March’s Waste Thoughts – 2025

Our next Zoom meeting is on Tuesday 9th April 7pm – Please contact simongibbon@casav.uk for further details.

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

  • Waste:
    • Dogs can be great litter collectors, helping to tidy up after humans.
    • We don’t have a connection to the local litter picking groups, let us know who to contact
    • In Great Big Green Week we hope to run a Give or Take event, watch this space for more information
  • Reduce / Reuse / Recycle / Circularity:
    • Laundry sheets are a way to reduce the impact of cleaning your clothes on the environment
    • Before you can declutter there are some great books to get you into the right mindset
    • Zero carbon cement is possible with addition of olivine
    • Our electrical waste gets fully recycled up in Gateshead
  • Textiles:
    • Yorkits is fantastic project to turn spare textiles into period essential for women in need
    • Put 27th September in your diary as the day you can update your wardrobe at our Clothes Swap event
  • Biodiversity
    • Dandelions are fantastic as early food for pollinators, but also entirely edible once they have fed the pollinators
    • Woodchip is great in the garden, and potentially you can get it for free, but in large quantities – are you part of an allotment group that could use and allow others to get wood chip?
    • What seem like scrap building materials and natural materials make fantastic home for insects and fauna
    • Microplastics are now everywhere and they are effect photosynthesis in plants and so reducing food production globally
    • Sadly gardening can involve lots of plastics from pot to fertiliser bags, from plant labels to ties, so plastic free gardening is the way to go
  • Repair Cafes:
    • You don’t need to buy a new laptop just because your laptop can’t be upgraded to Windows 11, but you do need Linux
    • Our next Repair Cafe is on Saturday 15th March in Swainby Village Hall – repairs, refreshments, climate/biodiversity engagement
  • CASaV Wide
    • Wednesday 12th 7.30pm come to Faceby to hear about Citizen Science, how you can help science to help nature
    • Tuesday 18th 7.30pm come to Stokesley Globe Community Library to hear about all CASaV is up and learn how you can help climate and biodiversity

Actions:

  • All contact Bridget bridgetholmstrom@casav.uk with any place you know where dandelions are abundant free from pollution from cars or dogs – can use leaves, flowers, roots.
  • All let Kate kategibbon@casav.uk have your dandelion recipe leaflets.
  • Kate – add Helen and Anne to the Climate Column list for D&S article on waste food use in recipes and request people’s own ideas/recipes.
  • Simon create web page – https://casav.uk/lookingafternature – starting with these bug homes.
  • All bring along seeds that you have spare to Swainby Repair Cafe Saturday 15th or if you can’t make it to the Repair Cafe then let us know if you have seeds and we can arrange collection – kategibbon@casav.uk.

Background – Our Monthly Waste Discussions

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 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.

Notes form 11th March 2025 CASaV Waste Group

Previous Meeting Actions

  • Kate – find out through Surfers Against Sewage / Plastic Free Communities how the Skipton and Craven PFC is working with NYC.
    Mentioned in recent NYC Climate News – so will follow to contact Skipton and Craven PFC
  • Tracey confirm NYC ok for a trial Give and/or Take event.
    Confirmed NYC are happy for a trial event.
  • All – please send any suitable questions for Any Questions to simon.gibbon@casav.uk.
    A wide range of climate / biodiversity related question were submitted but none were selected to be one of 5 questions asked on the night.
  • Simon set up WhatsApp group to connect all the local repair cafes for support / skill sharing.
    WhatsApp set up to join Guisborough, Middlesbrough, Richmond, Saltburn and Stokesley Repair Cafes, looking to add Upper Esk Valley, Thirsk and Northallerton.

Updates

Anne

Finding laundry sheets, which are biodegradeable, plastic free, bleach free, non-bio, prevents overdosing, can use 2 for more extreme cleaning.

Great book “Zero Waste Kitchen” – recipes for using up things – crisps from peelings, banana skins – Random House

Kate

Some members of the Repair Cafe Sewing Team got involved in Rotary York Ainsty’s Yorkits event for International Women’s day. Yorkits makes period materials out of waste fabric for identified groups in developing countries – Yorkits Stages event at York Minster for International Women’s Day

Next week is food waste reduction week – 17th – 23rd March.

Bridget

Nature Group is planning a stall in Stokesley Market Place on Friday 4th April, will be proclaiming benefits of dandelions as the important pollinator at the start of the year. Plan to have a range of recipes – dandelion soup, dandelion soup, dandelion and burdock, dandelion syrup, …

Action: All contact Bridget bridgetholmstrom@casav.uk with any place you know where dandelions are abundant free from pollution from cars or dogs – can use leaves, flowers, roots.

