Minutes, Aug 2010

Brentford Recycling Action Group

Minutes of Meeting held in

The Directors’ Meeting Room, Brentford Dock

@ 7pm on Tuesday 3 August 2010

Attending: Patti Horsnell, Hugh Picton, Rukmini West, Andrew Dakers, Douglas Benford, Virginia Fassnidge, Cindy Gardener, LBH Recycling Team

No	Topics	Action
1	Minutes of last meeting agreed.
2	Apologies for Absence: Michelle Aspinall-Baker, Sara Ward, Paul Richens, Kath Richardson, Diana Leap,
3	Noticeboard: Cindy brought leaflets etc. re composters and small electrical goods to be displayed.	HP PH
4	Canal side Recycling: Discussed the response from Lyndon re the recycling site at Brentford Lock. Explained to Cindy that the regular refuse collection place for the canal boats is behind the Holiday Inn, and she very kindly volunteered to go there after the meeting with one of our members to clarify and proceed.	CG
5	Give and Take Day: Hugh will continue to monitor Brentford Dock’s plans to hold such an event.	HP
6	LBH Catering: Andrew to draft a letter to the catering manager at LBH to recommend they become part of the Sustainable Restaurants Association.	AD PH
7	Caterers Food Waste: We should still write a letter to LBH and Councillors about recycling the food and packaging waste left over from public functions at the Civic Centre. The Council’s attention should be drawn to this and action requested. Discuss at next meeting.
8	Brentford Dock Children’s Gardening Club: Further news about this towards the end of this year/early next.	HP
9	Brentford Festival: This will be held on Sunday September 5^th in Boston Manor Park. Paul will bring the ever popular wormery and, for the children, we will play an improved version of the game we played at St Paul’s school. We should also have a campaign to recruit more members. Should we “broaden our horizons” and include other similarly minded groups? Suggest a small descriptive poster and a new list for signatures. FULL attendance, please!	ALL
10	Disposal of used cooking oil: We are aware of collection of this from restaurants etc but we still have concern for domestic waste. We are advised that Ray Prendergast, Hounslow Homes, is knowledgeable on this and Hugh said he would check and report back.	HP
11	Ecomodo: Need something but don’t want to splash out? Save money, time and space by borrowing stuff you don’t use often: see www.ecomodo.com Virginia is promoting this scheme.	VF
12	Cindy Gardener, Waste and Recycling Officer LBH, is now our liaison with the Council. We have known Cindy for some time and welcome her warmly. She updated us on various topics: Future Events: Saturday 24^th August – Youth Taskforce Goes Green, Trailfinders Sports Club, West Ealing, W13 ODD : 12pm – 4pm Sunday 5^th September : Brentford Festival, Boston Manor Park (they will provide pens and recycling wheels for us to give away). Saturday 11^th September : Chiswick Community Safety Day, Chiswick Green – 10am to 4pm Friday 24^th September, One Hounslow Many Voices, Civic Centre – 11am – 3pm All welcome to attend these events. There is a special “European Week of Waste Reduction” from 20^th – 28^th November 2010. Full details at www.ewwr.eu/en/. We need to look at events/roadshows/discussion groups/green drinks during that week; the focus is on Reduction not Recycling so we should be able to think of something we could do – please put your thinking caps on! We usually have our AGM at that time, it would be good to hold it during that week – probably Tuesday 23^rd – and LBH will help to organise a speaker. Any recommendations will be welcomed. 3. LBH are also doing a Back to Basics week 11^th to 15^th October – Let’s Recycle More campaign giving out containers at Roadshows across the Borough. We need a venue in Brentford/Isleworth for Tuesday 12^th October. Somewhere big enough to allow cars to stop and somewhere for LBH to park a caged vehicle so that residents can collect replacement green boxes and other recycling containers. This is a brilliant initiative so please try to think of a location – a car park or open area that can be taken over for a few hours that day. Options mentioned so far: Brentford Train Station, Majestic Wine Store/Pets are Us site.
13	Compostable refuse bags: These are wonderful items which make food waste disposal much more pleasant. LBH may be giving some of these away at their roadshows..
14	New Homeowners Packs: These were a great success and, now that we have disposed of them all (5,000!), we have been considering the possibility of doing a new one. A question arose: does anyone know where the original art work went?