Ballymena Freegle

Wise up to #waste Your stuff. Your responsibility. Please don't pop unwanted stuff on the street-it's a crime. Find a new home for unwanted things instead! http://ow.ly/DbOu30nyjdj
... #free #reuse #share #give #WasteNot #ChooseToReuse #ZeroWaste
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Wow! This lady has accumulated 10,000 mannequins in 11 years - they are repaired and refurbished so they can be reused via @mannakin We need more projects like this! #ChooseToReuse #Repair #Share #WasteNot #Nottingham

Oh no! What a waste... Amazon destroys millions of brand-new items including televisions, books and nappies it cannot sell, an investigation has revealed. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/…/Exposed-A mazon-destroys-milli…
Lorry-loads of goods, many still in their packaging, are dumped in sprawling landfill sites or incinerated. The shocking waste was revealed by undercover investigators who secretly filmed in one of the multi-billion-pound company’s enormous warehouses.
... Reporters posing as Amazon workers discovered an area called the ‘destruction zone’ where they covertly filmed staff loading pristine toys, unused kitchen equipment and flat-screen TVs into skips to be transported to dumps.
Later, cameras fitted to a drone tailed a truck crammed with expensive consumer goods from an Amazon warehouse to a waste disposal centre and on to a landfill site.
The French investigation focused on Amazon’s operation in that country, but it is understood the practice is also followed in Britain. When a Mail on Sunday reporter posing as a worker at an Amazon warehouse in the Midlands asked what happens to unsold goods, a manager told him: ‘Some are returned but some are also destroyed.’
When this newspaper asked the company a series of detailed questions, including whether it destroys unused goods in the UK, it repeatedly refused to answer. Instead, a spokesman said: ‘For unsold products we partner with a number of charities including In Kind Direct, which works with non-profit organisations to distribute goods to charities across the UK.’
In the documentary, company bosses told how the retail giant charges companies £22 for a metre of space to store their products. But that cost leaps to £430 for the same space after six months and £860 after a year.
In one case, a businessman who featured in the programme said Amazon charged his company £17 an item to return goods but just 13p to destroy them. Suppliers say that when their products do not sell they are left with no choice but to pay Amazon to destroy them because they cannot afford to have them returned or continue to be stored.
Pensions Minister Guy Opperman said: ‘Amazon should be completely ashamed of themselves. This is not proper business practice and I would encourage them to review the commercial arrangements they have with their suppliers.’
Labour MP Mary Creagh, chairman of the Environmental Audit Committee, added: ‘This is both shocking and heartbreaking to see.
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Plastic waste collected on beach-cleans and litter-picks via @KeepBritainTidy will be turned into a @ShangriLaGlasto arena at Glastonbury festival this summer. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cor nwall-48213844 #WasteNot
The 'Gas Tower' dance arena in the Shangri-La area will be created using waste collected in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset.
... Glastonbury has banned the sale of plastic bottles at this year's festival which opens on 26 June.
The project will need 10 tonnes of plastic with the first beach cleans to contribute happening on 11 May.
The gathered rubbish will then be processed by Exeter City Council before being recycled into materials to build the stage.
Well done! Keep Britain Tidy Shangri-La
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It's that time of year....are you still decluttering and have a jolly good clear-out? Aren't we all! If you need to find a new home for unwanted stuff just list it on your local freegle community https://www.ilovefreegle.org we've got 2.8 million registered reusers around the UK, join them today to keep stuff in circulation and not in the bin! #WasteNot #ChooseToReuse #Declutter #PassItOn #Reuse

