the July 18th event in Swainby.
  • Next Regular Meeting: Scheduled for Tuesday, July 14th. The group opted to keep the meeting online via Zoom to ensure accessibility for those who cannot attend in person.

Next Meeting

Tuesday 14th July via Zoom (https://zoom.us/j/96341121802).