Rima

Cycle Repair & Mini-Craft Fair

July 3, 2020 by Rima

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Cycle Repair & Mini-Fair

25th July 10am – 4pm

Xavier who is hosting a cycle-ability discussion on the 15th July, will be helping you understand how you can repair your cycle on the 25th July at St John’s Church grounds. To keep him company, we will be hosting a mini fair with crafts and a refill stall.

Location: St John’s Church grounds

To connect with us:

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.facebook.com/StJohnsEcoChurch

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

Email: StJohnsEghamEcoChurch@gmail.com

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For an overview of the events – click here

VDD: Reduce Your General Waste

July 3, 2020 by Rima

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The Journey to Zero Waste & Litter Free Environments

24th July 6-7pm: Ticketed Virtual Q&A

Shannon and Iris regularly plog the streets of Chertsey

Handling & processing waste costs money. Waste that is not recycled is incinerated, which means a resource is burned forever.

Check your knowledge of the waste terms here

Metal is the only material that can be recycled nearly an infinite amount of times. Recycling glass requires very high temperatures (over 800 degrees celcius which is higher than the temperatures of the incinerators) and materials like plastic and paper are downgraded with each “recycle”. I hear some of you saying “My council recycles plastic”, and some of you demand that “More plastic should be recycled”

When plastic is recycled, it can be recycled on average 6 times before it is deemed useless. Since September 2019, virgin plastic has been cheaper to purchase than recycled plastic.

To reduce the amount of waste that is processed, there are a number of initiatives from BYOR (Bring Your Own Reusable), Repurposing, Upcycling, and Reusing. Charity shops, preloved sites and freecycling are great ways to reuse items that are in good condition. Upcycling or repurposing using crafting methods has a finite number of times you will be able to divert your rubbish from the general waste. Our Eco-Brick project is a way to repurpose bottles and upcycle plastic rubbish we would otherwise have to put in our general waste. Another way is to find a Zero Waste / Refill shop in your area.

Mel from Bare + Fair, a Zero Waste shop, will be at the discussion

BYOR is a great way to refuse purchasing single use bags, coffee cups, take away containers and more. Some of the take away shops will use your containers if you ask them. Cups in Egham used to provide a 20p discount off your purchase if you brought your own container.

Neil has been campaigning and helping lead governance changes

There are many more ways to reduce waste and we have brought together a panel that actively reduces waste from a business/organisational perspective, resident perspective, and a political perspective

Iris and Shannon – Chertsey residents whose challenge is to pick up litter every day in their daily walks and have an Instagram account @RubbishADay
Neil – from Zero Waste Europe promotes and supports societal moves to zero waste, and the need for change at political and corporate level to enable that change at a personal level.
Mel – runs Bare and Fair, a refill shop in Woking to enable sustainable and low-waste living a realistic option

Come join us for a free live virtual dinner discussion on going zero waste on the 24th July 6-7pm. Register for a ticket below:

If you want to leave a question for this discussion please submit a question via our question form. Click here to access

To connect with us:

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.facebook.com/StJohnsEcoChurch

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

Email: StJohnsEghamEcoChurch@gmail.com

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For an overview of the events – click here

Getting to Know Your Waste Terms

July 3, 2020 by Rima

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What is the difference between recycling, reuse, repurpose, upcycling and more?

Zero Waste: is a philosophy with the goal to minimise waste that ends up in incinerators or landfills. It is an holistic pursuit that attempts to be systematic and scalable aiming for long term permanent solutions.

Recycling: when a material is broken down so that it can be used to make something new. “The action or process of converting waste into reusable material.” Recycling results in reduced demand for new material because the recycled material can be used instead. This is a scalable way to address waste meaning it can be done for large quantities of waste material typically by municipalities. Runnymede Borough Council collect the recyclables and Surrey County Council are responsible for where the recyclables go.

Image may contain: text — 2017-2018 Waste Generation and Recycling Statistics

Reuse / Reusable: repeatedly using an item without significant alteration of the original (eg jars can be re-used – after cleaning and removing the label but without further modifcations). This is usually an individual effort except for some deposit systems and bottle re-use programs.

Repurpose: using a material in a way not originally intended but without significant alteration. This is usually not scalable but is typically done on a project basis. Eg using an old yoghurt container as a pot for plants. There is a limit to how many yoghurt containers can be used in this way.

Upcycling: turning a discarded product into something useful / of higher quality. Crafting with waste materials can be included in this. This is rarely scalable – meaning it is usually done on a one-off basis and is not an effective solution for waste reduction because it is time consuming and there may be little demand for the end product. A lot of upcycling requires the use of new materials as part of the project (paints, glues, some new parts, etc). Craft projects are generally not effective at waste reduction though they can sometimes be used to good effect as an artistic statement about waste.

Incineration: is sometimes referred to in the media as “recycling” as in “waste is recycled into energy” “Swedes recycle nearly 100 per cent of their household waste”. This is NOT recycling – it destroys the material, it does not recover it which is an essential part of recycling.

To connect with us:

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.facebook.com/StJohnsEcoChurch

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

Email: StJohnsEghamEcoChurch@gmail.com

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For an overview of the events – click here

Clean Up Egham

July 2, 2020 by Rima

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Clean Up Egham

Sat 25th to Friday 31st July 2020

Genesis 2:15
¹⁵ The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it

As part of the St John’s Eco-Festival, we are excited that Egham Residents’ Association (ERA) is co-ordinating a Litter Pick Week and is inviting you, as households, families or groups of neighbours to get together to Litter Pick on your road – or part of your road.

How to Start

Form your “group”, and choose a time during the week for your Litter Pick.
Email ERA to register your interest on residentsegham@gmail.com
ERA will draw up a timetable of litter picking, and post it on their Facebook Page: “Egham Residents’ Association (ERA)” https://www.facebook.com/EghamRA/
ERA will arrange for litter pickers and heavy duty gloves to be delivered to you in time for your litter pick. All Litter Pick Groups are encouraged to advertise that they are joining in by creating a poster and putting it in their window(s) – like the COVID19 Rainbows
Email a picture of your poster to ERA residentsegham@gmail.com and to St John’s Eco-Church* stjohnseghamecochurch @gmail.com and your poster will be published on both our Facebook pages as well as on St John’s Instagram.
On the day of the Litter Pick if possible please take Before and After photos. ERA will put these in an Album to celebrate your achievement – and encourage others to join in.
It doesn’t matter how big or small your Litter Pick patch is. Every piece of litter picked up is one less to pollute and endanger the environment.

*St John’s is running a small competition: see St John’s Poster Competition

After this Litter Pick week, ERA will be organising an Egham-wide litter pick as part of the Great British September Clean 2020 on World Clean Up Day, on 19th September.

Hope that individual, families and groups will enjoy taking part and please do check the government guidelines for groups outside your household that can gather as this is changing depending on outbreaks. Do also remember to maintain social distancing.

To connect with us:

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.facebook.com/StJohnsEcoChurch

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

Email: StJohnsEghamEcoChurch@gmail.com

To return to the main schedule – click here
For an overview of the events – click here

VDD: The Food Waste Cycle

July 2, 2020 by Rima

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Make Food Last & Eat Great Food

17th July 2020 7-8pm – Free Ticketed Virtual Dinner Discussion + Q&A

The average UK household throws away £355.68 worth of food every year, equating to a startling £9.7billion across the country annually.
According to the research collated in February 2019, 65 per cent of UK adults admit to buying too much food that ends up being thrown away, with London and Newcastle reporting the highest rates of food waste.
Source: https://resource.co/article/study-reveals-uk-wastes-97-billion-food-each-year

Advocacy | FEBA — Image from: https://www.eurofoodbank.org/en/advocacy

As Christians we give thanks for our food and pray it blesses our bodies. However, there is a great deal of confusion about how long food can be kept safely.

Some believe we have been programmed to use an artificial date as a means of when to dispose of food products, instead of relying on our natural senses to look, smell and taste. When we grow our own food, we rely on those senses to tell us when food is inedible. Fruit, vegetables and freshly laid eggs taste so much better when you’ve grown it yourself, looked after chickens.

