Environmental Impact and Green resolutions
Saturday 11 January, Fulking Village Hall
​
-
Introduction
The aim of the meeting was to get the ball rolling on initiatives we could take individually and together. The idea for the evening came out of the Monday Quotations meetings : (10:45 in Fulking village hall, if you’d like to join?) where we read quotations from all the major faiths on common spiritual principles. The dynamic relationship between our environment and our community spirit has been a common thread through many.
“We cannot segregate the human heart from the environment outside us and say that once one of these is reformed everything will be improved. Man is organic with the world. His inner life moulds the environment and is itself deeply affected by it. The one acts upon the other and every abiding change in the life of man is the result of these mutual reactions.” Shoghi Effendi.
In the spirit of realising we are all on board with the need to do something to reduce Climate Change these minutes, like the meeting, are designed to be action orientated and are very much ‘work in progress’. An attempt to share with you all useful web links and neighbours to contact for further work on the ideas we all consulted on. We’ll meet again for a review of progress and for more ideas.
-
Home Initiatives: Reduce, re-use, recycle
Cardboard boxes, bubble wrap, egg boxes
-
Recycling:
We currently have blue bins and this link clarifies what can go in them : https://www.midsussex.gov.uk/waste-recycling/kerbside-recycling-in-mid-sussex/.
The District Council announced in the last parish council meeting in Fulking that soon they will collect small electrical items.
There are many other items that can be recycled and are collected by other groups, which are not yet economical for the council to do.
Henfield through their Sustainable Henfield 2030 programme https://www.henfieldhub.com/sustainable-henfield-2030/ have recently started a collection point at Henfield Haven which generates funds for a local charity.
The BN5’s last edition has a good article on this. A suggestion was made Poynings try and get copies as it has regular articles and Henfield are active and close to us both.
This is organised through Terracycle. It is worth checking out the Terracycle web site https://www.terracycle.com/:
Free Recycling Programmes
TerraCycle offers free recycling programmes funded by brands, manufacturers, and retailers around the world to help you collect and recycle your hard-to-recycle waste. Simply choose the programmes you’d like to join; start collecting in your home, school, or office; download free shipping labels; and send us your waste to be recycled. You can even earn rewards for your school or favorite non-profit!
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
An option would be for someone in Poynings or Fulking to offer to become a collector of one of the streams or several and then let us know. Another economy would be for someone to be a local collector of the items Henfield sends on and then take them ‘in bulk’ to Henfield. A volunteer is needed for this or team up with neighbours to save trips.
Meanwhile: Sheila at Bob’s Café collects the plastic bottle tops from milk containers.
Tablets (i-pads not meds) and old phones can be left in the box in Fulking bus shelter and Chris has volunteered to take these to Oxfam who recycle the rare metals in them.
Keep a look out for anyone locally who may need cardboard or other items, for their business to save sending this off further afield.
-
Transport
Reduce car use/mileage. A suggestion was to keep a log book. Will help you realise just how many journeys you do and possibly which you could cut out/share.
Holiday travel: staycation, use public transport.
Car pooling. Myriam has offered to do some research into possible apps we could use and will let us know.
Long term having a public transport option would be ideal. Given that demand for public transport has shifted with environmental consciousness hopefully we may be able to generate more of a case for resuming a system? This however needs an individual or group to champion and the rest of us will back you up. Volunteer please? Requires perseverance and patience, but will be much appreciated by us all.
-
Household ideas
Use more natural fabrics to reduce micro fibre pollution from washing plastic fleece.
Use reusable covers in the fridge instead of cling film….or just a saucer over a bowl.
Ask Southern Water to come and do a free “water saving” visit https://www.southernwater.co.uk/help-advice/water-saving-home-visits
You can ask for more than one blue recycling bin just call 01444 477440. I just called to check and they are very helpful.
Check your insulation. Improving insulation for the village hall is ‘work in progress’.
Let the grass grow longer: good for bees, but also traps more carbon.
Plant Hedges, as well as trees as they are a great refuge for wildlife.
Avoid too much decking, as it increases run-off, if possible.
