We work with the community to help people recycle and encourage the reuse and repair of items, rather than just throwing them away.
We run events such as clothing swaps and repair cafes whilst also providing advice on what can be recycled and where.
In 2020, the ‘waste from households’ recycling rate was 44.0%, down from 45.5% in 2019*
*Recycling rates for England are published annually and are in arrears. The latest statistics are the 2020 recycling rates for England and these were published in December 2021.
Composting
Did we know that there is a Community Composting pilot taking place in Garforth? With support from Eco-Friendly Garforth and Incredible Edible, people can take their food waste to a central place in Garforth and watch it break down into usable compost to grow food and flowers for the community.
Why Food Waste?
We recognise that by helping each other to find ways to reduce our own food waste we are saving ourselves money and at the same time reducing our carbon footprints.
According to Greenpeace, even if we stopped using fossil fuels tomorrow, without the Government significantly reducing meat and dairy, we would still be heading towards catastrophic levels of warming well beyond 1.5 degrees.
What we eat is an emotive topic. It’s part of who we are, it’s woven into our memories and our cultures. That’s partly why meat and dairy is one of the big threats to our planet that isn’t getting the action it needs. Even when the Government’s own advisors called for a reduction in meat and dairy, the Government ignored them and left it out of their new Food Strategy.
But the science is clear, our food system is broken. Meat and dairy production is the biggest driver of global deforestation and contributes 19% of climate emissions. It’s wasteful too, 83% of global farmland is used for livestock and their feed crops, but the meat and dairy produced accounts for only 18% of the calories consumed by humans.
But by legislating to reduce meat and dairy, and using better land management we can feed more people, provide healthier diets, tackle the climate crisis, and free up vast amounts of land to restore nature.
Greenpeace is calling on the UK government to reduce meat and dairy 70% by 2030 and ban imports of animal feed that are fueling deforestation in places like Brazil right now.