Heather will be sharing tips about growing your own

The Use By Date and the Best Before Date have different meanings. A Use By Date is about safety and a Best Before Date refers to the quality and shelf life of an unopened food product.

Every year, we throw away 7.2 million tonnes of food and drink in the UK, most of which could have been eaten. So think carefully before throwing away food past its “best before” date. The food will be safe to eat after this date but may not be at its best in terms of flavour, texture and nutritional value.

Suzanne from EdAbles Social Kitchen will sharing tips on cooking great food with food that may seem old

For more about food labelling see here: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/food-labelling-terms/

For handy tips on reducing food waste see here: https://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/

Janet loves her veg

At the live Q&A session the panel consists of people who are dedicated to reducing food waste from purchasing, to cooking, to preserving to growing your own.

Suzanne from EdAble Social Kitchen: her social enterprise creates meals from food that would otherwise be wasted
Heather is a professional gardener who will be able to tell you about plants and composting
Janet is a veg lover who enjoys cooking and growing veg

Come join us for a free live virtual dinner discussion on making food last and growing food on the 17th July 7-8pm. Register for this event below:

If you want to leave a question for this discussion please submit a question via our question form. Click here to access

To connect with us:

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.facebook.com/StJohnsEcoChurch

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

Email: StJohnsEghamEcoChurch@gmail.com

To return to the main schedule – click here
For an overview of the events – click here

VDD: Cycle-Ability

July 2, 2020 by Rima

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As I ride on my bike
I ride by faith and not by sight
While the wind blows in my face
I think of His Amazing Grace
Lord protect me as I ride
For I know that you will be by my side
AUthor Unknown

Cycle Ability

15th July 6-7pm – Ticketed and Free Virtual Discussion: Everything to know about cycling
25th July 10am-4pm – Cycle Repair and mini craft market at St John’s Church grounds

During lockdown, I was sent an email from a large sports shop in Staines saying that they had run out of bicycles! Who would have thought that? Who has bought a bicycle recently? I have certainly seen a lot of newbie cyclists out on the road and parents taking their children out for a cycle. On the one hand it is a wonderful thing to see, but at times it has been scary to watch!

The Eco-Church team have teamed up with the charity Sustrans, whose mission is to make it easy for people to walk and cycle. We are fortunate to have Xavier, a local who lives in Runnymede and who heads Sustrans, available to conduct a:

Free live Q&A session on “Everything you wanted to know about cycling” on the 15th July between 6-7pm so come armed with questions! Register for your free ticket on EventBrite below.
Free cycle repair on the 25th July at St John’s Church grounds along between 10am – 4pm. Talk to Xavier on the 15th to book a spot with him. There will also be a small craft market. So bring your bicycle over if you want him to have a look at it, and browse the craft market while you’re waiting.

If you want to know what Xavier thinks about the future of transport, you can watch his free webinar here. A quick word from Xavier about the session.

Before attending the sessions we have put together a number of resources to help you get started. There are tips on teaching children good cycling practices, as well as advice for anyone who would like to cycle to work. Have a watch and read of them if you’d like to find out more!

Cycling for beginners:

https://www.sustrans.org.uk/our-blog/get-active/2020/everyday-walking-and-cycling/cycling-for-beginners/

https://www.cyclinguk.org/article/campaigns-guide/cycling-tips-24-essential-pieces-riding-advice-beginners

Teaching your child to cycle:

Cycling to work:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-53143359/want-to-start-cycling-to-work-here-s-how

Resources for families to entertain/educate kids:

https://www.sustrans.org.uk/campaigns/outside-in#:~:text=Sustrans%20Outside%20In%20activities%20include,walking%20and%20scooting%20themed%20fun.