#CompostWeek #GoodToKnow You might have noticed lots of alternatives to #SingleUsePlastic packaging and disposables (cups, bags, straws etc) marked with a #compostable label or described as #biodegradable. This means the material will ONLY biodegrade via INDUSTRIAL processing. These #compostable things will *not* biodegrade in your home composting bin or if they end up in the environment (hedge, park, river, ocean etc) they MUST be processed in a specific type of industrial ...composter, an "In-Vessel Digester" - where they are exposed to very high temperatures over a long period of time in a very controlled facility.
More good reasons to replace disposables with reusables!
More geeky information about #compostable label here https://www.bpf.co.uk/top…/standards_fo r_compostability.aspx via British Plastics Federation
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It's #CompostWeek You can find free compost bins, wormeries and materials to build your own composting area via your local free reuse community https://www.ilovefreegle.org Freegle hase 450+ lovely reuse groups around the U.K. with over 2.8 million registered reusers! (and don't forget that you can also give away unwanted edible food via Freegle)
... If you want to find out if food waste can be collected for composting in YOUR local area go here https://www.recyclenow.com/what-to-do-wit h/food-waste-0
Lots of local councils can supply you with compost bins for your garden and some of them have free offers on for #CompostWeek so have a search on your council's website this weekend
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It's Friyay! Off to the tip or getting a skip this weekend? *STOP* Give away your unwanted stuff first. Join #Freegle to do that!... http://ow.ly/DbOu30nyjdj You never know what someone nearby might be looking for!
#ChooseToReuse #WasteNot #repair #upcycle #reuse
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It's #ThriftyThursday Try your hand at transforming a teapot! Find unwanted things for free to #upcycle via your local #Freegle community See what's being given away nearby to you here > https://www.ilovefreegle.org
... #ChooseToReuse #WasteNot
Teapots make great plant pots, bird-feeders and even lamps....see some ideas below Everything you need to know to make a teapot bird-feeder via The Spruce https://www.thespruce.com/teapot-bird-hou se-385667
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It's time for growing! Freegle is the place to request and offer spare seeds and plants, flower pots and trays, garden tools, cold frames, compost bins, water butts or even a shed or greenhouse! https://www.ilovefreegle.org
Be creative with what can be reused as planters, seed trays or cold frames. Have you any old toilet rolls or newspapers? They can be used as biodegradable seedling pots, just plant them in the ground.
... And we can all grow things! Window sills, balconies, patio pots, allotments, community or our own gardens. Be creative and do your bit for the environment, your neighbours and your family. 20 fab ideas below!
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An easy way to reduce your carbon footprint is to buy less new stuff. That saves precious resources and reduces transport, packaging, pollution + waste. Find stuff to #reuse for free via our lovely sharing app! http://ow.ly/DbOu30nyjdj #ChooseToReuse #CircularEconomy #LongWeekend #Declutter

#MayThe4thBeWithYou
We're loving these hand-made #StarWars stuff Want to have a go? Find free materials via your local free #reuse community ... https://www.ilovefreegle.org and download free Star Wars crotchet patterns here https://www.diys.com/crochet-patterns-for -star-wars-lovers/
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What do you think about this 100% recyclable shoe? When worn out it can be turned into new shoes!
What has made the recycling of shoes – and most things – difficult is that the various materials of an item need to be separated prior to recycling. How did Adidas solve this problem? They figured out how to make the shoe with a single material (100 percent reusable thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU)) – and it is constructed without the use of adhesives or other chemicals. The TPU... is spun to yarn, knitted, molded and clean-fused to a midsole.
Once the user is done with the shoes, they are returned to Adidas, where they are washed, ground to pellets and melted into material for components for a new pair of shoes, with zero waste and nothing thrown away.
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This is clever! #Weee All medals at next summer’s Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo will be made from recycled electronic waste, including discarded smartphones, digital cameras and other handheld games and laptops. https://www.theguardian.com/…/olympics- medals-recycled-gadg…
The organizing committee said municipal authorities had already collected 47,488 tons of junked devices by last November, roughly 19 months after the project was launched with targets of 30.3kg of gold, ...4,100kg of silver and 2,700kg of bronze.
The goal for bronze was reached in June, while more than 90% of the gold and 85% of the silver has been collected, officials said.
It is estimated that the remaining amounts of metal required to manufacture all Olympic and Paralympic medals can be extracted from the devices already donated.
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Did you know there are milk refill stations around the U.K. where you can buy fresh raw milk direct from farmers. Another way to avoid packaging and plastic! See if there's one near you >> https://www.click2map.com/v2/Naturalfood/ RawMilkMap/52091559
This is a map listing Foods Standards Agency licensed producers of raw drinking milk across the UK and Ireland. We quality rate each supplier based on further criteria beyond the health and safety standards set by the FSA. The full criteria for vetting each supplier is explained here >> Raw, Unpasteurised Milk UK & Ireland

The library of things: could borrowing everything from drills to disco balls cut waste and save money? In the same vein as Freegle where citizens give away their unwanted goods to people nearby who can reuse them, 'Library of Things' enable people to have access to tools and stuff to use without the need to buy new things..... We'd love to see a map of all the U.K. LoTs - have you got a Library of Things nearby to you and have you ever borrowed something?

Shops that minimise the environmental impact of our consumer habits are springing up across Britain. Have you tried to shop #ZeroWaste? From shops selling unpackaged food by weight and refill cleaning products to ethically sourced slow fashion boutiques they're popping up on lots of high streets (and let's not forget lovely charity shops that enable unwanted clothes and household items to have a new life).....