| If you have any tips or information that others may find useful, please let the Parish Office know. |
Go Plastic Free!
Inspired by Plastic-Free July, here are some links giving useful tips on how to reduce your plastic usage.
Know your plastics
Know your plastics!
- Polyethylene terephthalate: fizzy drinks, water bottles and salad trays
- High-density polyethylene: milk bottles, bleach, detergents and some shampoo bottles
- Polyvinyl chloride (vinyl): carpet backing, pipes, window and door frames
- Low density polyethylene: bin liners, packaging film, squeezable bottles and carrier bags
- Polypropylene: containers, food packaging eg margarine tubs, microwaveable meal trays
- Polystyrene: packaging for food and electronic goods and toys
Only HDPE and PET are easily and widely recycled
How to go plastic free…
- In your garden
- At home – see
Gloucestershire Recycles
The council has a dedicated webpage containing a lot of information about recycling locally (including information about repair and charity shops):
https://www.gloucestershirerecycles.com/
Repair Café
This takes place on the 1st Saturday of the month between 10am-1pm at St Andrew’s Church, Montpellier. Bring your broken small electrical items, textiles, knives and tools for sharpening. Repairs are free, but donations are gratefully encouraged to keep the project going. See https://www.facebook.com/regenerationcheltenham/ for further information.
Recycling
Podback
Do you have a coffee machine that uses pods? Podback offers a way of recycling coffee pods by putting them out with your kerbside collection. If you would like to take advantage of this scheme, go to www.podback.org to register.
Soft Plastic Recycling at the local Co-op
Our local Co-op stores in Cheltenham (including Bath Road, Montpellier, Leckhampton Road) all have collection points for your soft plastic packaging
See https://www.midcounties.coop/our-businesses/food/recycling-soft-plastics/ for details.
Some areas of Cheltenham are trialling kerbside recycling of soft plastics. Hopefully this will be rolled out throughout the whole town soon.
Recycle Now
Recycle Now (https://www.recyclenow.com/) is a website which shows where you can recycle different items.
General recycling
Do you have any items you find difficult to recycle? Then you may like to try this website: https://www.terracycle.com/en-GB/ – follow this link to the TerraCycle website to find out locations that will recycle items that are not accepted in your household kerbside recycling.
Recycling at church
We now have recycling boxes in the Cottages for all your usual kerbside recycling (including food waste).
Sustainable Fashion in Cheltenham
SUSTAINABLE FASHION
Watch ‘The True Cost’: an eye opening documentary on the envionmental impact of the fashion industry and the shocking conditions of the workers employed to produce cheap clothes: https://truecostmovie.com/
For further information on this subject visit https://ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/resources/lifestyle/
For ideas of how you can be sustainable in Cheltenham, click here.
So what can we do? Some suggestions:
- Buy clothes that last
- Make use of charity shops and dress agencies
- Give yourself a challenge to buy only 3 new items of clothing per year
- Rent clothes for special events
Local charity shops:
There are numerous charity shops in Cheltenham (Bath Road, High Street, Warden Hill) – it’s good to have a clear idea of what you want before browsing to save time.
Dress Agencies:
| Cuckoo’s Nest, 9 Great Norwood Street, open Tues – Sat www.cuckoonsnestcheltenham.co.uk Sells ‘pre-loved’ designer handbags and accessories on line. Also has a good range of jumpers which are sourced in Nepal via an organisation that supports women. Not cheap but very stylish. Bags available online only, jumpers in shop. |
| Just Mint: 7 Great Norwood open Tues – Saturday 10.00 – 17.00 Good selection of quality second hand clothes. Slightly less posh than Cuckoo’s nest. |
| Revamp: 1 Great Norwood Street open Tuesday – Sat 10.00 – 16.00 www.revamp-clothing-agency.co.uk All types of ‘pre-loved’ clothes, good quality and very friendly staff. |
| Willow Hilson: Sustainable Vintage Boutique, 36 Suffolk Parade willowhilson.com If you are looking for vintage clothes or jewellery and you have money to spare this is the shop for you! |
Eco Food Choices
Are you concerned about food waste? ODDBOX is an online company which redistributes fruit and vegetables rejected by supermarkets, which would otherwise go to waste. Interested? Take a look at the website www.oddbox.co.uk.
Foodloose Community project
FoodLoose is Cheltenham’s zero waste loose food shop. Located in the centre of Cheltenham, (15 Grosvenor Terrace, GL52 2SA) our not-for-profit, ethical, volunteer-run community business gives local people the opportunity to make lifestyle changes that allow us all to walk more gently on our earth. From all purpose cleaner to tea, washing up liquid to coffee, it is all available packaging-free at FoodLoose, from Mon–Sat. Find out more here: www.foodloose.co.uk
| Restart your refill journey today |
| Let’s refill. It’s better for the environment if you reuse your containers. This prevents them ending up in landfill or the ocean. It can take 500 years to decompose! Step 1. Bring your container (it doesn’t need to be totally empty) Step 2. Weigh the container Step 3. Fill the container Step 4. Pay for what you have taken Plus you reduce your food waste, as only buy what you need. |
| WHAT CONTAINER SHOULD I USE? |
| ♡ tupperware ♡ coffee tins ♡ jam jars ♡ take away boxes ♡ resealable pouches ♡ shampoo bottles ♲ Anything really! Then visit us at 16 Portland St. |
The Gloucestershire Fruit Loop connects those people with surplus fruit with those who want it. You can join the Facebook Group here.
OLIO – AN APP TO HELP REDUCE FOOD WASTE
About a fifth of all household food is wasted every week. Olio is a new app, set up to help people share food locally rather than throw it away. It’s already been used by millions worldwide – see https://olioex.com
Water Saving Tips
Click here to see ways in which you can save water in the home.
Churchyard News
| ‘The Wild Garden’ | You will have noticed that there is a section of churchyard which has been roped off to promote a natural, wild habitat over the summer months. There are many different types of flowers & grasses growing here, and it has become a seasonal haven for insects, bees and other pollinators. Did you know that there are 17 different types of tree, and more than 100 different types of flowers & ferns, growing in the churchyard? | ||
| Churchyard Plant survey | Ben Gilchrist has made a survey of all the plants in the churchyard. You can see the results by clicking here. | ||
| Churchyard – Helping Out | Please let the Parish Office know if you can help out with the upkeep of our beautiful Churchyard in any way. | ||
| Love your Burial Ground week | Click here to find out more about LYBGW which runs every year during the second week of June. |
No more plastic milk bottles!
Had you considered having doorstep milk deliveries in re-usable glass bottles from either Cotteswold Dairy or Milk&More?