Target achieved!

The new play/games area is ready and being used. The older children had portable tennis nets up across the length of the pitch and children were working in pairs, practising forehand shots. The first time in the school's history that pupils have been able to do this. So there is a new target for fundraising.

Environmental Disasters

Everyone must have seen the video clips of the recent, terrible events in Japan. The destruction has made so many people homeless and the threat of radiation from their power stations has forced many others to vacate their homes and move to safer areas.
The son of a friend of mine works for Shelterbox, an international rescue charity based in Cornwall. They had a team in Japan 24 hours after the earthquake. What a brilliant idea. Their work is inspirational.

Win one--lose one

The diggers and workman arrived the week before Christmas and managed to make a start on the new playground area, before the snow got too bad. The topsoil has been removed and some of it will be used to fill in the pond in the school's small,wildlife area.
Older than the school, the pond and its surrounding area, were improved when the recycling area was developed, but has since become shaded by nearby trees and been impinged upon by the new footpath along the road.
S0, great news about the new play area and a sad goodbye to the pond.

Rogue Traders

Most people will have had one of these charity bags put through their door, asking for old clothes/textiles/bric-a-bracor toys, the proceeds of which will be given to a "good cause"

This one arrived, a few weeks before Christmas. On the appropriate day, a van with bearing the Clothesaid logo, toured the village to collect that bags that had been left out at the kerbside. I have no reason to believe that this scheme is not a legitimate one.

However, I've been aware for some time, that the textile recycling industry is plagued by "rogue traders". their scams include picking the bags up before the legitimate collectors and distributing bags and collecting for fake charities.

My interest in this was heightened last month, when I went to put all the lose items into bags and realised that our textile bank had been raided. The stupid people had left evidence of their illegal actions behind. So they are also gaining access to textile banks and helping themselves to clothing, which they can sell at car boot sales, markets and even, perhap, legitimate textile companies-- who knows? Textiles are quite valuable just now.

The police are are aware of the problem and are keeping an eye on our recycling centre, but it seems that the only way to catch these people is to make a note of the vehicle registration number or take a photo of them doing their dastardly deed. Many schools and most supermarkets have textile banks and the question is -- would you be suspicious to see a bank being emptied by a man with a van?

P.S. Black Country Rags will still continue to collect the textiles that are donated to school, but the procedure will be slightly different! So kind supporters,

PLEASE CONTINUE TO BRING

YOUR TEXTILES TO OUR RECYCLING CENTRE

New Reycling Scheme

We have just joined a new fundraising, recycling

scheme, which is just right for schools.

When we have filled a box with used plastic pens, (biros, highlighters, markers and felt tips etc), we can print a postage label from Terracycle's website, sit back and wait for the postman to deliver the cheque!

If you would like to support our efforts, please post your pens to Elmsett School, The Street, Elmsett. IP7 6PA

Aluminium Cans

Last Saturday we borrowed a van, filled it with crushed aluminium cans and took them to Whip Street Motors, where they were weighed and then unloaded, ready to be crushed and baled.
We were paid--another £180.00 for the recycling fund. When we have another load, Whip Street Motors will supply a skip for the recycling centre, free of charge, which will make life a lot easier for us!!

I have banned steel food and drink cans, as too many were being left at the recycling centre with the remains of their contents inside and although they are heavier the alu-cans, they are not as valuable.

We still save aluminium foil, which we give to The Sudbury Resource Centre. They collected the load below in the pouring rain yesterday

Money Matters

The recycling accounts are due to be audited soon, so I thought that, as this year has been rather difficult for me and the school's recycling centre, I would just check on the income for this half of the year and was pleased, as it amounts to £2,326.85.

With the prospect of difficult financial times ahead, the school has abandoned their ambitious plans for a multi -use play area on the meadow and are now hoping to raise just £1o,00 for a new games area. If money raised by the school's PTA is added to the recycling fund, the target should be reached by the end of the year!

There are about 60+ used cartridges packed into the boxes in the photo, all donated by local companies and ready to be collected on July 9th. Some of these businesses have been supporting our recycling centre since it opened in 1994, when this way of raising funds was a novelty
They all deserve a medal!

Renewable ideas - win £1000

Tetra Pak and the WWF-UK are looking for ideas to get everyone to think and buy renewable. For example: “Create a renewable App to help shoppers”. Be imaginative and you could win £1,000 for yourself and £25,000 to make your idea happen.

Click here to go to the Renewable Idea website to find out more.

Congratulations

The children and staff at Elmsett School must have been working hard over the last few years, to achieve their third Green Flag for the Eco-schools Scheme.
Well done everyone-- it's good to see the new flag flying from the top of the pole!
I had a quick look at the Eco-Schools' website. and was pleased to note that, out of the 13,849 school that are registered, only 1,046 schools have been awarded the Green Flag.


The Eco Schools' inspector must have been very impressed with all the hard work that has gone into making this wonderful and productive allotment, in a nearby field, as there is no room to do this within the school's grounds. With support and guidance from the East Feast team and help from parents, I expect the children are looking forward to a bumper crop this year!

James Lovelock

I made a point of listening to James Lovelock on the Today programme this morning, as he has spent most of his 90 years studying environmental issues.
Is his Gaia theory right or wrong? Has our planet's bio-system been altered beyond repair by human activity?
He is very gloomy about the future for the human race, but is right about one thing, which has been left out of the clip, our planet is a wondrous place to live!

Back to Normal

It has taken about one and a half terms to complete the new extension, with its disabled access and secure parking area for bikes, and it looks really good, matching our old building brilliantly!

The school playground has always been small, so the builders needed to used part of the recycling centre during, making it difficult for contractors to empty the containers.
Not that I'm moaning-- there was no other way. I'm just hoping that it hasn't made too much difference to the weight credits that we receive from Babergh District Council. The last cheque for July to September was £729.38!

Just a minute

Have a break? from Greenpeace UK on Vimeo.

I guess you're thinking "what's this got to do with recycling?"

Well, when I was teaching, I found that it was very easy to link recycling to land use, caring for our environment and sustainability. Most children seem to have a natural interest and affinity with animals and the pupils at Elmsett School have helped to create Buckles Wood and know that trees and bio-diversity are important.

If you want some information about other products that use palm oil in their production click here.

Hot off the press

Weight Credits

Babergh District Council and Mid Suffolk Council are merging and reorganising some of their services. Waste and recycling is part of this cost cutting and streamlining initiative, so details of weight credit payments last year have been sent a little later than usual.
We receive payment for the weight of paper, glass and textiles taken from our recycling centre and the bottle bank outside the Rose and Crown. Between April and September last year, this amounted to just over £1500.00. Totally brilliant for a small village.
Many thanks everyone, especially Dennis Hill, who donates the weight credits from the his bottle bank to school.

Recycling your Christmas cards

We used to recycle our Christmas cards with Tesco, to help The Woodland Trust raise funds for planting trees. This year only WH Smith, TK Maxx and M&S are listed on their website as participating companies

As it will not be easy to deliver to these stores, which are in the middle of Ipswich, we shall be taking our bin liners full of cards to Sainsbury and the money raised will benefit the Forest Stewardship Council.

Morrisons are collecting cards for a second year. The Salvation Army is their chosen charity.

New Extension

The new extension at the front of the school is nearly finished. The architects and builders have done a grand job, matching the new building with our lovely old Victorian school. I know they took extra care with the window frames and sills. It will be a pleasure to look at while I'm sorting out the recycling!!!

Now the office staff will be able to work in peace, without being distracted by people having to use their very small room as a corridor to get from one part of the school to another and there will be a pleasant reception area for visitors.

I'm thankful that the villagers are still trying to use the recycling centre. The picture above shows that the builders have been working in very cramped conditions. Waste skips and latterly workers vehicles, have blocked the access for the companies that collect from the recycling area.

We are building a glass mountain in the corner!

Bad News--Good news

On returning from a two weeks restful break on Thassos (I shall plant some more trees via The Woodland Trust) and not having access to national or global news, it was depressing to start our first day back by listening to The Farming and Today programmes. Bumble and Honey bees still on the decline, as is the Arctic ice cap.

The good news is that had time to do a lot of reading. One of the books that I had in my case and thoroughly enjoyed was David MacKay's book about climate change. A strange thing to say about the prospect of impending chaos, but I was riveted by the way he has addressed the challenge of reducing out energy consumption in an understandable way! Everyone should read it and have it on their bookshelf. He is now the Chief Scientific Advisor at the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Great news!

The second good thing was an email from Dr. Gary Robertshaw, requesting reciprocal links with The Green Providers Directory No sooner said than done! You'll find information and links to most aspects of sustainable/ethical companies and organisations and MORE.

So far, so good

This photo was taken at the end of the summer holiday. Now most of the end of the playground is taken up with equipment, building materials and of course, the new building and access ramps.
Difficult conditions for everyone to cope with, and nowhere for the children to play, when the weather is wet and they can't use the meadow to let off steam!
The new building is scheduled to be completed by Christmas., when I expect the recycling fund will help to provide "additional extras".

So I was really pleased to receive a bank payment of £814.46 in August, from Babergh District Council. The second amount of recycling weight credits this year.

We'd never do this, but ...

One Last Shot

Work on the new extension at the front of the school has started, so took one last photo of the school, before the builders arrived.
It's hoped that the extension to the front and side of the old building will be finished by the end of next term. The new entrance, with a ramp access, will take up a considerable area of the play ground.
With little room to maneuver, the builders are having to use the recycling centre to site waste skips.
Let's hope that this access isn't disrupted too much, as the funds from recycling will be needed to subsidise future projects.

A glitch in the system

One of the pleasing things about looking after our recycling centre, in the middle of the Suffolk countryside, is the great views over the fields at the back. Heavy, stormy showers had been forecasted, but these passed us by, which was lucky, because I had a bit of catching up to do on the rubbish front!
After a hot weekend, the aluminium cans were flowing out of their wheelie bin. Old books needed to be rescued and taken home to be sorted. Likewise, the textile bank had clothes mixed in with shoes and other odd items, which all had to be dealt with appropriately.
So where was the glitch?
Well Boltons were not able to pick up the paper last month, as a builder's skip was in the way, so the excess paper has been stored elsewhere. As the banks had been emptied, I had to spend some time retrieving and stuffing paper into them, whilst enjoying the view in the diminishing evening light.
P.S. We got the rain the following day, heavy and thundery. Another sign of global warming-- but that's a much bigger glitch.