Repairing a puncture:

If you want to leave us a question for this discussion please fill in our question form. Click here to access

To connect with us:

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.facebook.com/StJohnsEcoChurch

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

Email: StJohnsEghamEcoChurch@gmail.com

To return to the main schedule – click here
For an overview of the events – click here

Eco-Brick Collection

June 30, 2020 by Rima

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Be Part of the Eco-Brick Making Team

Throughout 2020

St John’s would like to create more seating areas, a well being garden with raised beds and potentially a shed.

As part of our commitment to reducing general waste, we would like to create these items with eco-bricks. An Eco-brick is a bottle stuffed completely with plastic so that the bottle is turgid and cannot be deformed. This locks away the plastic until a time when our technology is good enough for it to be recovered back as a resource. Currently our waste plastic will be incinerated.

Stuff the bottom with a single colour and ensure bottle is completely packed with plastic rubbish

Some of the ideas we have seen on the web to recreate within the church grounds:

To Make an Eco-Brick

If you would like to help us, then please read this resource here: https://www.ecobricks.org /how/

Alternatively you can watch this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQYsXxHKgMk&feature=emb_logo

We will work with all sizes and all eco-bricks can be left for us at St John’s with the hope messages. One of our eco-team members will pick up your eco-bricks. Do notify us as well in our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/StJohnsEghamEcoChurch/ and/or via email StJohnsEghamEcoChurch@gmail.com

To connect with us:

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.facebook.com/StJohnsEcoChurch

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

Email: StJohnsEghamEcoChurch@gmail.com

To return to the main schedule – click here
For an overview of the events – click here

Poster Competition: Litter Litter, Why So Much Litter?

June 29, 2020 by Rima

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For an overview of the events – click here

Poster Competition:
Litter Litter, Why So Much Litter?

Competition throughout July

Genesis 2:15
¹⁵ The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it

During our restrictive lockdown, many noted how little litter was around in our environment. With the relaxation of our lockdown, parts of our societies resumed “Normal” enjoying the good weather and participating in picnics + the re-opening of take-aways with the associated disposables often left behind.

Local councillors and others have been hard at work taking part in adhoc clean ups and using social media to encourage the public to take home their litter.

As part of the eco-festival activities, Egham Residents Association has organised a litter pick from 25th-31st July. For more information check our schedule for the Eco-Festival or Email: residentsegham@gmail.com

Cigarette butts, though small, are the most toxic litter. It only needs a few in a pond to kill our aquatic life, or a slightly larger amount stubbed out in a plant to kill the plant. Larger pieces of rubbish becomes junk food to marine life, birds and even cows and sheep. (There are diary farms in the area. For an extra point tell us where one is when you submit your entry) With plastic bits in their bellies, animal die from hunger or become infertile. Degrading plastic attracts toxins as well as releasing toxins. See Plastic Rivers by EarthWatch to find out the top 10 plastic pollutants in our rivers: https://earthwatch.org.uk/get-involved/plastic-rivers

Finally plastic disintegrates into micro-plastic and nano-plastic which we are now breathing, drinking and eating. Can you design a poster to encourage our society, people/everyone to become more responsible for their litter, to take it home with them to be reused or recycled; or to encourage businesses to reduce their packaging. There are three categories:

21 and over
13-20
Below 13

This competition will end on the 31st July. Your poster will be displayed on Instagram. We will choose our potential winners by using “Likes” as a measure. The Councillors from the Green Discussion will be the final judges. Winners will be notified 2 weeks later.

Send your posters to: stjohnseghamecochurch@gmail.com and include:

Your name
Age range
What inspired you to draw the images in your poster?
What do you like about a litter free environment?
Of the 10 types of litter identified in the EarthWatch article, which litter do you hate the most?

To connect with us:

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.facebook.com/StJohnsEcoChurch

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

Email: StJohnsEghamEcoChurch@gmail.com

Rima

Cycle Repair & Mini-Fair

The Journey to Zero Waste & Litter Free Environments

Clean Up Egham

Make Food Last & Eat Great Food

Cycle Ability

Be Part of the Eco-Brick Making Team

To Make an Eco-Brick

Poster Competition: Litter Litter, Why So Much Litter?

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St. John’s Egham

Poster Competition:
Litter Litter, Why So Much Litter?