St John's Church Egham

Experience Hope

Litter

VDD: Reduce Your General Waste

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Church of England’s Prayer

The Journey to Zero Waste & Litter Free Environments

24th July 6-7pm: Ticketed Virtual Q&A

Shannon and Iris regularly plog the streets of Chertsey

Handling & processing waste costs money. Waste that is not recycled is incinerated, which means a resource is burned forever.

Check your knowledge of the waste terms here

Metal is the only material that can be recycled nearly an infinite amount of times. Recycling glass requires very high temperatures (over 800 degrees celcius which is higher than the temperatures of the incinerators) and materials like plastic and paper are downgraded with each “recycle”. I hear some of you saying “My council recycles plastic”, and some of you demand that “More plastic should be recycled”

When plastic is recycled, it can be recycled on average 6 times before it is deemed useless. Since September 2019, virgin plastic has been cheaper to purchase than recycled plastic.

To reduce the amount of waste that is processed, there are a number of initiatives from BYOR (Bring Your Own Reusable), Repurposing, Upcycling, and Reusing. Charity shops, preloved sites and freecycling are great ways to reuse items that are in good condition. Upcycling or repurposing using crafting methods has a finite number of times you will be able to divert your rubbish from the general waste. Our Eco-Brick project is a way to repurpose bottles and upcycle plastic rubbish we would otherwise have to put in our general waste. But we should be able to see beyond normal and see opportunities. Zero Waste / Refill shops have been popping up around the UK and globally.

Mel from Bare + Fair, a zero waste shop, will be at the discussions

BYOR is a great way to refuse purchasing single use bags, coffee cups, take away containers and more. Some of the take away shops will use your containers if you ask them. Cups in Egham used to provide a 20p discount off your purchase if you brought your own container.

Neil has been campaigning and helping lead governance changes

There are many more ways to reduce waste and we have brought together a panel that actively reduces waste from a business/organisational perspective, resident perspective, and a political perspective

  • Iris and Shannon – Chertsey residents whose challenge is to pick up litter every day in their daily walks and have an Instagram account @RubbishADay
  • Neil – from Zero Waste Europe promotes and supports societal moves to zero waste, and the need for change at political and corporate level to enable that change at a personal level.
  • Mel – runs Bare and Fair, a refill shop in Woking to enable sustainable and low-waste living a realistic option

Come join us for a free live virtual dinner discussion on going zero waste on the 24th July 6-7pm. Register for a ticket below:

If you want to leave a question for this discussion please submit a question via our question form. Click here to access

To connect with us:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/StJohnsEghamEcoChurch

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.facebook.com/StJohnsEcoChurch

https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

Email: StJohnsEghamEcoChurch@gmail.com

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Clean Up Egham

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Clean Up Egham

Sat 25th to Friday 31st July 2020

Genesis 2:15
15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it

As part of the St John’s Eco-Festival, we are excited that Egham Residents’ Association (ERA) is co-ordinating a Litter Pick Week and is inviting you, as  households, families or groups of neighbours to get together to Litter Pick on your  road – or part of your  road.

How to Start

  1. Form your “group”, and choose a time during the week for your Litter Pick.
  2. Email ERA to register your interest on residentsegham@gmail.com
  3. ERA will draw up a timetable of litter picking, and post  it on their Facebook Page: “Egham Residents’ Association (ERA)” https://www.facebook.com/EghamRA/
  4. ERA will arrange for litter pickers and heavy duty gloves to be delivered to you in time for your litter pick. All Litter Pick Groups are encouraged to advertise that they are joining in by creating a poster and putting it in their window(s) – like the COVID19 Rainbows
  5. Email a picture of your poster to ERA residentsegham@gmail.com and to St John’s Eco-Church* stjohnseghamecochurch@gmail.com and your poster will be published on both our Facebook pages as well as on St John’s Instagram.
  6. On the day of the Litter Pick if possible please take Before and After photos. ERA will put these in an Album to celebrate your achievement – and encourage others to join in.
  7. It doesn’t matter how big or small your Litter Pick patch is. Every piece of litter picked up is one less to pollute and endanger the environment.

*St John’s is running a small competition: see St John’s Poster Competition

After this Litter Pick week, ERA will be organising an Egham-wide litter pick as part of the Great British September Clean 2020 on World Clean Up Day, on 19th September. 

Hope that individual, families and groups will enjoy taking part and please do check the government guidelines for groups outside your household that can gather as this is changing depending on outbreaks. Do also remember to maintain social distancing.

To connect with us:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/StJohnsEghamEcoChurch

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.facebook.com/StJohnsEcoChurch

https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

Email: StJohnsEghamEcoChurch@gmail.com

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Poster Competition: Litter Litter, Why So Much Litter?

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Poster Competition:
Litter Litter, Why So Much Litter?

Competition throughout July

Genesis 2:15
15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it

We need your help to raise the awareness of litter in our environment by drawing a picture of the litter you see and its effect on our planet.

During our restrictive lockdown, many noted how little litter was around in our environment. With the relaxation of our lockdown, parts of our societies resumed “Normal” enjoying the good weather and participating in picnics + the re-opening of take-aways with the associated disposables often left behind.

Local councillors and others have been hard at work taking part in adhoc clean ups and using social media to encourage the public to take home their litter.

Cigarette butts, though small, are the most toxic litter. It only needs a few in a pond to kill our aquatic life, or a slightly larger amount stubbed out in a plant to kill the plant. Larger pieces of rubbish becomes junk food to marine life, birds and even cows and sheep. (There are diary farms in the area. For an extra point tell us where one is when you submit your entry) With plastic bits in their bellies, animal die from hunger or become infertile. Degrading plastic attracts toxins as well as releasing toxins. See Plastic Rivers by EarthWatch to find out the top 10 plastic pollutants in our rivers: https://earthwatch.org.uk/get-involved/plastic-rivers

Finally plastic disintegrates into micro-plastic and nano-plastic which we are now breathing, drinking and eating. Can you design a poster to encourage our society, people/everyone to become more responsible for their litter, to take it home with them to be reused or recycled; or to encourage businesses to reduce their packaging. There are three categories:

  • 21 and over
  • 13-20
  • Below 13

This competition will end on the 6th September 2020. Your poster will be displayed on Instagram & Facebook. We will choose our potential winners by using “Likes” as a measure. Winners will be notified 2 weeks later.

Send your posters to: stjohnseghamecochurch@gmail.com and include:

  • Your name
  • Age range (see above)
  • What inspired you to draw the images in your poster?
  • What do you like about a litter free environment?
  • Of the 10 types of litter identified in the EarthWatch article, which litter do you hate the most?

To connect with us:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/StJohnsEghamEcoChurch

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.facebook.com/StJohnsEcoChurch

https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

Email: StJohnsEghamEcoChurch@gmail.com