Action: All let Kate kategibbon@casav.uk have your dandelion recipe leaflets.

As children we were told that dandelions made you wet the bed, so it may come as a surprise that you can eat any part of a dandelion – turns out:

So I asked Deepseek which took the question very seriously: Do dandelions really make you wet the bed?

“No, dandelions do not make you wet the bed. This is a myth with no scientific basis. Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) are edible plants and have been used in traditional medicine for their potential diuretic properties, meaning they might increase urine production. However, this effect is mild and not strong enough to cause bedwetting. Bedwetting (nocturnal enuresis) is typically caused by factors such as developmental delays, genetics, stress, or medical conditions, not by consuming dandelions. If you have concerns about bedwetting, it’s best to consult a healthcare professional.”

Jenny

We should instigate an award for Bridget’s dog Scout for collecting up to 20 plastic bottles and tin cans a day.

Action: Jenny – D&S article on dogs and cats doing environmentally good things.

Helen

We should really connect with the people who do the litter picking in Stokesley litter picking – some hints on Facebook – Tim Dunn? and in other local areas.

The plan with the school waste food recipe competition was to put all the recipes into a booklet with recipes on waste food. However, the school competition only got a few recipes, so to complement the plan is to ask people for their own recipes. Perhaps we could launch the request Great Big Green week (GBGW) – launch request for recipes perhaps with a waste food recipe taster session – 7 – 15 June.

Action: Kate – add Helen and Anne to the Climate Column list for D&S article on waste food use in recipes and request people’s own ideas/recipes.

Getting a new roof, asked if the old clay tiles could be reused – roofer looking into it. In fact the old tiles would also make a great newt hibernation homes. Also learned that the stuff in skips is placed in specific ways so that stuff can be reused, as this avoids landfill tax.

Tamzin

A good book on getting into the right mind set to declutter is “goodbye, things on minimalist living by Fumio Sasaki.

Patrick Grant’s book Less – “Stop buying so much rubbish: How having fewer, better things can make us happier” also particularly fascinating with respect to fashion & textiles (which is its main focus) this book was an eye opener – well worth reading . Author is the judge on the Sewing challenge TV programme.

Two waste cookery books on using leftovers, have lots of useful recipes.

Free wood chip but big amounts. ArbTalk is a website for registering on if you have a location that can receive wood chips – only thing to bear in mind is they generally have a large quantity they want to take to one location (last lot I got was equivalent to a transit van full of material) but they contact you so you could negotiate at that point to see if they deliver a percentage or not depending on your location . Access also needs to be considered as they tip the wood chip out so need enough space to reverse into where you want it putting. Not all tree surgeons seem to use it so it’s no good depending on it if you need some quickly as I’ve only had two lots in 5 years. So it’s not a regularly available thing.

https://arbtalk.co.uk/recycling/custom_information/has the background & what to expect 

Thought: Could we contact Stokesley and Great Ayton allotments to suggest they establish relationships with the local tree surgeons could be set up central locations for making wood chips available . 

Pete

Building construction / garden waste – stuff timber / board / rubble / left over iron work are just what is needed to help biodiversity.

Great to create new habitats – bumble nest boxes with suitable stuff for their nests.

Can also use natural materials lying around – sticks / branches which are gold for kids on walks – makes good stuff to stack for creating different habitats.

Action: Simon create web page – https://casav.uk/lookingafternature – starting with these bug homes.

Joy

Wild garlic harvest is going very well – making lots of soup out of it and of course fantastic salad. There is a great article on Gardners’ World website, which explains how to identify, not cause depletion of wild garlic in public spaces, if you don’t have any in your own garden.

Microplastics are the gift that just keeps giving, a Chinese study has found that microplastics are interfering with photosynthesis and so resulting in over 100 million tonnes of decreases in food production per year. The study makes it even clearer that the world need to take tackling plastic pollution more seriously, scaling up efforts such as the clean up of the Pacific garbage patch, stopping the dumping of plastics in countries from Turkey to Indonesia and finally started to stop the unnecessary use of plastics and look at ways to reduce plastic use even in essential.

Wendy

Came across a D&S article (similar article from Belfast) on almost plastic free gardening highlighting the tips from Louise Boland “The plastic-free gardener” with all sorts of ways of using different things – paper pots instead of plastic, hemp twine instead of plastic covered wire, etc.

