The circular economy in Selby is gathering pace; our last blog on Selby looked at their action plan for the future, and now Selby District AVS, who head up the project, are beginning to put that into action.
First on the list of interventions is to explore the opportunities for developing Our Zero Selby, a ground-breaking pilot that worked in-depth with local residents to understand their priorities in the transition to net-zero. This community engagement produced a list of 25 potential low-carbon projects, which a focus group of residents prioritised, and Selby District AVS is working with various partners to get these projects off the ground.
More clothes, less waste
Meanwhile, Selby District AVS are also running their first sharing event to get the community actively involved with the circular economy. The first Selby Swap Shop will be at Selby Community House on the 28th September to coincide with Big Green Week. Held in partnership with local charity, Selby Hands of Hope, the event will focus on clothing, shoes and bags. Clothing swaps offer a space to the community to bring along clothes that are the wrong size, not needed, or simply not their style anymore, and swap them with other people to free up wardrobe space. This approach helps keep textiles in use, and helps people reduce the number of new clothes they need to buy, reducing waste and avoiding the carbon emissions and resources that go into the manufacture of new clothes.
Selby District AVS hopes to run more events in the future, partnering with a range of local groups, to also offer PAT testing and repairs, to help residents keep electrical goods and other household items in good shape and in use. Events like these help get people involved with the circular economy in context, demonstrating the benefits and creating the engagement that will help drive action.
Next steps
Selby District AVS has also become a member of the Refill Scheme, a campaign that aims to support the transition towards reuse systems and tackling the global issue of plastic pollution by reducing waste. Selby District AVS will join other local businesses in offering free water refills. More to come on this project in the next newsletter!
All three Circular Towns are also working with the Get reCycling campaign, which is being run by local waste company Yorwaste and social enterprise Recycle Project York. The campaign aims to get bikes back in use, offering free bike repair workshops – one of which will be in Selby, on 27th August. Get reCycling are also working to link up spare bikes with Ukrainian refugees, and there’s the chance to win a set of 4 bikes for a family – check out their campaign here.
Circular Towns
As the climate crisis becomes more apparent, we need to find ways of working with the planet, making best use of what we already have, and limiting our use of natural resources to allow them to recover. Our Circular Towns project aims to help bring this approach into a community setting, and deliver social benefits as well, creating greener, fairer, and stronger towns and villages across the region.
If you’re interested and want to get involved with the Circular Towns project, contact Erin Wheeler, Circular Economy Officer, erin.wheeler@ynylep.com