Every month we meet to discuss waste, we discuss our activities and also other waste topics that interest us or we have heard about, find out what we have been up to Thoughts on Waste.
I hope you are doing well in these strange times, it is great you are interested in waste and the contribution it makes to climate change.
I am coordinating the Waste Group, looking for ways to carry out the group’s vision of minimising waste. I have lived in Swainby for the last 38 years with my wife and family. I guess I realised I needed to take action on climate change around 10 years ago, but still have a long way to go and having recently read “There is no planet b by Mike Berners-Lee”, I realised I still need help to reduce my carbon/environmental footprint down to that sustainable by one planet. So getting involved with CASaV and helping with waste seemed a good idea.
The CASaV website has a page which details some resources which help with minimising waste – https://climateactionstokesleyandvillages.org/waste/ – where to recycle, where to buy with less waste and what happens to our waste currently.
We have set up a Slack group where you will find some of our discussions – https://casav-waste.slack.com/, which you will be invited to join, when you sign up to the CASaV and the Waste Group – Join our mailing list.
Currently we are actively looking to reduce food waste’s contribution to carbon dioxide both by helping to stop leftover food from becoming waste and by lobbying local government to start separate collection of food waste to stop it ending up with general waste.
Individually, waste reduction is very much around reducing, reusing and recycling:
- Reduce: basically less stuff, only get as much stuff as is needed, avoid things that are over packaged, ….
- Repair: rather than replace stuff when it fails, get it repaired, not so easy often as we still looking for local repairers
- Reuse: whether this is just taking bags with you when you go shopping, or using clothes as dusters
- Recycle: try to buy things which can be recycled and then if you can’t repair or reuse, recycle at end of life.
We should really also include lobbying in here, as societal / governmental actions make minimising waste a lot easier, whether it is just better recycling facilities locally or “producer pays” legislation making the manufacturer more responsible for end of life – so letting our communities and politicians know that we care about waste is key to making the changes that are needed.
Thank you for being interested in the waste group, we are still finding our way, so please don’t help to get in touch with me or via the Slack group with any thoughts / ideas / questions you have.
Stay safe, best wishes, Simon Gibbon
Climate Action Stokesley and Villages 