Press release - Jul 28, 2008 12:00 AM
A community group that makes and sells reusable bags created from donated scraps of material, has won a £300 prize in a competition sponsored by SITA Cornwall and organised by Cornwall Waste Action and ReZolve Kernow.
Sustainability award for community group in St Day
A community group that makes and sells reusable bags created from donated scraps of material, has won a £300 prize in a competition sponsored by SITA Cornwall and organised by Cornwall Waste Action and ReZolve Kernow.
The competition was launched at the Sustainable Action in your Community Conference, which took place in April. Attendees were invited to enter a locally based project into a competition to win the £300. Action St Day Group’s project was awarded the prize for the valuable environmental, social and economical benefits it aims to bring to the local area.
Guy Doncaster, Co-ordinator of Cornwall Waste Action, said: ‘Having a prize like this is important to focus groups on what they can do to make their communities more sustainable. We were impressed with this project’s practical approach to solving some big environmental issues. The most sustainable approach to waste is to reduce and the second best thing is to re-use it. Action St Day have them both in the bag!’
Pippa Bray, Chairman of Action St Day Group said: ‘ With this project we aim to bring people together to work for their community; from the school children who designed the logos, to the volunteers who are making bags, to the local shopkeepers who sell them. The profits will go back into training more people with basic skills and into charities within the village. And hopefully we will have fewer plastic bags to collect on out community litter picks! …..’.
Louis de Poncheville, General Manager for SITA Cornwall, said: ‘This project is a great example of how communities can come together to make a real difference to their local environment by reusing items that may have otherwise been wasted. This project also helps to solve another big waste problem, which is the huge amount of plastic bags that are only used once and then thrown away. Re-use is an important element of Cornwall’s strategy to manage waste more sustainably, so we are delighted to support this initiative.’