Wiltshire Council are currently consulting on proposed changes to their waste collection service which will see alternate weekly rubbish collections introduced across the county.

Evidence from other councils has shown that, where alternate weekly collections are introduced – recycleable material one week, residual waste the next – recycling rates have improved.  For this reason, South Wiltshire Agenda 21 are supporting the proposed changes. 

To find out more and take part in this consultation visit http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/council/consultations.htm

For more info visit www.greencone.com

 Happy composting!

SCRAP gets into action in the Old George Mall on Plastic Bag Free Day.   Robert Key MP joined Tony Langham and other SCRAP members in attracting passing trade.  There was no difficulty in persuading enthusiastic shoppers to ditch their plastic bags in exchange for free cotton bags made in India by victims of the Tsunami.  400 bags were exchanged in less than half an hour!

SCRAP (Salisbury City Residents Action on Packaging) is a group with a mission, determined to make Salisbury the first Plastic Bag Free city in the country.

Find out more and sign the pledge on www.banplasticbags.org.uk

Organised food swaps are becoming popular across the country as a way of beating the credit crunch

Raspberry harvest / Photo: Tony Newell

Last year the award winning deli in West Street Wilton started offering to buy surplus vegetables from gardens and allotments, which are then either used in their own brand of home made foods or sold directly to deli customers. This offer had a very good response and it allows a daily supply of fresh locally grown veg for sale.

Salisbury LETS (Local Exchange and Trade Scheme) also deals in fresh produce and several offers have appeared recently on Freecycle.

It would be great to expand on these schemes. Perhaps someone would like to start a legal scrumping scheme – an ideal summer project for a group of students. The idea is to harvest produce, usually from fruit trees, which owners do not require or are unable to pick themselves. The fruit is then either given away to those who need it or sold to benefit a local charity. Another idea would be to start a register of people with unused space in their garden and others who would welcome extra space to grow fruit and vegetables. A cut could go to the garden owner.

Organised food swaps are becoming popular across the country as a way of beating the credit crunch – what a great idea for a local social event.

Ruth Popplestone

St. Francis Church Hall, The Neve Room
Tuesday 13 January 2009, 7.30pm

Help to make Salisbury the first Plastic Bag Free City!

A letter from SCRAP: Salisbury City Residents against Packaging:

Dear supporter,

Please copy this to anyone who may be interested.
The next meeting of SCRAP Salisbury City Residents’ Action on Packaging is Tuesday 13th January 2009 7.30pm at St.Francis Church Hall, The Neve Room. We hope to see you there, and as many friends as you can bring along.

Interesting things have been happening since the official launch on Nov 22nd. Grants are being pursued, and the results of a questionnaire survey will be available by the meeting.

Firstly, a happy and healthy New Year to you all.

As a community based campaign, it’s your ideas that count. Come and hear what people have suggested. Please bring your ideas to the meeting, and tell us what you’d like to see happen, and what you can offer.

Where to distribute the re-usable cotton shopping bags that remain from the 1000 donated by Co-Op?
How to encourage shops to use fewer plastic bags?
How to identify which shops are becoming Plastic Bag Free?
Would a newsletter be a good idea?

Tony Langham, on behalf of SCRAP. www.banplasticbags.org.uk

A meeting has been arranged to discuss the strategy and aims for the group:

St Francis’ Church Hall
Thursday 18 September, from 7 to 8 pm

Download SCRAP flyer

SCRAP (Salisbury City Residents Action on Packaging) is a group of City residents who wish to get rid of unsustainable packaging in Salisbury. Its first objective is to eliminate the use of single-use plastic bags in the City, and an initial action is to supply each household in the City with a shopping bag made from sustainable materials. Although SCRAP has been established with the active involvement of two ward Councillors, it is a non-political group, and it already has support from all local political parties, Local Agenda 21 and the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust. We wish to broaden our support to include local businesses and other interested parties.

We have made considerable progress with SCRAP. Grants for start-up costs and the provision of bags have been applied for, and prospects look good. A further application for funding from the District Council’s General Community Fund is in progress. Assuming all our bids are successful we will have sufficient funding to meet our first objective – the provision of a sustainable shopping bag for each household in the City. Our website is virtually complete and will soon go live for Beta testing – the last stage before it is formally launched. A draft constitution has been completed, an outline strategy for achieving the first objective has been developed, and plans for a high profile public launch are well advanced.

The committee now believe that we should place our strategy and initial action plan before our supporters, and seek their comments, suggestions and agreement to the initial way ahead. We have therefore arranged a meeting at St Francis’ Church Hall on Thursday 18 September, from 7 until 8 p.m. and we would very much like you to attend.

If you know of anyone else who might be interested in becoming a supporter (no financial commitment!) could you let them know about the meeting (and pass on the flyer); we would welcome anyone who can make an input to his initiative.

Recycle the things you don’t want by giving them away to those that would benefit from them; so reducing waste going to landfill.  To join go to www.freecycle.org