In 2021, 63.2% of UK packaging waste was recycled. Sounds good right? What about the other 37% which wasn’t or couldn’t be recycled?

In West Sussex, we recycle 53% kerbside recycling, above the national average of 44%. When you recycle, you stop manufacturers using new raw materials and which also uses less energy too.  However, many products can only be recycled a few times before they aren’t fit-for-purpose.

Find out where and how to recycle at home, and at local council centres. You’ll also find out what to do with hard-to-recycle items and alternatives to recycling.

Stunning single use plastic stats!

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We are really excited to share our latest stats and facts showing the impacts of our single-use plastic recycling scheme, which was launched in 2012 in partnership with TerraCycle. In the early days Carrie the founder of Sussex Green Living and her young son Adam sorted and dispatched the recycling, now we have about 20 volunteers aged 8 – 90. Our main public drop off locations are at the William Penn School in Coolham and the Horsham Quaker Meeting House. We also have community micro-drop off locations in: Leechpool School in Horsham, Rudgwick Youth Club, Thakham Village Hall, Storrington Community Market (once a week), Slinfold and Henfield. There are thousands of people collecting for us from all over the county. Over the eight years we have run this special recycling scheme we have diverted millions of pieces of single-use plastic from landfill and incinerator. Most of our single use plastic recycling raises money for the William Penn School.

Prior to the stats shown below we collected TerraCycle waste resources for the benefit of WAKOOS a nursery for children in Billingshurst and Horsham Matters, these statistic are not shown below. Read more

Are your clothes really causing climate change?

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Now how is it that clothes are causing climate change? …..Where in the world are your clothes made?  Take a look through your drawers and cupboard to find out! In the 1980s lots of clothes manufacturers decided they wanted to copy some of the big expensive brands, however to ensure they sold more and more cheaply and faster they moved their manufacturing bases to Asia. Most of the world’s clothes now are made in China, India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka where the price of labour is much cheaper.

Container ships produce more greenhouse gas emissions than some small countries. According to The Essential Daily Briefing: “It has been estimated that just one of these container ships, the length of around six football pitches, can produce the same amount of pollution as 50 million cars (22/04/2018)

Like many commodities, clothes are transported by cargo ships which equals a rather serious carbon footprint and directly contributes to climate change.  Read more

Pre-loved clothes sale in Horsham

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Did you know the second most polluting industry is the fast fashion industry? Learn more about the problems in this blog ‘Are your clothes really causing climate change? We are delighted to announce a local solution….in partnership with our friends at One World Living and our great volunteers, we are running a pre-loved clothes sale otherwise known as a kilo sale! It is on Saturday 9th November 12-4pm at Greenway Academy, Greenway, Horsham, RH12 2JS, at the end of Green GB Week. We will be selling quality pre-loved clothes for a bargin £10 per kilo (normally kilo sales charge £15 a kilo).

To give you an idea of what you will get for one kilo….. a pair of man’s denim jeans will be about 1.5 and 2 kg and woman’s clothing 1 kg will be about 1 pair of denim jeans or about 6 T-shirts. Thanks to the PTA at Greenway Academy there will be drinks and homemade cakes for sale, so come for the afternoon. There will be a separate areas for children, ladies and men’s clothes.

Proceeds from this sale will help us deliver FREE climate education in local schools, learn more here,  also deprived children and families Romania and Uganda. Plus helping the planet and your pocket! Read more

Learn how to divert landfill waste into a recycling scheme and raise money for a good cause

Plastic food packaging. We need your help!!!

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South American Tree FrogDo you know which items are recycled with our “TerraCycle” schemes ?

We wish we could recycle all the plastic food packaging you have kindly donated however there are clear guidelines on which items will be accepted under the free TerraCyle recycling schemes that we are registered to.  Our small team of volunteers are working hard to sort through donations to remove all items which cannot be recycled under the TerraCycle schemes.

To help streamline the work of our volunteers here is a reminder of which plastic food packaging we can accept for recycling. Plastic food packaging from other sources will be discarded…..even if made of same or similar material.  Read more

Single-use plastic recycling stats

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Wow since December the general public have collected 25,136 crisp packets, thanks to our green team of volunteers who sort and dispatch this recycling! Our volunteers include the A Team from Leachpool School in Horsham, who collect from their school, K2 leisure centre in Crawley and The Pavillions leisure centre in Horsham.

