Using talk balls and child friendly stackable bins funded by SCRL, Puddleducks is engaging very young children in discussion and activity about recycling. At Easter they collected litter within the grounds of their school and put it into the recycling boxes.

SCRAPPIES (see member details) – Rural Delivery. We have supported Scrappies to develop a rural delivery service to encourage villages and rural communities to participate in recycling activity

SHOFUR – one stop call centre. We have provided funding to help SHOFUR set up a single contact telephone number and database to deal with all requests to donate household goods

RE-bike has used funding from SCRL to develop their marketing and publicity activity to encourage people across Shropshire to donate more unwanted bicycles

The pictures say it all and SCRL helped this green house on its way. Lottie Rowlands tells the story:

 

“Initially, Mrs.Denholm found a greenhouse making on the internet witch used two litres, plastic bottles. As she thought this was a brilliant idea, she convinced the School that we could build our very own greenhouse. So in April 2009, Christ Church Primary school began there bottle constructed greenhouse.

 

So the school put requests for bottles in the Thursday letter, Village Life and Village Pump. Once we had collected a few bottles, we washed them straight away.

 

Once we had washed a box full of bottles we counted them then we put them in the activity room. When we had washed about 100 we put a note of it on our bottle counting chart.

 

As we kept on washing, our counting chart was going rapidly up with a blue crayon and bottles were flooding in the activity room to be washed and cut. Then, once we had enough bottles we learnt how to make a cane full of bottles literally. What we needed to do was cut the bottoms off the bottles off with scissors. Once we had cut them we slotted them on a long cane. As they were about a quarter way though, two men came into school to make a wooden frame while we worked on the canes. Once they had made the wooden frame they needed some bottles on canes to staple on so four children got some canes and handed them to the men.

 

The two men got to work and made a complete long side and then carried on to do the back of the greenhouse. Then they got on a roll and did the other half of the greenhouse.

 

At the same time Yellow class were still working hard but really exited about the greenhouse, while the two men went away for a week’s break. On Friday 4^th December the men came back and worked really hard to finish in a day. At about 1:30 the greenhouse was done and everyone was really pleased and happy.

 

I thought this project was a really good idea because we can grow more vegetables, we re-used loads of bottles and it was so much fun getting involved with the making of the greenhouse.

The Project group developed two exciting projects using clothes and accessories found in charity shops and waste products from industry to redesign them into a designed range of clothing and accessories. 

For the clothing project they recruited a team, "the fashion show team", who worked on designing a range of new, fashionable clothes from old clothes under the theme of "recycling and sustainability". They developed a whole range from casual to formal, even including a wedding dress! Having gathered a whole range of old clothes, accessories and shoes from charity shops, friends and family they proceeded, through targeted workshops, to transform them into exciting new items which were then displayed during a marvellous fashion show. 

The fashion show grew beyond measure with many other organisations getting involved including: North Shropshire College, Centre North West, Oswestry Education Centre, Hyperlink, Changing Tracks – and the local radio DJ. It generated considerable interest in recycling “we have had orders for recycled bags and requests from people who want to learn more about the “art of recycling” “ said Gabi Hampson, project co-ordinator.

 

 

 

 

This success has been followed by two workshops concentrating on working with recycled materials with the aim of showing group members the potential of working with these materials to design and create retail items that individuals can make and then sell for their own financial gain. The feedback from the group regarding the workshops was very positive. BAGS: "I learnt a lot about what to do but also what not to do. I learnt a lot about planning a project and how to make something in the right order." "Particularly as a bloke making a handbag - I thought it was brilliant!"

 

“We used a wide range of materials, tried small bits of materials that usually would end up in the bin, went to look for forgotten bits in the loft and cellar and contacted local companies for recyclable items. A variety of things including an old banner, inner tube from a tractor, seat belts, a cheddar cheese advert, bits of old fabric, plastic wire casing all made it into our bags”, says Gabi. .

   

 

 

 

GLASS: "very inspiring and makes you think you can go and do it yourself and take it further" "Inspirational, instructor kept it very simple. We created lovely pieces. Lots of marketable opportunities and very cost effective" "Engaging and informative" Gabi explains “We used completely recycled materials,

learnt how to crush glass bottles into manageable glass frits, learnt how to make moulded vessels using the recycled glass and also 3D plaques which could be used for all sorts of jewellery. On the second day we used old bottles which we have moulded and decorated and will be fired to produce bowls and vessels. We are now looking to contact local

breweries to reuse their bottles”.

 

The group has also contacted local companies regarding potential recyclable materials and have made good connections with tyre companies, a printer (for old rubber blankets, a offset printing waste product), a balloon factory (old balloon fabric and leather). They are now exploring retail outlets and talking about going to craft fairs.  

The SCRL grant has helped to move recycling forward at Sheriffhales Primary School through the provision of a new wormery and educational games which focus on recycling rubbish. They have already had a garden blitz day where many parents and children came together to erect the new wormery, compost bins and to generally tidy up the vegetable plot and garden. They have also formed an Eco committee which has drawn up a feeding rota for the worms to ensure they have a constant supply of shredded paper, cardboard, fruit, vegetables and teabags.

The Shropshire Young Carers project has used the SCRL grant to pay for a musician/scrap metallist to show thirty young carers how to make music and jewellery out of scrap. Each young carer had to bring a bag full of scrap/recycling from their home. They were then introduced to various forms of recycling. Each young carer made a variety of instruments and jewellery that they then took home with them.

SCRL has enabled Shrewsbury Friends of the Earth to update their green guide which gives information on materials to be recycled, venues that accept unusual materials for recycling, and how to generally reduce the carbon footprint plus information on why reducing re-using and recycling is very important. Follow the link to their website for a copy of the guide: www.shrewsfoe.org.uk

A grant from SCRL has meant that pupils at ten Shropshire Primary Schools are now feeding old maths books, apple cores and banana skins to worms in a pioneering recycling project.  

“ Worm monitors collect bread crusts and fruit and vegetable remains from the dinner plates and feed them to the worms while break time fruit peelings and cores are also readily consumed,” said David Lloyd, worm enthusiast and teacher at Worthen Primary School. “We also give them the teabags from the staffroom. They produce a nutrient-rich liquor, an ideal plant food we call worm brew and we’re selling this to parents to raise money.”

 

Ten schools have all received wormeries and advice from Shropshire ’s Master Composters, who have spent time with the children helping them understand how to look after their worms and answering lots of questions.  Teachers have been given specially devised education packs for different ages, produced by the Trust’s education staff.

 

The primary schools involved are Sheriffhales, Trefonen CE, Moreton Hall, Minsterley, Morda CE, St John the Baptist, Ryton XI Towns, Longnor CE, Coleham and Apley Wood.