Reduce, Recycle, Reuse – an interactive session with Zero Waste Scotland

Last week as part of our Climate Chat project, in partnership with Miriam Adcock from Zero Waste Scotland, we held a Reduce, Recycle, Reuse session in the Fraser Centre Tranent.

14 people joined us to hear about the importance of reducing our waste before we even consider reusing and recycling along with the benefits that reducing, reusing and recycling all have on the planet and the benefits they can have in our local communities in terms of job creation and creating a circular economy.

We chatted about plastic and if it is good or bad? The group had lots of ideas of how you could reuse some of the plastic in gardening, sharing tips of how they use bubble wrap to insulate plant pots with seeds in them. They also shared lots of other ideas of how they reduce the amount of plastic they bring home from buying loose fruit and veg to shampoo bars rather than bottles.

After a short break we moved onto recycling starting with what recycling bins they have in East Lothian and what goes in each. We then unleased the competitive side in everyone by splitting into 2 teams to complete the recycling challenge.

Both teams were given a large bag of rubbish which they were to put into the correct bins as per the East Lothian Council guidelines, the team to finish first got 5 points. Every item put in the correct bin received 1 point but anything in the wrong bin meant 2 points were lost so speed wasn’t going to win the challenge alone.

In the end team Wombles won comfortably each being awarded a plantable pencil as their prize:

Everyone left saying that they had learnt something new and that they were going to do more to reduce, reuse and recycle their waste.

For more information about our Climate Chat visit check out our project webpage and find out about our latest events online and in-person on our Eventbrite page: Outside the Box Eventbrite