Val Robson has been out and about in Histon & Impington exploring the many different ways we can recycle and rehome our unwanted items.
It’s that time of year again when we begin to contemplate a spot of spring cleaning and decluttering, in the hope of recycling or rehoming those things we no longer want or need. We’ve all become familiar with the regime of recycling into our blue or green wheelie bins but what about those ‘grey area’ items that nobody knows where to put? Haven’t we all had those ‘can we put crisp packets in the blue bin?’ type conversations?
South Cambs District Council has a handy ‘what goes in what bin’ web page but where do we put that stuff we don’t want to end up in landfill, but is barred from our blue and green bins?
Pringles tubes
Pringles tubes are a real challenge for recycling plants. While the plastic lid can be recycled in our blue bins, the tubes have layers of plastic, foil and card which cannot be separated except at a specialist plant. There is good news to share though and the very many of us who ‘pop but can’t stop’ will be relieved to hear that 1st Histon Scouts have come to the rescue with the purchase of a bright red wheelie bin located outside their Scout Hut. The club will be monitoring the bin themselves with the discarded tubes being transported to a specialist paper recycling mill in Stainland, Halifax for full recycling. Talking to HI HUB, Group Scout Leader, Richard Martin, said, “one of our Group Executive members has agreed to keep on top of it. However, its apparent popularity has caught us a bit by surprise!”.
Blister packets
Another ‘no no’ for our bins are those blister packets many pills come in. The mixture of plastic and foil means they can’t go in the blue bin but, fear not, help is at hand in the form of Lara Kingsman, local resident and recycling hero. Every few months, via local community Facebook groups, Lara invites villagers to drop their empty blister packets off with her for recycling. All Superdrug stores with pharmacies will recycle these items and Lara regularly takes sacks of them into the nearby Cambridge branch. She took a record eight bin-liners full in January! The next collection will be in early March so keep an eye on local social media for details or, alternatively, email Lara on lara.kingsman@gmail.com for more information.
Soft Plastics including crisp bags and pet food pouches
Possibly the busiest recycling point in the village can be found just inside the doors of our local Histon Co-op where there is a recycling bin for all soft plastics – this includes crisp packets, sweet wrappers, plastic film, pet food pouches and plastic bags. Launched in July 2021 as part of the Coop’s nationwide recycling scheme Pam Wilderspin, Team Leader at the store, told HI HUB: “The scheme is very popular and we empty the bin three times a day. Weekends are the busiest and then we sometimes empty it more than that. Some customers have come in and asked for the yellow plastic bags that the items go into so they keep it at home and bring it in once full. We are happy to provide the bags for that purpose”.
Shoe Bank
Step across the road and located right outside Histon Post Office you’ll find a Shoe Bank – sole destination for recycling those unwanted shoes. The shoes are collected every two weeks on behalf of Variety, the Children’s Charity and sorted into categories. Worn-out shoes are used to manufacture materials like insulation for buildings. Others are distributed to developing countries around the world where they are refurbished by local people, thus creating much-needed employment. Harry Parekh, former sub postmaster who still helps out at the Post Office, revealed, “it is very well used and sometimes we have to call to have the Shoe Bank emptied more often as there have so many donations”.
Get Swishing!
An ingenious and very popular way to recycle our once loved clothes was introduced to Histon & Impington residents in the recent Swish events organised by Histon and Impington Sustainability Group. The idea behind the scheme is that people bring along good quality clothes they no longer wear and then spend an hour or two browsing the rails possibly taking home a delight or two donated by someone else – all free of charge. After the last event in November 2022, main organiser Nicole Barton reported, “nearly half a tonne of clothes was swapped! The remaining 140kg went to the EACH charity shop on Histon Road. We had over 200 visitors and 43 volunteers helping. As well as recycling all those clothes we were able to donate £75 to both local charity Abbey Fields and the Cambridge City Foodbank“.
Local repairers from the Repair Café movement were also at the Swish events to fix and adjust clothes. Any community group or organisation can borrow Cambridge Carbon Footprint’s Swish Kit which includes all that is needed to run a Swish event.
Plans are afoot to hold another Swish in November 2023 so look out for news on this later this year.
Micro Library and Books
Back in 2018, then Impington resident Marcus Romer was given permission to take over the unused telephone box on Station Road near Vision Park and convert into a community micro library from which people could borrow, keep or contribute a book.
Alternatively, books can also be donated to Histon and Impington Library Friends who hold monthly sales on Saturday mornings in the Methodist Church to raise funds for our local Histon Library. They also organise events in the library such as the Wednesday Engage in the Afternoon talks.
Swapping and sharing
For the Facebook users amongst us our community, there is also the very popular and well used Histon and Impington Swap and Share group. Established a couple of years ago by Histon resident Moira Neal, who just couldn’t bear the idea of throwing away a perfectly reuseable set of birthday balloons, the site is the perfect way to find a new home for all those things we no longer need or have space for with regular offerings including a selection of birthday balloons, celebratory banners and jigsaws. It even sees the occasional, more unusual, request such as a local young farmer asking out for recycled Halloween pumpkins with which to feed his sheep!
And for the more traditional way of donating those resaleable items, of course there is our local Salvation Army Care and Share shop. Located on Histon High Street, you are sure to find a once loved bargain or two behind its doors.
If you are interested in learning more about what happens to household waste and how we can do more to reduce, reuse and recycle, Cambridge City Council run free Recycling Workshops for schools, community groups and businesses at the Waste Education Centre on the A10 near Waterbeach.
For more information contact Jon Crisp, Waste Education Officer, Jonathan.crisp@cambridgeshire.gov.uk or 07887 387977.
