Improvement 13: Keep cleaner, be greener

Progress Update

The group have met with Science City to discuss the feasibility of recycling leaves. There is a plan to carry out research but the details still need to be established

A meeting has been held with Rob Nichols, Newcastle City Council’s Head of Environmental Services to find out what currently happens to the leaves that are collected. The group is waiting to find out about costs and details but he stated he was very interested in hearing about any innovative ideas.

A meeting has been proposed with Northumbria University to establish more details about the research which should include:

How to get people to change their recycling behaviour
Statistics on the recycling variations between areas in Newcastle and the reasons for the differences
Good practice examples of recycling projects in schools
The difficulties of sorting plastics for recycling and how this could be simplified
Supporting Newcastle City Council meet their priority to reduce landfill

Furniture and white goods:

White goods are sometimes hard to repair
Community Furniture (CF) will be promoted more in newspapers and have a page in City Life, they will also increase their promotions by using Community Centres, newsletters, leaflets, the internet and Newcastle City Council’s Staff bulletin and Website
CF would like to work with Newcastle City Council’s bin collections to publicise when they collect and add to the card that informs people when their bins are to be collected
CF do not have the capacity for training on repairs but they could apply for funding through Science City Grants or link up with Newcastle Futures

Summary:

The group will work with Rob Nichols and Neighbourhood Services to establish recycling costs

A research project will be established to include recycling leaves and changing behaviours

The group and Newcastle City Council will work with Community Furniture on exploring more possibilities around the recycling/refurbishing of white goods and furniture