June’s Resource Thoughts – 2026

Our next Zoom meeting is on Tuesday 14th June 7pm – Please contact simongibbon@casav.uk for further details.

Full notes below, after a quick summary – follow links for the detail:

Actions

All / Helen: Please contact Helen Herring with donations of clothes etc and reusable packaging (such as shoe boxes and sturdy envelopes) to help her granddaughter sell donated clothes on Vinted to fund a volunteering trip.

All: Contact Simon to volunteer to help at:
– Repair Cafe @ Festival of Thrift – July 4th and 5th
– Bilsdale Show – August 27th

All: Contact Kate to donate for Repair Cafe Reuse Themes:
– June & July: Focused on travel/leisure books and outdoor games.
– August & September: Shifting focus to back-to-school stationery and textbooks.

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..
    • Mike has 2 12kg steel ingots which are perfect, purchasing similar is about £150 for 4 which is more than cost of CASaV gazebo. So will be using the sand bags supplied with the gazebo, as the most effective approach. The gazebo has a vented roof, so in strong gust of wind these open reducing the pull on the structure.
  • Wendy / All: Could we have a plastic tree guard recycling project?

Updates

Jenny

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

Fred

Resource sustainability is central to the People’s Emergency Briefing whether through the urgent direct push for renewable energy over fossil fuels or need for food security.

Disappointed that Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council reject entire lorry loads of recycling due to minor contamination, it is a shame the customer is blame and the council 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 centres (Yorwaste – get reCYCLING).

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. NYC Electrical Eqipment recycling.

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-coloured 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.

Summer Reading Challenge “Read to the beat” 4th August 1.30-3.30 this event is aimed at young children, and we are making musical instruments from recycling items.

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

On Friday 19th June 10.30-12.30 at Stokesley Library there will be a drop-in session to talk about nappy reusables and any queries the residents may have regarding recycling and their bin collection service.

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

Robert

Signed up for the Community Climate Conference 2026 event in York on July 11th.

Joy

Enjoying driving new secondhand EV Leaf and making soup out of foraged chickweed and fat hen (recipe). Missed Chris Packham’s talk on a UK Nature’s Rights Bill at the York Festival of Ideas – (2026 York Festival of Ideas 2026 – Place and Space – YouTube Playlist should have recording soon).

Spotted what looked like brand new pillows fly-tipped in a verge, Michelle advised reporting via the North Yorkshire Council online customer services portal (NYC – Contact us).

Pete

Discussed an economic report referencing Thomas Piketty on the concept of “sufficiency” versus gross overconsumption. Personal experience is the modern EV market for prioritising luxury gadgets over basic utility, suggesting that society needs to transition to a state of having “far less stuff” and doing less work. Great Guardian article on “Good life for 99% isn’t a pipe dream” and the full report is on the Global Justice Project Website.

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). Please contact Helen Herring if you would like to donate something to M – helenherring@casav.uk.

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. Great community artwork made from recovered beach litter.

Repair Cafe reuse themes: 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 turn alcohol from waste agricultural products into 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. Slides available on Cleveland Institute of Engineers (CIE) website.

Matters Arising

  • 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: Our reuse tables at the Repair Cafes are great success with everything continuing their circular journeys. The leftover seeds for our gardening theme went to The Nest in Guisborough for their green event and leftover kichen items from the recent Repair Cafe reuse table was taken by ‘M’ for her fundraising, creating a perfectly circular system.
  • Keep Britain Tidy: “Litter Heroes” Ambassador role – Our vision at Keep Britain Tidy is to have a clean and healthy environment, rich in wildlife and valued by people who ‘love where they live’. Whether you join with others or pick up litter alone, as a Litter Hero you will be directly tackling pollution, improving the environment and helping to make your local community a cleaner, greener place for everyone. Find out more here – https://www.keepbritaintidy.org/our-work/eliminating-litter/litterheroes
  • Recycle Now: If you want to find out where to reycle things then go to the Recycle locator.
  • Freecycle: Urgently need your help to get Freecycle into the green this financial year end and reach their 50,000 fundraising goal! Donate – https://www.freecycle.org/pages/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 – screening map.
  • Climate Action Stokesley and Villages: whole group meeting Tuesday 16th 7pm Stokesley Community Library.
  • 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.
  • Repairer Gathering: A summer lunch for Repair Cafe volunteers will take place after July’s Swainby Repair Cafe 18th July.

Next Meeting

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