Club members were interested to hear from Joanne Duffield, Waste Minimisation Officer at Wyre Forest District Council that the waste and recycling collection services to over 44,600 properties every week in Wyre Forest is delivered at a cost of under £40 per household per year. Joanne spoke of how the District Council is one of seven local authorities in Herefordshire and Worcestershire working together under the Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy until 2034.

With a target to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill by 2015 set at 550 kilogrammes per household, the amount achieved in 2010/11 was 554 kilogrammes. This achievement has been helped by the opening in 2010 of a new facility with increased capacity operated by Severn Waste Services. This has meant more material can now be collected with no sorting at the kerbside making the waste collections easier to handle together with increased awareness by residents of the importance of recycling to our environment.

Additional recycling facilities around the area enable residents to recycle items not taken in the collections such as clothing & textiles, foil, videos, DVDs even handbags. There are collection boxes for batteries, spectacles and soon it will be possible to recycle energy-saving light bulbs. Garden waste collections have proved popular. The latest campaigns have been directed at home composting and the ‘Love Food Hate Waste’ programme is aimed to stop the huge amount of edible food that gets wasted every month.

For young mothers, Joanne also extolled the virtues of real nappies not least on a cost basis. Purchasing disposable nappies for one baby over 2 years is likely to cost around £1,700 compared to a cost of £300 for real nappies and they are fashionable, being available in a range of colours and pretty designs.

Kidderminster Club members are involved in two specific recycling initiatives and have raised over £300 towards their charity funds - recycling jewellery and recycling over 2,250 bras. Some bras are passed onto needy women in other countries whilst most are taken apart and the various ‘bits’ are reused. Please contact the Club if you have any old bras you would like to donate.

For more details regarding the activities and membership of the Club, please email on kidderminstersorop@gmail.com or look at our website link on http://sigbi.org