Monthly Meeting - Do Something Drastic, Reduce the Plastic!
Tuesday 8 February 2022
Anne Artis kicked off the meeting welcoming members and friends reflecting that Zoom has been wonderful for meeting up, allowing visitors from different places to join although we hope to resume meetings in person from next month. She briefly covered the apologies and the minutes of the previous meeting before Helen Little (our treasurer) shared the great news that we have five new members this year! Anne reminded the members of the forthcoming social events, and that we should strive not to win the Federation Quiz so we do not need to host next year! Unfortunately the Triennial Show has been cancelled until 2024 (the normal three year time frame) to allow us time to prepare! She also celebrated Isobel McGuire's article being published in the SWI Magazine, and encouraging members to suggest our next brilliant competition! An outing is being arranged to Pitlochry to see ‘Sunshine on Leith’ on either 16, 23 of July or 24 September – please let Liz know if you are interested. We also have the SCWP Spring business meeting coming up with Pat Archibald (quilter and textile artist) as speaker plus entries are welcomed for the Morton Pairs (A sewn potholder, a jam jar of spring flowers and a jar of any fruit marmalade). Anne confirmed that the Thornhill Church Hall has been booked for the next three Ruskie Rural meetings and asked those who attend to bring their own mug and teaspoon, wrapped biscuits will be provided – the Competitions for March are an ACROSTIC Poem (FRIENDSHIP) and a favourite animal ornament) and we will also hold a raffle!
Miriam Adcock from Zero Waste Scotland then spoke to us, starting with her own Rural Experience! Zero Waste is based in Stirling. The remit of the organization is to work with businesses and organisations and individuals in communities to support them to reduce waste. The key message to focus on tonight is about ‘Responsible Consumption’ which touches on reduce, reuse and recycle (which is primarily a council remit to address). She challenged us to guess the % of use a car gets over it’s life which is 8% (shocking when you think of the resources that go into making it!), and a power drill with an average use of 13 minutes! Both a waste of resources, and storage space! Plastic coffee stirrers are used for 3 seconds but take 500 years to decompose! Consumption is the biggest part of our carbon footprint, and the thing we should be concerned to address by reducing, reusing, repairing, recycling, recovering before we dispose of an item. Recycling has increased from 5% to 44% in Scotland but the bigger impact areas are to Reduce and REFUSE items where possible. There is a lack of awareness of the cost of consumption as everything we buy has a carbon cost – we may choose ethical products but that still has a carbon cost and yet people are reluctant to buy second hand or repair things and the Revolve Scheme is accredited resellers who have quality assured. 86% of Scots are unaware that food waste contributes more than plastic to climate change – 1kg of food waste produces carbon emissions equivalent to landfilling 25m000 plastic bottles – Love Food/Hate Waste workshops are available to be run but Miriam hopes that Rural Members are well aware of how to use leftovers. Miriam also raised awareness of the disposal of menstrual products, and there are reuseable products available now On the issue of becoming a throw-away society we are encouraged to reduce single use packaging for coffee cups and other coffee or food take away packaging – a trial scheme will start in Stirling soon with a deposit scheme across multiple cafes or we can take our own too. Taking compostable or biodegradeable packaging is not necessarily a good thing as it needs to be sent to a specific facility for composting and they can even contaminate other recycling systems! Re-useable is always a better option as recycling is confusing, even for professionals!
Miriam then went on to look at what we can do as individuals – 1) use what we have, such as reducing food waste (remember best before dates are only an indicator, use by dates should be observed!) , 2) look after what you have (buy quality and make them last, washing textiles properly and repair when necessary), 3) buy things to last that you will wear again and again, or rent something special eg from SIODA , and 4) don’t buy if you don’t need to and 5) ditch the disposables whatever they are made of! Miriam also shared her research on what we can do locally including zero waste shops such as Feeds and Stoves, buying locally without packaging where possible (and usually at higher quality and in the quantity you actually need!) Anne observed that there had been a study done in a Waitrose supermarket which demonstrated that packaged food suffered 5% wastage but unpackaged was 40% because products had been handled more
Miriam also shared ideas for tool libraries, repair services, workshops, re-use hubs and community food schemes – these can be accessed through www.transitionstirling.org.ukand businesses to recycle bikes, childrens items, and the treasure trove at www.remakescotland.co.uk Miriam emphasized that Zero Waste Scotland are encouraging Coucils to focus on re-use for textiles, books, bicycles or musical instruments! In Gartmore there is a Mens’ Shed under development where basic DIY will be taught, and Harry.Mannion@btinternet.com can be contacted for details and to volunteer husbands and other menfolk!
In the discussion the Ruskie members reflected on the local facilities which are now available, and the knowledge in an older generation for how to live more carefully when we look after everything we had, bought once, and had no option but to dry our clothes outside! Although the industrial side of climate change needs to be addressed at a business level (and there are plans in place for legislation and voluntary commitments to be made) but as individuals every one thing we can do will collectively make a difference overall and intergenerational projects can help share skills (in both directions) which is something we could all help with.
Miriam asked for our top tips for food waste and suggestions included not worrying about best before dates of cooking herbs and spices; use all veggies to make soup and liquidise it; use your composter, being thoughtful about dog poo bags (!), and eating leftovers for lunch or freezing them for use later. Darning socks is a popular hobby among Rural ladies!
Anne closed out the meeting thanking Miriam for stirring up our interest and giving us lots to talk about, wishing her all the best at her own Rural!
