Our senior project coordinator Paddy Halling shares how we’ve helped Worcestershire residents reduce, reuse and recycle.

Alternative text should describe the visual content of the image. — Volunteers in Worcestershire have helped residents recycle and reuse to improve their neighbourhoods

Worcestershire households produce around 150,000 tonnes of residual, non-recyclable waste every year, in addition to around 70,000 tonnes of dry recycling and 45,000 tonnes of green waste. These figures give an idea of how much waste we produce in the UK, considering that Worcestershire is a largely rural county of only 620,000 people.

Funded by the County Council, as part of the Let’s Waste Less campaign, Garden Organic has worked in Worcestershire for 20 years, supporting a network of dedicated and knowledgeable volunteers, who have promoted composting and waste reduction among residents.

Reducing waste in Worcestershire - and in other counties - in any way we can, is hugely important, but it’s not without its challenges.

Wasting less in Worcester 🔗

Some waste is unavoidable, of course – but some people are reluctant to look too closely at what waste they could avoid. Food waste is the priority for most local authorities and campaign groups, but a third of the average Worcestershire black bin was found to be food waste, most of which is avoidable.

We’ve found that residents and groups with an interest in sustainability have been very receptive to discussing waste; but it can be difficult to engage other people in this topic.

Our volunteers have helped Worcestershire residents to reduce food waste by buying only what is needed, planning ahead, understanding food storage, and learning how to compost. To address wider waste, we have pointed residents to zero waste shops, and repair shops and cafes, in the local area, and we have provided advice on correct recycling.

Waste is a large hidden industry, and part of our volunteers’ role has been to help local people understand how their waste is treated. As is the case across the UK, most of Worcestershire’s residual waste is incinerated, for energy production, in a state of the art of the energy from waste facility. Dry, mixed recycling is separated at a ‘materials reclamation facility’, and the green waste is composted at a large outdoor composting site. Our volunteers visited these facilities and learnt about the scale of the problem.

How Let’s Waste Less reaches communities 🔗

To reach as many residents as possible, volunteers have held talks and workshops, run stalls at eco festivals, organised drop-in sessions in libraries, visited schools and taken part in the University of Worcester’s ‘green week’.

Composting training is an effective way of reaching more people, and it’s a positive hands-on activity - and an intriguing process - particularly for gardeners. Discussions on composting then leads to wider education on waste reduction and recycling.

While Garden Organic’s contract with the County Council finishes this year, we’re very keen to continue to support our wonderful volunteers in Worcestershire - focussing on our priorities of composting, organic food growing and seed saving.

If you’re reading this and would be keen to support our work in Worcestershire, please email at [email protected].