BREAD and butter pudding made from food scraps, a spatula for scraping mayonnaise from the bottom of a jar and an app selling cheap food near the end of its shelf life were among the offerings available to visitors at Waste Action Day.
This was a community event held by Wokingham Borough Council at The Acorn Community Centre, home to the council’s adult social care provider, Optalis.
Residents from across the borough were invited to act to reduce their waste, with a range of stallholders on hand to inspire, answer questions and roll out new initiatives.
My Journey Wokingham team gave out free water bottles and information about active travel.
WATCH Wokingham community group provided a spin the bike wheel game with opportunities to learn facts about walking and cycling.
Pupils from Hawthorns Primary School in Woosehill explained their recent ‘green team’ projects and held an exhibition of art made from objects destined for the bin.
Focused Friends group highlighted how adults with learning difficulties are playing their part in the borough-wide recycling effort.
SHARE Wokingham community project ran a café, with tasters of dishes from leftovers, such as bread and butter pudding, and soup.
The council’s waste team gave out food waste caddies and tools such as spaghetti measurers, and spatulas for scraping out the bottom of jars.
Too Good To Go showcased their smartphone app which lets residents buy “magic bags” of food nearing the end of its shelf life for a lower price.
Attendees could pledge to take a range of actions to reduce their impact on the environment and help tackle the climate emergency.
Those who did entered a prize draw to win a £20 voucher for Maya’s Refillables, a zero-waste shop based in Wokingham town centre.
A vote was also taken to see what community recycling schemes people wanted to see at the Acorn centre.
This will become a drop-off point for Ali’s Recycling scheme, where toothpaste tubes, marigold gloves and coffee pods will be recycled through Terracycle, while raising money for the local community.
The winning schemes and how to get involved will be announced soon.
“Climate change is already starting to affect us all, as demonstrated by the recent heatwave that saw us reach record temperatures”, said Councillor Sarah Kerr, executive member for climate emergency and resident services, who attended the event.
“As a council, we are doing our bit to make the borough carbon net-zero by taking measures such as retrofitting our buildings with sustainable features and ensuring that more climate-friendly infrastructure is in place, such as electric vehicle charging and active travel routes.
“We need everyone to play their part, and so events like this help to give the community the information, tools and inspiration they need to change their habits. I want to thank all of the community groups and organisations for supporting the event and providing lots of useful information to residents.”
Councillor Ian Shenton, executive member for environment, sport, and leisure, attended alongside Cllr Kerr. He added: “It is really important that we take a collective responsibility for climate change, so it is great to run events like this where people can have their questions answered and pick up information and tools to help them make better recycling decisions.”
To find out the winning schemes and for more information on how to get involved , search Facebook for the Acorn Community Centre.
