Celebrity Spotting

Prof. David Bellamy is now all in favour of Real nappies!

Lincolnshire Environmental Awards 2012

Congratulations to the volunteer Real Nappy Champions of North East Lincolnshire for being shortlisted in the Community category of the Lincolnshire Environmental awards 2012.

They were awarded a Highly Commended certificate, and spread the word about Real Nappy options to over 100 people on the day - including David Bellamy!!

The Real Nappy Champions are local parents who use/ have used Real nappies on their children, and want to tell others about them. They can offer advice and help to parents thinking of using them, who have questions or who simply have never heard of them.

Real nappies are the modern washable nappy option, which can save parents up to £500 on their first child, and £1000 on each subsequent child! www.nelincs.gov.uk/nappy The average baby will cost £1000 in disposable nappies, but parents can get set up in Real nappies for just £200. They go on just like a disposable, with poppers or velcro, but can be washed at 40 degrees or 60 degrees in washing machines and can dry overnight. They come in lots of different designs and styles. This can sometimes be confusing for parents trying to make the environmental choice, so the Champions volunteers are on hand to offer their experience and help.

One of the Champions has even been inspired to set up a trial kit lending scheme to help parents test out the different styles of nappies, before they commit to making a purchase. http://www.comfybots.co.uk/ For a deposit and a small fee, Tracey will lend families a kit either before or after babies are born, so that the chief nappy changers can get to grips with their choices.

The Champions also promote the cashback incentive from North East Lincolnshire Council, which can really help parents with the initial set up costs. Even if they only buy a few of the real nappies to try, they can be refunded half their costs, up to £100 spending, so families can claim up to £50 cashback. www.nelincs.gov.uk/nappy

We are delighted to be highly commended and recognised for the time and help given by the volunteers!

The cardboard question

Recycle week was last week and we were out and about in the borough, taking on board comments about our changes in collection services, so we'll now start answering some of your Frequently Asked Questions.

From 1st June 2012 cardboard will no longer be accepted in your brown (garden waste) bin. Instead it must be placed in the green wheeled bin or taken to the CRC. This is to improve the quality of our garden waste collections and the compost produced.


In fact we've already seen a dramatic improvement in the quality of garden waste being recycled - no more lurking polystyrene or nappies, cat litters or car parts! It really was amazing what people were sneaking into their garden waste collections, and the cardboard meant it was easily disguised! This meant we had to incinerate (instead of recycling) 600 tonnes of the garden waste collections last year, spoiling it for all those who thought they were doing their bit by recycling. It was really sad.

So... we're hoping to be able to reintroduce a separate cardboard collection from households in the future, but in the meantime we have to ask the really keen recyclers to bring it to our community recycling centres where we can check it's clean and add some to our composting process.

Thank you to all you keen recyclers - let's waste less and recycle more!



There's lots of help and guidance available to help households who are struggling to recycle or to fit their waste in their green wheeled bin, please contact the Waste hotline on 01472 325841 or follow us on Facebook or Twitter . @RubbishGeek and www.facebook.com/letswasteless



Thanks to all those who are already recycling and cutting down on their rubbish! Let's work together to protect the planet and waste less!

Changing times

 

Look out for the new booklet

Please keep an eye out for the new booket coming through the letterboxes of all households in North East lincolnshire over the next few weeks. It tells you all about the services available for recycling and waste disposal, as well as some changes agreed by the Council recently.

Some of the big changes will be covered on the blog in the next few weeks, including Frequently Asked Questions answered.

The ones to be aware of are :

• All residents must recycle as much as possible using the triple boxes.
• Side waste (extra bagged waste) will not be collected. All waste needs to fit inside the green wheeled bin.
• From 1st April 2012 residents must pay for a second garden waste bin collection. All residents are allowed one bin for garden waste collected free of charge.
• From 1st April 2012 residents will be charged for replacement wheeled bins. The first set of recycling boxes will be provided free of charge and subsequent sets charged for. 
• From 1st June 2012 cardboard will no longer be accepted in your brown (garden waste) bin. Instead it must be placed in the green wheeled bin or taken to the CRC. This is to improve the quality of our garden waste collections and the compost produced.

There's lots of help and guidance available to help households who are struggling to recycle or to fit their waste in their green wheeled bin, please contact the Waste hotline on 01472 325841 or follow us on Facebook or Twitter . @RubbishGeek and www.facebook.com/letswasteless

Thanks to all those who are already recycling and cutting down on their rubbish! Let's work together to protect the planet and waste less!

 

Out and about for Real Nappy Week 2012

Happy to help

Our team have enjoyed popping into various groups and locations to show off the modern designs for Real Nappies this week for Real Nappy Week 2012.

People have been genuinely surprised to see how easy they are to use and wash, and how much money they can save.

Thanks to all those who have come to chat with us about their nappy options, whether on purpose or just passing by!

For more information on Real Nappies visit http://www.goreal.org.uk/ or for details of support (including up to £50 cashback incentive from North East Lincs Council) visit www.nelincs.gov.uk/nappy  

On Tuesday of Real Nappy Week 2012 in Freshney Place, Grimsby

We also got into the local paper ! :) Have a read at http://www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk/Mums-urged-switch-usable-nappies-save-money/story-15848547-detail/story.html

Visits in Real Nappy Week 2012

It's here again! Real Nappy Week organised by those lovely people at Go Real  www.goreal.org.uk

We'll be out and about in North East Lincolnshire to talk to residents about their choices when it comes to nappies, and to show off the options in modern, reusable nappies.

We'll also be telling them how to claim back £50 off their purchases from North East Lincolnshire Council

Hope you can join us!

Please feel free to share this image on Facebook, or print it out as a poster to share locally. Thanks!

Reusing our rubbish



Over £1400 was raised for charity this time we had a bring and buy sale at the Grimsby Community Recycling Centre!

10 porcelain dolls had been disposed of at the Community Recycling Centre, but were rehomed on the day

 Thanks to all who made donations on the day.

It really does show that one person's trash can be another's treasure.

Items for sale included : 1 telescope, 2 full sets of dining chairs, 3 airing racks, 4 oversized teddies, 5 sets of plates and crockery, 6 sets of golf clubs and 10 porcelain dolls

Thanks to our lovely volunteers!

To find out when the next sale day is being held please visit our events page on the Council website (but it's usually the last Friday of every month)

Spring into action

Too busy to blog??


Well I must admit the blog feels a little neglected recently, sorry about that!
But with only 2 more views needed to hit the 3000 views mark, I think it's been ticking over nicely!

We've been very busy out and about with workshops and planning roadshows, including paper recycling with South Parade primary school. We showed them how energy intensive, and resource intensive the recycling process can be , especially for water! They made some fantastic posters about why it's important to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle and some lovely creative recycled paper.

There are going to be some changes happening to our recycling service, so residents please look out for a booklet coming through your doors in April with full details!

One of the big things will be that all residents are required to recycle, using the triple boxes. If residents don't have the boxes they should phone the Waste hotline on (01472) 325841. This will be in effect from 1st April 2012, so not far away!

It's our shared planet, and we all need to get into the habits of making less waste, reusing wherever possible, and recycling what we can, to save our resources for future generations.

For more information on events coming up see the web pages http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/resident/recycling-rubbish-waste/competitions--promotions-and-events/