The focus of the Eco Church this spring will be on Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
Reduce
We will aim to use less power by turning off lights and heating when it’s not being used, cut down on photocopying and print double-sided where possible, laminate only when essential, buy fewer clothes and goods for the home and if something breaks try mending it before heading off to the shops to buy a new one!
Reuse
Nowadays we all take our shopping bags with us when we shop in order to reuse them. We could take clothes and household items to charity shops to be reused. A trip to the local Waste Recycling Centre turned up two excellent rucksacks for a nominal price last week for me, they will be reused regularly!
Recycle
Recycling is perhaps one of the most difficult challenges. Havant Borough Council and in fact the whole of Hampshire, recycle very few materials in our weekly collection bins and I’m sure like many of us, you might not be sure what to put in. Confusing, isn’t it?
Even if a wrapper or packaging states ‘widely recycled’ it doesn’t mean it can definitely go in your recycling bin.
St George’s Eco group have introduced several new, blue recycling bins in the Church and the hall and we would encourage you all to follow Havant’s guidelines in using them.
Sadly, if too much of the wrong sort of rubbish which cannot be recycled goes into the recycling bins, the entire contents are consigned to the general rubbish.
On Sunday 4th February a photographer from the Church of England’s Net Zero Carbon Communications Team joined us to get some live action shots of an eco-church at work. Then photographs will be used for the church’s national communications around net zero and eco church. These will include our new trees in the churchyard, bug hotel, improved recycling, and our recent bronze award from A Roche.
Here are some of the photographs that were taken:
