Shropshire Council’s Oak Farm in Ditton Priors is one of 16 council services in the country who applied for the Best Partnership Award in the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC) 2011 celebration awards, and everyone at Oak Farm is delighted that they have now reached the final three. The awards recognise the dedication, success and achievements of council recycling officers and their teams and partners.
The day service has been shortlisted under the category Best Partnership Award for their Oak Farm community composting scheme. The strength and success of the project is due to the way in which the local community and the farm have worked closely together from the start to produce a project that has many benefits which include:
•a more local solution for green waste
•good quality compost for the farm
•an opportunity for Oak Farm workers to get together with locals
•a reduction in the village’s carbon footprint
Oak Farm provides training in agriculture and horticulture for adults with learning disabilities. It’s a busy place where everyone is involved in growing and selling produce, looking after animals, selling eggs and of course, running a community composting scheme for the local village. In addition to this everyone in the village can bring their green waste in by car or wheelbarrow where it will be offloaded, shredded, turned and then used as compost on the farm.
click here to see behind the scenes at Oak Farm Community Composting scheme
Thursday, 22 September 2011
Saturday, 3 September 2011
Bridgnorth furniture recycling
For people who like to be frugal there is nothing more disheartening that looking at the skip loads of perfectly decent household goods which get dumped into landfill every year. It seems crazy to see fully functional items going to waste, when for many, items like microwaves and TV's are financially out of reach.
Well, it doesn't have to be this way. There is a great little project in Bridgnorth trying to help solve this by linking up with poorer households who will make use of unwanted items. It all began 5 years ago when entrepreneur Andy Smith starting offering house clearances, working out of a cattle shed on his fathers farm, with just a second hand Luton van.
It has since (through a combination of sheer hard graft, EU social funding, lottery grants, sale of scrap metal and other recycling, earnings from the sale of second hand goods and support from the Councils Waste Management team) evolved into a successful business which provides training and volunteering for the unemployed alongside paid employees.
They now trade as BDFS CIC - the CIC means 'community interest company' so there's no shareholders. So whilst the company can trade and make profit, no profit can be taken out of the company and distributed as dividends. So any surplus is reinvested back into the company and this in turn helps do more training and volunteering and more reuse and recycling of unwanted goods.
Above is the vehicle used to collect unwanted items from all over Bridgnorth and Wyre Forest area. All items are given a basic check to ensure they are safe, clean and functional before being sold at rock bottom prices to people on low incomes. Its a real Aladdin's Cave in their furniture shop (see below). It's unbelievable is to think that much of this stuff would have ended in landfill.
It comes as no surprise when youth unemployment and landfill costs are both spiralling out of control that a project which deals with both is seen as really quite a good idea. So the scheme is enthusiastically supported by many organisations who recently gathered to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the project. We were very lucky on the day to be joined by a local VIP in the shape of Member of Parliament, Philip Dunne.
Operations Manager for BDFS, Christina Wang showed us around the site, on Stanmore Industrial Estate which acts as their all in one depot, warehouse, training centre, repair workshop and retail unit. A big thank you to all the councillors and volunteers who came along on the day to lend their support.
Of course if we want to see more of this happening, then its not enough just to do the right thing with your waste, we all need to make more of an effort to buy second hand goods where ever we can.
Well, it doesn't have to be this way. There is a great little project in Bridgnorth trying to help solve this by linking up with poorer households who will make use of unwanted items. It all began 5 years ago when entrepreneur Andy Smith starting offering house clearances, working out of a cattle shed on his fathers farm, with just a second hand Luton van.
It has since (through a combination of sheer hard graft, EU social funding, lottery grants, sale of scrap metal and other recycling, earnings from the sale of second hand goods and support from the Councils Waste Management team) evolved into a successful business which provides training and volunteering for the unemployed alongside paid employees.
They now trade as BDFS CIC - the CIC means 'community interest company' so there's no shareholders. So whilst the company can trade and make profit, no profit can be taken out of the company and distributed as dividends. So any surplus is reinvested back into the company and this in turn helps do more training and volunteering and more reuse and recycling of unwanted goods.
Above is the vehicle used to collect unwanted items from all over Bridgnorth and Wyre Forest area. All items are given a basic check to ensure they are safe, clean and functional before being sold at rock bottom prices to people on low incomes. Its a real Aladdin's Cave in their furniture shop (see below). It's unbelievable is to think that much of this stuff would have ended in landfill.
It comes as no surprise when youth unemployment and landfill costs are both spiralling out of control that a project which deals with both is seen as really quite a good idea. So the scheme is enthusiastically supported by many organisations who recently gathered to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the project. We were very lucky on the day to be joined by a local VIP in the shape of Member of Parliament, Philip Dunne.
Operations Manager for BDFS, Christina Wang showed us around the site, on Stanmore Industrial Estate which acts as their all in one depot, warehouse, training centre, repair workshop and retail unit. A big thank you to all the councillors and volunteers who came along on the day to lend their support.
Of course if we want to see more of this happening, then its not enough just to do the right thing with your waste, we all need to make more of an effort to buy second hand goods where ever we can.
