EFFRA Committee member Diane Poole, has written a guide on recycling in the local area, as part of her activities with Plastic Free Bookham. The guide is available under “About Effingham” menu and via the link effinghamresidents.org.uk/recycling
Recycling helps to save some of the materials that are thrown away. However, manufacturing products and transporting them to where they are sold uses a significant amount of energy, as does collecting them from residents and recycling them into new products. So if we can reduce the amount of waste we produce to start with, we can make a significant positive environmental impact!
In the first instance we should aim to avoid single use items and choose products with less or no packaging. Remember to take along a reusable bag when you go shopping and a reusable water bottle or coffee cup if you fancy a drink. Think about ‘reusing’ items by donating stuff to charity shops or giving things away on sites like Freebay and, similarly, acquiring ‘new’ things that way.
This sounds like a great initiative. Has anyone directly approached our local cafe owners and retailers to ask them if they could also encourage people not to take additional bags / packaging? For example the lovely Loolabells cafe, could they remind people to bring their flasks or even give a 10p off incentive to customers who bring their own mugs/flasks/packed lunch boxes. I keep meaning to take my flask but keep forgetting – I know I need a nudge!
Hi Sally, this is Diane. Although this article came out of work I’m doing in Bookham, it has now been adopted by the EPC Climate Change group and hopefully we can pursue things like Loolabells. I may be meeting a friend there later in the week so will try and remember to ask. In the meantime please start the ball rolling!