September’s Waste Thoughts – 2023

Full notes below, quick summary:

Actions:

  • Bridget will arrange trip to Allerton Waste Recovery Park
  • All contact Bridget if you want to visit Allerton Waste Recovery Park
  • Simon suggest method to allow climate book sharing
  • Pete look into arranging a waste group visit to a waste treatment plant, likely to be Bran Sands
  • Simon look into arranging PAT testing training

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.

Notes form 12th September 2023 CASaV Waste Group Meeting

Updates

Bridget

A number of people were unable to go on our last trip to North Yorkshire’s Allerton Waste Recovery Park.
Action: Bridget will arrange trip to Allerton Waste Recovery Park
Action: All contact Bridget if you want to visit Allerton Waste Recovery Park

Robert Campbell has taken a number of people on tours of his farm, he is willing to take other people, he tries to have group of 4 as you can all fit in one vehicle.
Action: All contact Bridget if you would like to visit Robert Campbell’s farm

Pete

The recent Labour Garden Party had a great bookstall, where it was obvious many people wanted to get rid of books rather than get new ones. So how do you reuse books? Recycling books? Basically what can be done with old books. People do upcycle books into ornaments.

Many of us have books on climate change / nature which we would be happy to lend to other CASaV members, CASaV Book Lending List. How do we share books bearing in mind we would be happier to lend to people we know, so we would be more reassured that we would get them back again?
Action: Simon suggest method to allow climate book sharing

How about a visit to sewage treatment plant? Is there really more toilet paper than poo? Northumbria Water Limited Site Tours
Action: Pete look into arranging a waste group visit to a waste treatment plant, likely to be Bran Sands

Wendy

A funghi has been discovered that decays hard wood trees in Sri Lanka, which also degrades polyethylene – New Scientist. Other microrobes have in laboratory conditions been shown to degrade polymers, but as yet these results have not be reproduced in real waste situations. If the active enzymes can be identified then it may also be possible to engineer the effect at scale.

A mixture of cement and charcoal powder has been developed as a flooring material which also acts as a supercapacitor capable of storing a days worth of energy – New Scientist, CleanTechnica, MIT.

Great to see in the Darlington and Stockton times that a local fertiliser supplier is part of the Green Tractor Scheme which sponsors recycling of plastic waste from farms. All farm plastic waste has to be recycled by 2030.

David

Humanity’s use of water has got to such a dominant stage that it is possible to show that in many areas the water cycle (rain – rivers – sea – evaporation – rain) has now been broken, such that rain is now unpredictable, having a huge effect on agriculture, human access to fresh water and hydropower. A New Scientist Article highlights our impact on water and how much we throw away. Other open access articles address the same issue, suggesting how we can address the problems we have caused – The water cycle is broken but we can fixt it, We must fix the broken water cycle before it dooms civilisation – again.

Australia made fire proof out of funghi – just extinguishes the flames – 800C – New Scientist, RMIT. It looks like the funghi act like intumescent coatings, which are currently synthetic petrochemical derived coatings which on heating produce carbon foams which insulate flammable or sensitive structural materials from heat. All structural steel in tower blocks is coated with a coating which is capable of keeping steel below the critical temperature of 500C for several hours even in the presence of burning kerosene.

Anne

Refill progressing to get local businesses to provide free water. For pubs there is a legal obligation to provide free tap water to customers, MoneySavingExpert, in fact all licensed premises have to.

Simon

It has been an accepted cross-party principle that “the polluter pays“, seems only reasonable that if you make a mess you should be responsible to clean it up. As cleaning up involves costs businesses have generally attempted to avoid paying to protect profits / reduce there costs. So in the 2018 government policy document “Our waste, our resources: a strategy for England” it was good to see that the polluter pays principle was enshrined in plans and timelines for the introduction of extended producer responsibility (EPR, 2021 consultation) and deposit return schemes (DRS, 2021 consulation, Surfers Against Sewage view of UK government inaction) – unfortunately these plans have largely due to business lobbying been delayed and undermined by government policies. The most recent setup back being the failure of the government to hold the water companies to pay for the continuing release of sewage into our rivers and seas, and the blocking of the introduction of a full DRS system in Scotland.

As individuals as well as CASaV we need to continue to let our MP and councillors know that minimisation of waste is something we care about.

Another successful Repair Cafe was held in Stokesley on 12th August, with the next in Stokesley on 16th September and then Swainby on 14th October.

Ever since SaVRC held its first repair cafe, I have been entering each item into the Repair Cafe International’s Repair Monitor system. So it is great they have now created a publicly accessible Repair Monitor Dashboard which shows our current results, so the picture shows the 2nd October view. You can also look at what other repair cafes globally are repairing.