Great New Scientist article from last year, explained how replacing 35% of cement with olivine (an abundant mineral) produces a carbon neutral cement, in fact 40% would be carbon negative. Tamzin’s chemical process produced a similar waste material which when incorporated by LaFarge worked really well, but was a pale pink colour, and this was not acceptable to an industry adverse to change.

First American quote – “We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children”

Leftover for Tomorrow by Marika Hanbury-Tenison from 1971.

Using ceramic balls in a container instead of detergent has been quite effective at cleaning clothes, but now noticing things going a bit grey

Looking for thin under-blankets for making the backing for rag rugs.

Simon

If you have a Windows 10 laptop that won’t run Windows 11 and are thinking of replacing it because Windows 10 support ends this year DON’T. First come to one of our Repair Cafes and see how you could run Linux instead.

Trying to make contact with Reboot North Yorkshire a collaborative project lead by North Yorkshire Council to provide IT equipment by ensuring that equipment is reused.

Tracey Flint visited GAP in Gateshead where North Yorkshire’s small WEEE, and white goods get sent to from the Household Waste Recycling Centres. It’s a really impressive operation and fascinating to see the amount of work that goes into maximising the amount that is recycled from WEEE. Most depressing was the recycling of vapes, each vape has to be dismantled into various component parts and the only way to do it is by hand, incredibly labour intensive.

Renew2u is a sister company of GAP, here they sell mainly white goods which have been returned to stores when new products have been purchased or simply because they weren’t acceptable for one reason for another, renew2u refurbish the products where necessary and grade them on quality before reselling them. Some of the items in the showroom you would never know they had been used before, and for others there may just be slight dents etc in the sides. For collections they work with retailer that take away old goods, but they will sell to anyone and have an online website. Having visited the site I don’t think I’ll be buying new again!

Matters Arising

Clothes Swap

Planned for Saturday 27th September 2025 in St Joseph’s Church Hall, Stokesley with a limit of 10 items person giving you a credit for number of items brought to the cafe which you can then take 10 items or less. Jo / Jane are organising this, looking at high quality – circularity / sustainability. People don’t wear 33% of clothes they own, which helps to explain by fast fashion accounts for incredible amount of climate issues and then also fast fashion made in sweat shops in 3rd world countries. Also gets people thinking differently about how they buy, own and dispose of their clothes.

Augusts Climate Column will be on fast fashion and the move to sustainable fashion.

In the autumn there will be a clothes rail at the Repair Cafes for warm winter clothes to be given to for NiteLight in Middlesbrough.

Give or Take

Tracey Flint has confirmed that North Yorkshire Council are happy to support a trial Give or Take event by collecting any left over items in sorted groups that will be taken away to be sent for reuse or recycling. Current plan is looking at Great Big Green Week – 7th – 15th June. Looking for a suitable venue, first thought was Catholic Church Hall but booked out until end of summer, now looking to Methodist Church Hall or possibly Stokesley Town Hall but probably need the size of the upstairs room so not good for transporting items up and down.

Repair Cafe

8th February Stokesley: 80 items presented and 50 Morsbags with helpful green information inside, we had some very busy times. Future cafes will probably rearrange entrance so people book in across the hallway in the Hambleton Council Office and then repairs are over in the library. This will also create space for people to explain the background to Repair Cafe and wider actions of CASaV.

15th March Swainby: Theme of growing, we will set the Post Office room up to engage with people around the issues behind the repair cafe, climate, biodiversity and waste reduction, will include a display on growing leading into ahead of Food Waste Action Week – 17th – 23rd March, along with the seed swap. Plus Rotters leaflets on reducing food waste and composting.

Action: All – bring along seeds that you have spare to Swainby Repair Cafe Saturday 15th or if you can’t make it to the Repair Cafe then let us know if you have seeds and we can arrange collection – kategibbon@casav.uk.

Explore possibility of making paper pots (Wendy & Kate have pot shaper / Anne has rolling pin method), could make a children’s event of making a pot, filling with compost and planting a seed and then watering at home.

An item to think about is having a tasting table of food from surplus i.e. potatoe peeling crisps.

12th April Stokesley: new volunteers always welcome.

Meetings

Wednesday 12th March Citizen Science Talk – Faceby Village Hall 7.30pm

Tuesday 18th March Whole CASaV Group – Stokesley Globe 7.30pm

Thursday 20th March Nature Group – Stokesley Globe 3.30pm – focus on dandelions

AOB

Next Meeting

Tuesday 9th April 7pm – Please contact simongibbon@casav.uk for further details.