June’s Waste Thoughts – 2022

Full notes below, quick summary:

  • World Refill day on Thursday 16th June
  • Jubilee reuse / recycling
  • Oddbox – reducing food waste
  • Extension to Allerton Waste Recovery Park – new incinerator in Redcar
  • Lots of radio – Why Soil Matters, Regenesis vs farming, Climate Tipping Points
  • Bilsdale show stall plus recycling support

Actions:

  • Kate – mention milk bottle top collection for charities to the Globe
  • All if you would like to get Oddbox delivered then sign-up/write into Oddbox to get them to start a service locally.
  • 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.
  • Simon to follow up with Hub in Hutton Rudby about whether they could cover the insurance for the Repair Cafe.
  • Simon call Coop Foodshare and ask for what other rural groups do to connect food surplus to need.
  • Simon to request potential dates from Amey for additional visits to Allerton Waste Recovery Park.

Actions from Last Meeting

Action: Kate – mention milk bottle top collection for charities to the Globe.

  • 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
    • The Globe is looking into confirming insurance.
  • Simon to follow up with Hub in Hutton Rudby about whether they could cover the insurance for the Repair Cafe.
    • Awaiting feedback from Hub to pursue.
  • Simon call Coop Foodshare and ask for what other rural groups do to connect food surplus to need.
  • Simon to request potential dates from Amey for additional visits to Allerton Waste Recovery Park.

Updates

Jenny has found a potential recipient for food on a Wednesday night this would mean that more food from Coop Foodshare goes locally..
Jenny’s son Sam’s podcast on why warming the tundra will release lots of methane and it’s doesn’t just bubble out of the soil but is produced by bacteria which were suppressed by the cold. You can listen to it on any of these: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/carbon-in-the-ground-part-i/id1625463428?i=1000563019766 https://podcastaddict.com/podcast/polar-pod/3966088 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1977380

Ruby’s in the Rubble (https://rubiesintherubble.com/) condiments made with ingredients that would otherwise be wasted just because they are the wrong shape, size or colour.

There is likely to be a shortage of fruit pickers this year – this is likely to produce even more food wastage.

Kate reported on the Swainby Jubilee with efforts to make sure everything was reused or recycled: decorations are all being donated to a Middlesbrough Primary school; she is assembling all the knitted bunting into blankets either for the RSPCA/Homeless; knitted crowns will be auctioned; disposable plastic glasses were all put in the dishwasher for reuse;

4 bags of recycling were collected on the day, along with 4 bags of waste which yielded another 2 bags of recycling with only 1/2 a black bag left to go to waste.

Plastic roads – walked past a road in Newcastle which said it had been relayed with recycled plastics – turns out they also reduce potholes – https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/south-tyneside-council-prepares-trial-16150804 and lower emissions – https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210302-could-plastic-roads-make-for-a-smoother-ride – looks like its all made out of plastic asphalt – https://macrebur.com/.
Great talk organised by the York Humanists “The role of the ocean and its tides in the control of Earth’s climate” with Professor John Simpson, he explained how climate change would reduce the capacity of oceans to capture carbon dioxide and so presents a serious potential tipping point which if it occurs will accelerate climate change drastically.  On 7th July there is a talk on “Why Vegan? – Practising a more compassionate and sustainable lifestyle” with Hilary Wilson.

Pete having visited Allerton Park interesting to hear there are plans to build a plant to use waste plastic as part of the input to a new asphalt to be built next to the waste handling facility.  The plant would be near to a lot of roads for which the asphalt would be used for road  resurfacing  https://thestrayferret.co.uk/developer-plans-asphalt-plant-in-harrogate-district/.  it appears the plant will take waste plastic which Amey is struggling to find a buyer for and therefore being fined by NYCC for not meeting the agreed recycling targets – https://thestrayferret.co.uk/1-2bn-knaresborough-incinerator-has-never-met-recycling-targets/

While using plastic waste to make asphalt is extending the life of the material it is definitely downcycling (when a high quality product is made into a lower quality product, i.e. furniture into firewood) and there will be no way to recover useful plastic from the asphalt made, so not a truly circular economy.
The EU introduced a law to limit the power a vacuum cleaner could use, basically to stop a silly race for ever more unnecessarily powerful vacuum cleaners and encouraging innovation to improve cleaning rather than just using more electricity.  Jacob Rees-Mogg has stated that a top “Brexit” win will be for the government removed this limit on the power of vacuum cleaners – https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/rees-mogg-touts-scrapping-eu-vacuum-cleaner-laws-as-top-brexit-benefit-324830/
Locally polypropylene fibres reinforced concrete is used by farmers to contain run-off replaced steel – https://www.hanson.co.uk/en/ready-mixed-concrete/reinforced-concrete

Joy had listened to an interesting “Start the Week – a revolution in food and farming” on BBC radio 4 where George Monbiot, having just published his book Regenesis which proposes a new model for farmer, was in discussion with Sarah Langford, soon to be published Rooted: Stories of Life, Land and a Farming Revolution and Claire Ratinon, soon to be published Unearthed: On Race and Roots and How the Soil Taught Me I Belong, who present a view more accepting of current land use and diet norms.  The programme is very thought provoking, but in order to understand who is correct, you will need to read the books and probably check some of the disputed literature for yourself https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00180bs – next book debates for the CASaV Book Club?