We work with a number of charities and companies who recycle these single-use plastics one such company being TerraCycle, they are an innovative recycling company that has become a global leader in recycling hard-to-recycle materials. This scheme helps diverts billions of waste resouces from our landfills and incinerators, recycling them to make new products. Read more

Climate Emergency – please can you help us?

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Dear Horsham and West Sussex residents,

Climate change news is everywhere. It seems too bigger problem for many people and is the greatest environmental threat humanity has ever faced, but you can do something. Here are some ways in West Sussex and Horsham you can help….. Read more

Caring for clothes & planet events

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During the first half of 2019 Sussex Green Living and the Horsham Repair Cafe are out and about, inpiring people to ‘make do and mend’, remake, repair, repatch and basically love the clothes and materials around them. Come and learn long lost skills of sewing, patches, repairing buttons, clothes etc. Learn about fast fashion and the damage it is causing our planet, solutions, ways of saving money and the planet……

2nd (10-4pm) and 3rd March (10-3pm) Horsham Repair Cafe and Sussex Green Living are at the Kinder Living Home Show, County Hall, North Horsham, Park Street, Horsham, RH12 1XH. The event aims to encourage more sustainable choices in our homes, gardens and daily lives. We will be offering repairs to electrical household items and clothes and clothes swapping. Read more

No do NOT make eco bricks!

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Here at SGL headquarters we are contacted time and time again about whether we could be a drop off location for eco bricks, our response is always NO NO NO.

Eco bricks have been around for years, they were first developed to deal with flexible single use plastics and plastic bottles in countries which did not have a council offering waste collection and recycling. The idea being it was better to collect the materials, preventing them from going in the rivers and sea and making something useful with them. Now Eco bricks have taken off in the UK after a post was seen a lot of times, and people have begun to ‘make’ them. Read more

Whose waste is it anyway? Event in Brighton

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Whose waste is it anyway? Is a new event taking place at the Brighthelm Centre, Brighton on Thursday 1 November 2018 between 10:00 – 3pm. Carrie Cort, founder of Sussex Green Living is giving a talk on the shocking journey of a cotton T shirt and the environmental effects for the fast fashion industry.

Waste is a hot topic right now.  Read more

Wildlife Eco Warrior assembly & workshops

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This workshop is a fun, informative and practical session, showing the synergy between biodiversity, environmental protection and upcycling. Led by Carrie Cort the founder of Sussex Green Living, this is one in a series of workshops Carrie offers.

In this workshop we generate ideas which  inspire our children to become the next generation of green champions. In turn these ideas can help them make decisions about the way we do things individually and collectively, both locally and globally. This will improve the quality of life now, reducing damage to the planet in the future. The workshop includes some hands on creative upcycling for the garden, e.g. butterfly hibernation boxes from TetraPaks, owl boxes out of old wellington boots, bird feeders out of plastic milk bottles.  Subjects: Science, PSHE, Art & Design and Citizenship.

Learn more about the Wildlife Eco Warrior session we ran for Annington Homes at Gamlingay Primary School in Bedfordshire…..

Read more

Eco Beasts take over West Sussex!

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Eco Beast Competition

Eco Beast Sculptures migrated from across West Sussex and took over a marquee in Horsham Park at ‘Funday Sunday’ on Sunday 9th July.  Children from all over the county had wonderful fun making Eco Beast Sculptures out of waste resources. The best sculptures from schools and children’s uniformed groups formed a stunning public exhibition at this family event. Read more

26 eco-friendly Christmas tips

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Pedro ChristmasWe’ve got some great tips to help you enjoy Christmas, so you can spoil yourself and your loved ones without spoiling the planet.

Here’s a uniquely seasonal paradox. Is it possible to buy a truly green Christmas tree? Artificial trees aren’t biodegradable and need enormous amounts of energy to manufacture. So it may come as a surprise that buying a real tree is not necessarily a greener option. Read more

Top tie upcycling ideas

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Neckties are a bit of an environmental nightmare, novelty ties get bought for people who might use them once or twice, charity shops don’t want them as they don’t sell well and if sent for recycling they often get caught up in the recycling machinery and cause expensive damage.  Upcycling, remaking and reuse is best!

A creative community group bought together by Sussex Green Living have been busy demonstrating Read more

Guinness World Record helps William Penn School

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William Penn primary school children counting neckties for the Guinness World Record attempt to wear the most neckties.

Horsham families are in for a summer half term treat, a free family tietastic Guinness World Record event in the Human Nature Garden in Horsham Park!  Carrie Cort founder of Sussex Green Living has got together with the organisers of the Horsham Circle of Life Festival to lay on a fun action packed free green event. Read more

True cost of Christmas

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Beautiful second hand paper.

