Waste Reduction Working Group

Waste and Circular Economy community project group

22 January, 4.30-5.30pm, MS Teams

Attended: Claire Potter, Steve Peake, Susie Deadman, Nicky Lumb, Amelia Lupson, Steve Creed, David Greenfield, Les Gunbie, Maria Antoniou, Sophie Moss, Mita Patel, Cat Fletcher, Juliet Evans, Julie Harris; Amy Allison

Apologies: Rik Child, Kirsten Firth, Ali Ghanimi, Katie Eberstein.

Chair: Les Gunbie

Notes

Introductions

Les & the council team thanked everyone for coming and giving up their time to share expertise and thoughts

The group introduced who they were (noted for the benefit of those who couldn’t attend)

Claire: Runs a design studio, developed One Circular World resource about circular economy; head of product design and circularity at the University of Sussex

Steve P: Representing the Climate Alliance; has applied for a Community Fund grant to support community engagement

Susie: Founder of Sew Fabulous, running classes and events on textiles based in the Open Market; one of the organisers of the city’s first sustainable fashion week with Brighton Peace & Environment Centre

Nicky: Representing Climate:Change which is engaging with the city on finding socially inclusive climate solutions for Brighton and Hove

Amelia: Climate Communications & Engagement executive, BHCC

Steve C: Co-founder of Circular Brighton & Hove, long time champion of circular economy and net zero

David: Co-founder of Circular Brighton & Hove, Professor of Circular Economy at the University of Brighton, founder of Soenecs, Tech Take-Back and the Revaluit shop for electricals based in North Street

Les: Community works environment volunteer, linked in with schools and Katie Eberstein/Jonathan Cooper on the Our City, Our World programme

Maria: Partnership & Policy Development Manager, Community Works

Sophie: Circular Economy lead, economic development, BHCC

Mita: Sustainability Programme Officer, BHCC

Cat: Founder of Freegle, runs the successful Free shop in the Open Market, advises/supports organisations on reducing waste & how to re-use/repurpose resources

Juliet: Waste Minimisation officer, BHCC

Julie: Climate comms & engagement lead, BHCC

Amy: Community Development Worker, Trust for Developing Communities

Challenges from council perspective

Creating a waste minimisation campaign aimed at increasing recycling, reducing contamination and encouraging waste reduction, re-use and repair

By

• Making it easier to recycle and reuse
• Raising awareness of what people can do to reduce waste as well as recycling
• Showing how to make better use of resources in a positive way – finding inspiring stories of how people are already doing it
• Raising awareness of the impact of waste – contamination, cost, effect on environment & wildlife

Want to engage communities, share information (two-way – what communities are doing, as well as what the council is doing), have external review of our proposed plans, messaging & content.

Group’s perspective on challenges

Claire: What’s the most essential problem to be solve? Find the core challenge – is it

• Increasing recycling?
• Contamination rates?
• Reducing consumption?
• Increasing engagement in circular economy activities?

Focus on one thing

And then

• timescales
• main focus
• how this will be measured
• what success looks like

There is a lot of 'wishcycling' as people get frustrated or do not know what you can place in kerbside bins, so a big comms issue I think - as well as explaining why B+H cannot process some waste when other LAs can.

Given the existence of strong 'assets' already, does the focus need to be promoting take up / footfall for these assets, as well as raising awareness of waste reduction best practice. Perhaps it might make sense to invite all of these 'assets’ into this process?

Cat: Number one thing is people do not know what they can put in the bin. Information about what can and can’t be recycled. The waste in people’s bins is packaging – the rest is circular economy (clothing, electronics, tools) which is about extending the life of things as much as possible.

Want to work with the council at the free shop – 33,000 footfall – create a script that people can use to share messaging; use shop to gather feedback and suggestions.

Consumption message better delivered by community and education sector as difficult for the council when it also supports local business/economy

Different entry points – ie saving money, a trigger to engage; show how the council is losing income and it’s taxpayers’ money which could be spent better.

Nicky: Bristol’s Bindigestion campaign Put monetary value on it – eg wasted food costs households £730 a year. Agree need to establish what we’re trying to do – preventing & reducing waste, then look at re-use. Find the co-benefits for people (saving money)

Mita: Purpose for the group is to support campaign actions that are community-led and community-informed – incorporating input and expertise into the planning to get the focus and information right. Start small and work with what we have.

Steve C: Need to know how you’re going to measure success – concentrate on very specific areas – ie different types of materials – kitchen waste, paper & card, plastics, metals. Look at what’s going on and bring in social networks for each thing.

Steve P: Biggest challenge is people don’t know what to do. Important to tackle consumption – ‘think before you buy’. Need to think about planning, delivery and resource – education and engagement campaign

If Community Fund bid successful could be used to help design engagement infrastructure and getting the message out

Sophie: Experience is that is has been difficult to engage.

Maria: Want to understand the vision and main focus. Can use our communications channels but also need to know what the resource is – include in the plan what we can do and what we need resources for

CS orgs are struggling as much as the council / everyone at the moment, so it will be hard to engage - even attending meetings - without additional resource. It would be good to understand the scope of the campaign and resource available before we go any further (beyond our existing day to day work).

David: Use assets in the city; be exceptionally clear what waste minimisation means (reuse or decontamination or reducing consumption). Councillors need to support

Amy: TDC works in and with communities and there are lots of groups and activities involved with reducing waste and sharing resources eg, food banks and allotments; opportunity to tap into these community assets; opportunities to train volunteers? Get recognition for what they are doing? (Sophie mentioned there were community champions through the BLUEPRINT to a circular economy project). Use word of mouth, share stories of saving money etc

Who else can help/who should be involved?

Brighton Chamber

Charity shops

Universities (depending on focus) – Dr Ryan Woodward

Wood recycling project & BH Food Partnership [already involved, but couldn’t make the date of this meeting]

Real Junk Food Project

Repair cafes

ONCA

Individual community groups (look at membership/sub-groups, find out who they are; so many doing core waste prevention)

Schools and colleges

Depends on the focus

Actions

Ran out of time to look at these in any detail but council team will take forward the suggestions that came out of the earlier discussions when creating the campaign plan. (Julie/Juliet/Amelia – Mita/Sophie to review)

Investigate available and potential resources. Share information about funding opportunities to support community engagement (all)

AOB and date for next meeting

A meeting will be convened (in around 6 weeks’ time) following the outline campaign plan being drawn up. Depending on the objectives, likely to be a smaller group dedicated to the specific aims.

Supporting information (from chat)

Repair Cafes: Reuse and Repair - Climate Action Wales (gov.wales)