Wendy experienced the frustration that no matter how hard you try plastic still gets you – she took her own cup to the canteen on the train to be told she had to carry the hot drink in a bag back to her seat, only to discover that a plastic cup had been put in the bag to hold the milk pots.
Wendy’s sister gave her Oddbox plums for breakfast.  Oddbox (https://www.oddbox.co.uk/) is an idea originally from Portugal now taken up in the UK where each week or fortnight you get a box of different shaped fruit / vegetables – they have been judged wrong size, wrong shape or wrong colour by the normal retail chains.  Oddbox give you a lot of information about the products you are getting, where they came from, etc. and Oddbox rescued equivalent to 8000 people eat in a week – so far save 11,000 tonnes of fruit and veg, save 12,230 tonnes of CO2e and 1,222million litres of water.  Deliver overnight to reduce pollution.  Unfortunately don’t deliver to Stokesley.
Could we do something local in a small way?
Action: All if you would like to get Oddbox delivered then sign-up/write into Oddbox to get them to start a service locally.

David mentioned Radio 4 had a series of programmes on “The Climate Tipping Points” while the first 4 were on natural systems, the final programme was on society and the idea that we will reach a tipping point where public opinion allows governments to take the urgent serious actions necessary to tackle climate change rapidly.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m00180cc

Anne heard Professor Pete Smith from the University of Aberdeen, a lead author of the IPCC reports and an internationally recognised soil scientist on the Life Scientific on Radio 4, talking about “Why soil matters“.  “Tackling climate change in isolation is a mistake”, he says. “We need to consider all the challenges facing humanity and identify strategies that deliver benefits on all fronts: food security, bio-diversity and human development goals.”  He is particularly keen that we should restore peat as rapidly as possible https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0017tgl

Refill is progressing with a number of locations in Stokesley signed up and a number more possible – Milk and Grind, Chapters.  Milk and Grind already charge more for disposable cup drink than for drinking in.
World Refill Day is on Thursday 16th June – https://www.refill.org.uk/world-refill-day/ – both Radio Leven onLine and Radio Tees have been encouraged to cover it.
The Refill organisation has also been targeting the biggest users of single use plastics – Coca Cola, Pepisi Cola, Nestle, P&G and Unilever.  Using social media to make them responsible for the waste, a model letter to persuade them to adopt new ways of business which do not rely on single use plastics.

World Refill day hero film – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psqxmo0EMH8 and campaign pack.
Action: Kate to promote Refill’s campaign on Social Media to call out the biggest brands & polluters and let them know we need them to act now.

Back of Refill Cards has some great tips to use on social media.

Simon has a number of academic interactions related to single use plastics both reduction and use.  The team at the University of Sheffield have build on their work redefining single-use and developed a Many Happy Returns (MHR) system to keep packaging materials in circulation for as long as possible – https://grantham.sheffield.ac.uk/research-projects/many-happy-returns-plastic/.  DIY4U is a project with the Centre for Process Innovation in Sedgefield which aims to do for fast moving consumer goods what in store paint mixers did for paint – https://www.sintef.no/projectweb/diy4u/ – by bringing product manufacture nearer to the point of use there is the potential to reduce waste, but equally it could result in increased purchases of small amounts of materials and so a bigger packaging footprint.
Darlington FoE have asked me to give out this link to their campaign against the incinerator near Redcar https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/20092673.redcars-new-300m-incinerator-running-november/ – it will burn 450,000tonnes per year.  Join the FoE Whats App group to help oppose it  https://chat.whatsapp.com/D2wscF4b1lv4ogBarayNZT – Facebook of Stop Incineration North East (SINE) – https://www.facebook.com/groups/297349574951629/ and read FoE’s “are incinerators good for the environment?” – https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate/are-incinerators-good-environment

Fred raised two issues after the meeting:

  • What could be done to Guisborough High Street more rapidly become carbon neutral?
    • Are there high streets elsewhere to learn from?  Better with simple small steps than radical things such as pedestrianisation or a local currency, but what are those simple steps?
  • Blog post putting forward legislation to reduce bin collection from fortnightly to up to 6 weekly – https://recycleangel.co.uk/blog/.  This would save a lot of fuel and allow the staff freed up to work with the communities to reduce waste further.  This would require new legislation as currently fortnightly is mandated in law.

Matters Arising

Bilsdale Show – 27th August: have negotiated for support from Hambleton District Council to supply waste and recycling bins.  The show has adopted the proposed environmental policy and have allocated us a stall, my suggestion is that a number of us are a visible presence nominally looking after recycling but aiming to have conversations with attendees to find out what they are concerned about.
Transport: Moorsbus may be running to allow travel to the show without the use of a car; Simon contacted Liftshare (https://liftshare.com/uk) to see if they could supply support for arranging ad-hoc car sharing as they do for music festivals, no reply received.

Repair Cafe 25th June – Swainby Village Hall
Kate putting onto social media later in the week.  This time we will have: knife sharpening – everything from kitchen knives to garden shears; 3 on the sewing team; 2 on the electrical team.

Recent online / physical meetings
There have been a series of meetings to follow up after the consultation process on the York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership’s Carbon Negative Routemap – Net Zero Tourism, Marine, Natural Capital and Community Action.

Website
A CASaV event calendar is now integrated into the website – https://climateactionstokesleyandvillages.org

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