All our presents are wrapped with last years wrapping paper, stunning.

Christmas is a really exciting and fun time of year, however it is a horrendously wasteful time. We eat far too much food and spend vast sums of money, but we don’t have to indulge in such a wasteful celebration. This blog explains ways of reducing the amount of waste you create, ways to save money and shows some shocking statistics about the toll Christmas has on the environment.  Read more

Recycling games for kids

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Recycling is one of the most important actions you can take to help the environment and to preserve it, so that we can continue to live on a green and healthy planet instead of breathing in pollution and damaging the nature. And because of that, we should teach our children to recycle from a very young age, so when they grow up, they continue to recycle and continue to treat our environment better. Read more

Rubbish or a craft resource?

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After the festive season many people throw away their Christmas wrapping paper, Christmas cards and cracker content, not here!  These waste resources make stunning art materials for our Green Club.  Last week saw the start of our Pedro’s After School Green Club at the William Penn Primary School in Coolham, West Sussex. 15 children ranging from 6 to 11 came together to learn ways they can “upcycle” these materials into new Christmas resources. We made new crackers out of cardboard tubes, Christmas wrapping paper and unwanted cracker jokes and gifts.  Out of the Christmas cards we made present tags and Christmas cards for next year and thank you cards for this year.

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Fake v real Christmas Trees. Which is greener?

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Christmas trees

Our trees, our planet, our future.

In recent years the overall sale of real trees has declined in both the UK and US suggesting that perhaps, as environmental awareness increases, people are opting for the more eco-friendly tree. The producers of both will argue a strong case for their businesses but there are a lot of factors to take in to account when comparing them.  Which one is greener …..

 

 

 

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Sussex getting greener!

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Horsham Quaker launchHorsham Quakers and the William Penn Primary School unite

Sussex Green Living with the help of Horsham Quakers and local residents launched a third recycling collection point in Horsham, last Saturday (7th Dec) at their monthly Green Coffee Morning and Mini Market.  This scheme will enable the people of Horsham to divert specific landfill waste resources into a recycling scheme financially benefiting the William Penn Primary School in Coolham. This is fantastic green community collaboration between the Horsham Quakers and the William Penn School which is a unique primary school with a Quaker foundation.  Read more

Biscuit wrapper recyclers

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Biscuit wrapper recyclingCongratulations!

Together with the top 20 collectors on the McVitie’s Biscuit Wrapper Roundup, the William Penn Primary School with the help of Sussex Green Living and other competitors have saved over 47,000 Biscuit Wrappers from landfill!  Read more

Gardeners: Leave Your Leaves

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leaf recyclingDo not rake up the leaves in your garden, let the best recyclers do their job!  This is a busy time of year for earthworms. And resisting the temptation to tidy away Autumn leaves not only feeds these subterranean creatures but fertilizes the soil, making them one of the gardener’s best friends. Read more

Bottle top recycling success story

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Milk bottle tops

Written by Martin Cooke…..

I have coordinated the collection and then sale of milk bottle tops at St Paul’s Church for over 7 years, on behalf of the church’s “eco-group”. In that time GHS recycling Ltd (at Hilsea) has bought nearly £1,400 Read more

William Penn School 13th in National biscuit wrapper recycling competition

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Biscuit wrapper recycling postersHot news…. William Penn Primary School comes 13th in a UK wide biscuit wrapper recycling competition!

Sussex Green Living have been working with the William Penn Primary School in Coolham to launch and establish their TerraCycle recycling schemes, more information can be seen here. One of the waste resources they can recycle is sweet biscuit wrappers. The recycling scheme is sponsored by Mc Vitie’s, here are the competition results from TerraCycle……

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Two more schools launch TerraCycle recycling schemes

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TerracycleFarlington School, Horsham have just launched a TerraCycle recycling scheme.

West Chiltington Community School is about to launch.

Come West Sussex schools keep up with the Jones!

More information coming soon…….

 

We want you, the people of Sussex, to take some ownership of  www.sussexgreenliving.co.uk.  Forward your suggestions for events, videos, parks and green spaces etc to be added to “your” site.

“Greening Sussex by Sussex families”

Waste Week 11th – 17th March 2013

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Recycle binCome on Schools of Sussex get involved in Waste Week 2013

Waste Week is a fantastic opportunity to get the whole school learning about waste and thinking about how they can cut down on the amount of waste they produce, as well as how they can reduce the proportion that goes to landfill, by re-using, recycling and composting. Read more