NEWS FROM THE REGIONS

EASTERN REGION

Community Mapergy Goes live in the East! The Mapping Community Capacity project quantifies and maps the reuse and recycling of waste in the East England by using a geographic information system ( GIS ) Remade East Mapergy website to map the location of projects in the region and the types of services they are delivering to their communities. The website identifies over 120 organisations that provide re-use and recycling services in 24 material categories.

All the groups listed are community sector, not-for profit organisations operating in the East Anglian region. 

Information regarding the types of waste and resources collected, the tonnage collected in the past year, numbers and types of volunteers and training places provide reliable, up-to-date information to waste managers, social services, training partners and businesses to use within their organisations.

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NORTH WEST

There is a growing awareness of the potential for our sector to engage with the collecting and recycling/reuse of commercial waste. This is reflected in the report just produced by this network on the capacity of North West CWS organisations to handle it and is the drive behind the development of a programme of support for organisations to do so.

BREW have announced their Trailblazer Fund to encourage more Local Authorities to address diversion of Commercial and Industrial from landfill. While this may appear a misdirected grant, given the need for CWS organisations for funding to do this, it does open up the possibilities for partnership working between LAs and the community sector.

So, find out what your local authority is doing and also keep an eye open for some new WRAP funding to be announced for the community sector to deal with this waste stream.
Other major initiatives are in the development of community composting and how this can greatly improve LAs waste diversion performance as well as smoothing the way to easier acceptance of alternate week recycling collections.

Contact: Ian Scott ian@crn.org.uk 0161 273 6976

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SOUTH WEST

The national regional programme funded by Defra has recently come to an end and there has been a great deal of work on finding continuation funding for the work that has been going on in the South West over the past two and a half years. At this stage it is necessary to cut back on the services organisations receive whilst this search continues. The CRN UK will be providing a peer exchange email address to allow SW CWN members to share information directly with other groups within the region.

The Community Waste Network South West steering group will continue to meet and feed back important information to this peer network.

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YORKSHIRE AND HUMBER

Last month saw the launch of a new initiative to provide better recycling services in Barnsley, South Yorkshire.  Community activitists, educators and development workers came together to find out more about the 3Rs and discuss how community-run projects could fill some of the gaps in services. There is a powerful sense of the strength of communities in this part of the country and disappointment that a number of community-led services have come to an end in the last 18 months.  The work done by Barnsley community workers to set up Barnsley Community Recycling Initiative is a positive response which lays the foundation for some interesting new projects. People were particularly interested in getting the climate change message across with an education campaign and providing recycling services for local businesses.

Elsewhere in the Region, a Grimsby-based social housing partnership is keen on heading towards Zero Waste for a new housing development. Their plan is to help local people set up community waste projects to drive social and environmental change in the neighbourhoods affected. A session in November will bring together existing community projects in the area and build on what they and the local authority are currently providing. Housing associations across the country are potential partners for community organisations delivering local reuse, composting and recycling projects. Please let the Y&H Regional team know if you're involved in partnering work with a housing association in your part of the country.

Contact: Paul Forrest paulf@crn.org.uk, Mary Goldsworthy, mary@crn.org.uk  0113 2003977