Parish newsletter February 2021

Dear Blogger

Message from Lydia Bardsley, Ruyton XI Towns Parish Clerk.

RUYTON XI TOWNS PARISH COUNCIL NEWSLETTER UPDATE

Ruyton XI Towns Parish Council has formed a Climate Emergency Working Group, whose aim is to research, propose, and coordinate activities designed to tackle the climate emergency, and we are looking for enthusiastic members of the community to get involved. What we've already achieved: There are things we have already achieved as a Parish Council, prior to the formation of this working group, which fit the aims: upgraded all Parish Council-owned streetlights with LEDs in 2019 – the significant energy efficiency and long lifespan helps reduce carbon emissions started adding solar panels to our vehicle activated speed (VAS) signs  – solar is more sustainable than recharging batteries with mains electricity a tree planting initiative in the Queen Elizabeth II field and on 'the Spinney' – trees store or 'sequester' carbon emissions, improve air quality,  as well as create new habitats for local wildlife Next project: Recycling the non-recyclable We're all used to separating tin cans, glass bottles, cardboard etc. for kerbside collection, but did you know there is a way to recycle certain items that Shropshire Council can't accept? The Climate Emergency Working Group are particularly keen to gain support from the community for an exciting recycling initiative. We are looking into working with TerraCycle (an organisation that specialises in "recycling the non-recyclable") to establish "public drop-of locations" in the parish for hard to recycle waste. Residents would be able to drop off certain types of post-consumer waste: examples could include bread bags, cheese packaging, dental products, pet food pouches, coffee capsules, health and beauty packaging, medicine blister packs, biros, crisp packets BUT there are limitations especially if other sites locally already deal with these recyclable categories. So the first job is to work out what is possible. Collected waste = cash for charities If we can get a recycling point established then once we've collected a certain volume of waste this will be sent off to TerraCycle for cleaning, reusing, recycling, and upcycling. They also give the community the chance to raise money for local charities and schools, as each qualifying item of waste earns points which can be redeemed as cash by the nominated charity or school.  You can check out stories from other collectors on TerraCycle's Collector Highlight blog page. In the past there have even been contests to win new school playgrounds made from upcycled waste. How can you get involved? The Climate Emergency Working Group is very keen to involve the community in all aspects of its activities. You could get involved by: volunteering on some of our initial projects (like many of you did with the tree planting initiative!) joining the Climate Emergency Working Group becoming a Community Champion for a specific project – we aim to have at least one council rep and one member of the community on each project suggesting ideas for other climate and environment related projects If you would like to know more about getting involved in the Climate Emergency Working Group and/or you have a suggestion for a potential project, please contact Cllr David Shearan, or the Parish Council Clerk.