Prevention (of landfill waste) is better than cure according to West Sussex
Add article to favourites
Waste Prevention Advisor training in West Sussex
I recently heard about a Waste Prevention Advisor course for volunteers in West Sussex from one of the ladies on the Green Parent forum.
It’s a great initiative which has been running since 2006.
Its aim is to train members of the community to help promote waste prevention and reduce landfill waste.
The course is free to attend and runs for 30 hours. Sessions include how waste management has developed in the UK, how waste is managed locally, reasons for waste prevention, home composting, the food waste problem and solutions along with real nappies.
Volunteers who successfully complete the course are invited to become advisors to help promote waste prevention throughout the county. Projects to date include:
- Helping at council roadshows and events
- Setting up communal composting schemes
- Projects in schools and youth groups
- Stands at farmers markets
- Talks to parent groups about nappies
- Helping businesses manage their waste
If you live in West Sussex, want to find out more, or wish to apply to take the course, find the details on the Waste Prevention Advisor Project page.
Do your council have a similar initiative for training waste prevention advisors? I’d love to hear about it! It sounds like such a great idea as educating people about PREVENTING waste is the key to successful management in the UK.
Readers who viewed this page, also viewed:
Don’t throw it away… That's rubbish, just throw it away ... How many times have you heard that or said…
Zero Waste Week 2013 Welcome to the sixth National Zero Waste Week! National Zero Waste Week takes place week beginning…
Food waste friday and weekly weigh in year 1, week 29 Discover how we got on post-Christmas with food and landfill waste!
Discussions This page lists the last 30 posts that have been commented and shows the last commenter.…
Dispose of your WEEE responsibly this Christmas Find out what WEEE is and how to recycle it this Christmas
I believe that there is a conflict of interest between raising recycling rates and reducing waste.
Perhaps if we feel that our Councils are more interested in raising recycling rates than reducing waste we should be pointing this out. Reducing waste would benefit people much more than an increased recycling rate.
Great article.
Hi Mrs Green,
These advisors are much needed judging by my local experience where householders, and even council staff, find the new commingled system baffling. Our Zero Waste enthusiast approach finds such change a positive development and passing this insight to all concerned can only help the adjustment process. For some, it seems like the end of the world: sad but true.
The December weather is a shocker with many parts of the UK bearing a particular burden. What a change from last year where we had a week of autumn heat in the year end period. I think we have become used to pre- New Year mild weather. Today, I had to pour hot water down both front door edges to open them and use WD40 to open the tailgate. The weather here has been less severe so you can imagine the worst conditions must be horrendous.
One problem for me has been a dearth of ginger wine concentrate which the local Co-op supplied every year. Unfortunately this large store closed in the autumn and other co-op locations have not taken up this essential supply. Luckily, I have 2 bottles of concentrate from last year so friends and family will still get a cleaned milk jug full.
My compost and bokashi bins are frozen. I predict a huge backlog of compostable waste when the thaw hits. I have no idea what to do about this.
@Jane: Hi Jane, I think councils focus on recycling as it’s easier to educate people about this side of the 3 Rs – reducing is a whole issue of its own that is not so clearly defined. Just guessing of course …
@John Costigane: Hi John, it sounds pretty grim where you are right now. Here is not so bad – a light sprinkling of snow and beautiful sunshine. I’m happy with that! Although I’m pleased to have a wood shed half filled with oak as it’s very cold at the moment! Glad you have a stash of ginger wine – you’ll have plenty of time to source a new batch for next year 🙂
@Ailbhe: Hi Ailbhe; this is a problem for many people. I’m not familiar with the bokashi system – it strikes me as strange that it stops working when indoors – you’d think temperatures would be constant.
We don’t have space to store our bokashi buckets indoors.
@Ailbhe: Ahhh, ok – sorry for jumping to a conclusion. In that case, yes, it’s a real problem isn’t it. Bubble wrapping it or putting it on top of polystyrene might help, but I’m really clutching at straws for you 😀