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
Ludlow Green Fayre 2011
Volunteers from Shropshire Master Composters spent this weekend at the Ludlow Green Fayre helping to raise awareness of home composting and recycling. This is an annual event which brings together much of the environmental community in Shropshire and highlights the work which is going on to help keep the place clean and green.
The whole town square was packed out with market stalls displaying everything from photo-voltaic cells to bicycle paneers and local food. There was willow weaving, music, belly dancing, and even a live 'Grand Designs' style show where local expert Colin Richards, a small building in the Square out of recycled plastic bottles and rubber tyres.
A huge thanks to all the volunteers who gave up their time to make the day possible and hopefully its helped to get the message out to the wider public, we need you to recycle and compost more, for the sake of our economy and the planet.
The whole town square was packed out with market stalls displaying everything from photo-voltaic cells to bicycle paneers and local food. There was willow weaving, music, belly dancing, and even a live 'Grand Designs' style show where local expert Colin Richards, a small building in the Square out of recycled plastic bottles and rubber tyres.
A huge thanks to all the volunteers who gave up their time to make the day possible and hopefully its helped to get the message out to the wider public, we need you to recycle and compost more, for the sake of our economy and the planet.
Friday, 26 August 2011
Waste Collections - Aug Bank Holiday 2011
Due to the bank holiday on Monday, 29th August 2011 the bin men will have a day off - so there will be no waste collections made on this day. As a result all the garden waste, recycling and rubbish collections across the whole of Shropshire are a day later than usual all week.
All this is made clear on the calendars you get from the Council, but if you're not sure check out this link to check out when your next waste collection takes place http://shropshire.gov.uk/waste/binday/
All this is made clear on the calendars you get from the Council, but if you're not sure check out this link to check out when your next waste collection takes place http://shropshire.gov.uk/waste/binday/
Monday, 22 August 2011
Reusing plastic bottle tops!
We often get asked about plastic - its the bane of a waste managers life! Thankfully the Council are now collecting plastic bottles for recycling in Shropshire, but they dont want the lids! This means literally MILLIONS of plastic lids have to go landfill every year.
Well I’ve just been sent this useful tip for re-using the lids from plastic bottles – it saves them from going in your bin and gives them another life, it will also save you from having to buy bag clips …
Make an incision and using a pair of scissors cut the plastic bottle RIGHT AT the NECK.
Then you just simply have to stick a plastic bag through the NECK of the bottle which you have just cut off. Screw cap back on for a perfect seal!
Clever hey?
The rest of the plastic bottle can be recycled as normal with your plastic bottles, its just the lids they wont collect.
Well I’ve just been sent this useful tip for re-using the lids from plastic bottles – it saves them from going in your bin and gives them another life, it will also save you from having to buy bag clips …
Make an incision and using a pair of scissors cut the plastic bottle RIGHT AT the NECK.
Then you just simply have to stick a plastic bag through the NECK of the bottle which you have just cut off. Screw cap back on for a perfect seal!
Clever hey?
The rest of the plastic bottle can be recycled as normal with your plastic bottles, its just the lids they wont collect.
Sunday, 21 August 2011
Composting Safety Video
Waste Management experts Viridor have launched a new film to help improve health and safety at composting sites.
Designed for people who work on either in-vessel or windrow composting facilities, the film provides the information needed to comply with Health and Safety Executive guidelines and manage the risks of working with these processes. The film covers areas such as personal protective equipment; working with machinery, confined spaces and workplace transport in a composting environment.
Alan Cook, Viridor's health and safety advisor in the South East, said: "We have also developed a multi-choice test to reaffirm the key learning points from the film to ensure operatives have understood the information. The test and marking guide are available to download for use or to use as templates to create your own. We're really pleased to have support from the Association for Organics Recycling (AfoR) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for the film, and to be able to share health and safety advice across the sector.”
You can access the film and tests at www.viridor.co.uk/compostingsafety
Designed for people who work on either in-vessel or windrow composting facilities, the film provides the information needed to comply with Health and Safety Executive guidelines and manage the risks of working with these processes. The film covers areas such as personal protective equipment; working with machinery, confined spaces and workplace transport in a composting environment.
Alan Cook, Viridor's health and safety advisor in the South East, said: "We have also developed a multi-choice test to reaffirm the key learning points from the film to ensure operatives have understood the information. The test and marking guide are available to download for use or to use as templates to create your own. We're really pleased to have support from the Association for Organics Recycling (AfoR) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for the film, and to be able to share health and safety advice across the sector.”
You can access the film and tests at www.viridor.co.uk/compostingsafety
Sunday, 14 August 2011
Bowbrook allotments wins award
Volunteers from Bowbrook Allotments in Shrewsbury have been invited to the Shrewsbury Flower Show to receive an award for the allotment site. Chris Beardshaw, author, broadcaster and TV gardener presented me, on behalf of our allotment site, with the award for “Shropshire’s Best Community Garden”.
The site is an exemplar for composting with every plot supplied with a free compost bin by the local Council to encourage people to reduce waste and practice organic gardening techniques.
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