Minutes, Sep 2010

Brentford Recycling Action Group
Minutes of Meeting held in
The Directors’ Meeting Room, Brentford Dock
@ 7pm on Tuesday 7 September 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	Canal side Recycling: Cindy reported that, following a supervisor’s visit to Brentford Lock, the identified site by Spruce House should be satisfactory. Permission will need to be obtained and this is in hand.	CG
4	Give and Take Day: Hugh will continue to monitor Brentford Dock’s plans to hold such an event. Cindy will initiate contact with WLWA about helping to arrange a Give and Take Day at the Dock. If this could take place during the European Week of Waste Reduction it would be great.	CG HP
5	LBH Catering: Letter was sent to David Adams, the catering manager at LBH, to recommend they become part of the Sustainable Restaurants Association. Response received as follows: Re Sustainable Restaurants Association we have considered the document found on their website and believe we are already meeting a number of success criteria but there is still a lot to be done. Also there are a number of questions the website does not seem to answer. I propose therefore to invite a representative from the Sustainable Restaurants Association to meet with me and put a little more ecological meat on the bone. There may also be financial considerations which we have not yet addressed. I shall keep you informed of our progress. We also asked him about the use of palm oil, to which he replied: We do not knowingly use any palm oil at the Civic Centre or in school meals. As advised in an earlier response, palm oil may be legally described as vegetable oil and so we can’t guarantee that we don’t use any, but we do not use any product where palm oil is listed as an ingredient.	AD PH
6	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.
7	Brentford Dock Children’s Gardening Club: Further news about this towards the end of this year/early next.	HP
8	Brentford Festival: This was held on Sunday September 5^th in Boston Manor Park and again, was a great success. Paul’s wormery, as always, drew a great deal of attention and, for the children, we played the “throwing stones in buckets” game. (Disposable items written on stones thrown into labelled buckets and prizes awarded for correct selection!) A couple of people expressed interest in the working of brag and added their names to our list. An altogether brilliant event.	ALL
9	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 will check and report back.	HP
10	Ecomodo: Need something but don’t want to splash out?Save money, time and space by borrowing stuff you don’t use often. Virginia hasset up a lending circle for Brag members on www.ecomodo.com. This is a way of borrowing each other’s everyday objects, skills and spaces and is a private, invitation only circle. Virginia was unable to send an invitation to the Brag members group email list so will have to invite you individually. If, after you’ve had a look at the website, you would like to join please let her know. Also, if you have any friends who would be interested in joining, tell them to contact and she will send them an invitation. Need something but don’t want to splash out? Please see the website for more information.	VF
11	Cindy Gardener, Waste and Recycling Officer LBH: Friday 24^th September, One Hounslow Many Voices, Civic Centre – 11am – 3pm All welcome to attend this event. There is a special “European Week of Waste Reduction” from 20^th – 28^th November 2010. Full details at www.ewwr.eu/en/. We usually have our AGM in November so it would be appropriate to hold it during that week so we have agreed on Wednesday 24^th. Cindy, on behalf of LBH, will help to organise a guest speaker. Any recommendations will be appreciated. LBH are also doing a Back to Basics week 11^th to 15^th October – Let’s Recycle More campaign, giving out recycling containers at Roadshows across the Borough. Morrisons car park has been identified as the venue for Brentford on Tuesday 12^th October, 11:00 – 14:00. Residents can collect replacement green boxes and other recycling containers. This is a brilliant initiative so please support the Council. A presence of braggers (probably warmly dressed!) to give assistance and guidance would be wonderful.
12	AGM: As previously mentioned, this will be on Wednesday 24^th November. As last year, Rukmini has arranged for us to use the Age Concern/AGE UK premises which are very suitable. We plan to start at 7:00 and close with our usual hospitality so donations of food and drink will be appreciated. (Please advise your planned donation so we don’t have too many of the same thing!) Invitations will be sent to all brag members, LBH recycling team officers and our local councillors. Please inform one of the committee members if you can think of anyone else who might be interested. There has been a suggestion that as part of the AGM we have a “swapshop” where members and guests each bring an item, clothing, perhaps, and exchange for others. “Unsold” items can be donated to AGE UK.
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. We no longer have the original art work so it will mean starting from scratch. Ideas, please.	ALL
15	Membership: We should also have a campaign to recruit more members. Should we “broaden our horizons” and include other similarly minded groups? Suggest we make some decisions about how to go about this at next meeting. One suggestion was, in addition to poster in noticeboard, perhaps in the library?	ALL
16	BRAG Green Champion Award: Hugh made a suggestion that we should award a trophy for a recycling champion. He recommended that it could be called “Recycling Green Champion Award”, and awarded annually to whoever meets the required criteria – yet to be finalised. LBH are happy to sponsor such an award and attached are some websites showing recycled products which could be used as a trophy: http://www.gaudio-awards.com/awards/sustainable-awards http://www.awardefx.co.uk/recycled.html http://www.sculptured-glass.co.uk/recycled_glass_awards.php. Further discussion at next meeting.