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) is a potential source of funding to minimise waste. It is a competitive fund that North Yorkshire Council has been allocated £16.9m funding (with a further £5.9m from the Rural England Prosperity Fund) from to whom we would need to submit an application for a share of that money, for example could it be used for blister pack recycling? Yorkshire First Community view, North Yorkshire Council SPF Information.

Fred

Guisborough Eco-Group will hold its first repair cafe on 30th September in the Methodist church hall, purely for textile repairs. SaVRC now has a PAT Tester so SaVRC will lend its PAT tester in future.
Action: Simon look into arranging PAT testing training

Kate is helping with sewing, one thought was to make Morsbags, perhaps for sale in “What Planet are You On”, this won’t be possible as Morsbags stipulate they must not be sold. Kate has labels and details of Morsbags, will take to Guisborough.
Action: Kate will share labels etc with Guisborough

Kate

Blister packs: The South Sheffield Greener Greenhill group set up a petition for companies to make blister packs recyclable and lobby government on change.org, sadly that did not get enough support (Blog on their blister pack campaign), but there is a new petition – Change.org.

Blister packs have considerable traction locally as shown by the amount of packs that the various local collections used to receive, and on Facebook with people unhappy that local collection has stopped. Individually we could all take our own blister packs to the nearest Superdrugs which include a pharmacy – Harrogate, Chester le Street or Bridlington. Others areas in the country have Tesco pharmacies which will take them back.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park – The Printed Peanut – Tin Decoration Workshop – make tin decorations out of food paste tubes – cut with scissors / punch with holepunch. Should we have a Christmas Decorations by Upcycling event, perhaps during our Repair Cafe 9th December at the Globe.

CASaV and young people – link with Duke of Edinburgh etc. Scouts / Guides
Badges etc., Cubs / Beavers – recycling badges, Scouts – climate change badge is far more substantial – prove know impact of climate change etc., a bit more activist – supported environmental organisation.

Bilsdale Show

Five of us plus the North Yorkshire Rotters created a green presence as people arrived at the Bilsdale Show on 26th August, the day went well, despite the heavens opening around 3pm.

Many constructive conversations with people from far and wide, farmers, horse owners, agricultural contractors, constructions workers, green retrofitters, etc.. plus a few absolute climate deniers.

We were also picking up litter and encouraging recycling, it was great to see there was very little rubbish to pick up. Fred brought his recycling game which was much appreciated by lots of children, helping to get all the family to our stall.

Something to ponder is whether CASaV should try to attend more of the local shows next year?

Actions from last meeting

Kate write a template letter asking drug manufacturers to use recyclable packaging to be shared at the next CASaV meeting for other people to use

All get back to Jenny if Sally Russell’s research suggests she could usefully talk to CASaV about – Sally’s profile
Great to invite her to one of our meetings as she understands what makes people act on green issues

Simon coordinate volunteers for Bilsdale show
6 of us went to the show

Simon complete Bilsdale attendance form
Completed – show attended.

Kate produce A4 leaflet folded to A5 eating sustainably – circulate by end of week –
3 leaflets were produced on clothes, food and energy -you can find web versions here – CASaV Hints and Tips Leaflets

AOB

Matter arising

Repair Cafes – Stokesley 12/8, Swainby 16/9, Stokesley 14/10

CASaV are looking into holding an energy event porabably with a major foucs around retaining heat in our homes. So making draught excluders (shirt arms/jean legs with old pillow stuffing) anything to help people cut their energy consumption, fireplace balloons to block draught. What can we learn from CAB mobile vans with freebies, York Community Energy/Bristol Community Energy, low cost / alternative technology approaches to warm area in house, event all about low energy homes, insulation, role of dehumidifiers, retrofitting, insulated curtains – velcroed to walls at edges, foil behind radiators, secondary double glazing…. CASaV website already has links to a number of websites with details of how to save heat.…

Recent online / physical meetings

Bridget attended a Rewilding Weekend with Graham Lawton from New Scientist – Coombeshead Rewilding in Devon, fantastic to see what Derick Gow and the team have achieved with beavers, water voles, turtle doves, wild cats,… through rear and release.

AOB

Reclaim Our Sea Update – Simon presented on the contamination that Teesworks is likely to be causing to the Joint Councils Crustacean Collaborative Working Group on 1st September – you can read about current thoughts and find recordings of his presentations linked from here – The Crab Die Off and Teesworks.

Festival of Thrift – 23rd / 24th September – SaVRC will be helping the Star and Shadow Fix-it cafe run a repair cafe in Billingham Library.

Next meeting

Tuesday 10th October 7.00pm