Avoid covering large areas in plastic as it kills off the underlying bugs and worms.
Reduce light pollution.
-
Energy
6.1 Household Switch energy supplier to those who use renewable or sustainable sources: Octopus https://octopus.energy/, Good Energy https://www.goodenergy.co.uk/ and Bulb, https://help.bulb.co.uk/ were suggested.
6.2 Oil Club: All purchase together: reduce costs, but also carbon footprint. Kelly has offered to spearhead this. Watch this space….
6.3 Energy Production
A longer term proposal is to look at renewable forms of energy we could generate locally. This needs a volunteer to do the research and follow through on proposals.
Volunteer Please? Will need to work closely with South Downs National Park.
-
Food Cycle
Eat food in season and that is produced locally, as much as possible.
7.1 Grow your own
Many of us have gardens, but have no experience growing vegetables and fruit. There are various websites that offer step by step guides (https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/starting-a-new-vegetable-patch/,https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/beginners-guide/vegetable-basics/planning-a-vegetable-garden) but it was also suggested that having a local mentor with experience of the soils and seasons here would be really helpful.
So far we have offers of people who have skills in this area and have offered to act as mentors. I am just confirming with them and will then circulate a list, so do get in touch if you are keen to mentor or be mentored on kitchen gardening or raising chickens?
Bob and Pam for Kitchen gardening and wild flower sowing: bobrowland@btinternet.com
Trish for Chickens: Tricia.robinson@sky.com
Chris has volunteered to revive ‘Seedling Sunday’ early in May when we can get together and share seedlings: fruit/veg and flowers. Look out for updates on the web and pigeon post.
Sharing local varieties of seeds could be done on this day too and we can promote this idea too.
7.2 Food share:
Poynings already have a food share system for produce and hopefully Fulking can start a similar scheme once we grow more. Details to be worked out.
Several ideas came up about fruit processing, from apple presses to joint jam making. Something still to be worked out.
Consider switching to a local milkman to reduce the plastic containers milk comes in from supermarkets .“Milk and More” were suggested https://www.milkandmore.co.uk/
7.3 Community Orchard and Allotments:
Ditchling have a community orchard we could learn from. An idea would be for us to ask our neighbours and friends in the village if anyone would like to share, lease or donate land on which we could start an orchard?
Poynings have land for allotments, but would like more. Fulking have none. If anyone would like to donate land, rent land or explore the option of the community purchasing a small plot of your land please let us know.
-
Mending and Repairs
The second and fourth Thursday afternoon in Fulking village hall there is a mending and craft group who get together. It would be great if this could be expanded to other crafts and skills areas. Do contact Trish 07729 688636
-
Skills exchange and Volunteers
We have recently started a volunteers group and anyone interested to join to offer skills, time or resources or who needs any can contact Chris to find out more and join. 07552 488777
-
Eco Fair
It was suggested we could approach Rushfields and see if they wanted to host some sort of eco fair for businesses and organisations in the area working on green issues. Sheila volunteered to spear head this initiative. Watch this space….
Fulking fair this year is aiming to have an Eco dimension.
-
Communication
There were ideas, but no conclusion, as to how we go forwards in terms of communication. I will send these minutes out by e-mail to all those who came and filled in the form. I will also ask Gerald and Colin to put them on the web pages. There were suggestions about a regular spot on both or a common page etc. Various whatsapp/facebook groups could also be set up for each of the respective groups that we start as needed. We can work this out as we go along and see what is the most effective, recognising not everyone is social media savvy so we need to remember the value of talking personally to each other and meeting up. At the end of the day its about keeping alive a community spirit and working together.
Participants
Thank you to all who contributed. Special thanks to those at both ends of the age range (teen to vets) who braved it out on a rainy Saturday night. We had apologies from many who could not make it and will thus make sure these minutes are put on both web sites and shared as widely as possible. Please do send in useful and practical suggestions and ideas for the next meeting (Samantha_habitat@yahoo.com). Meanwhile there are resolutions to act on. Hope the above remind you and keeps you going until we meet again.