Recyclable Items

Ryburgh Community Shop held its second community action on Saturday 13 November. One of the themes of Greener Together is to take small green actions in our daily lives. The Ryburgh Community Shop and Post Office serves a number of small Norfolk villages and has drawn its pioneers from that wider community as well as the villages of Great and Little Ryburgh. The nearby village of Stibbard has two pioneer families and hosts the Primary School.

All Saints Primary School currently holds the Eco-schools Bronze and Silver awards and is working towards the Green Flag Award. The community links between the Ryburgh Shop and All Saints are close. The shop acts as a collection point for the various computer, gardening, and sports vouchers for schools programmes offered by the large supermarket outlets and books offered by breakfast cereal manufacturers.

This initiative has seen a significant increase in the numbers of vouchers and tokens collected, thanks to those villagers who might usually not collect them, but now do so for the benefit of the young children in their community. For the Ryburgh Community Shop we have tried to think about community actions that consider the lifestyle changes of the project, raise its profile, forge new relationships and strengthen existing ones.

Norfolk recycles about 43% of its waste putting it in the top ten of counties nationally, so when considering the environmental impact in respect of waste we felt that litter is an impact that we see everyday, wonder why there is so much and why the council can’t keep on top of it. So the decision to have a litter pick was made. When we asked the school if they would like to take part in improving our local environment, they quickly agreed – all we needed was a date, some volunteers and North Norfolk County Council to loan grabbers and waste bags. On the day, the recruiting drive produced our two pioneer families from Stibbard, pupils (past and present) aged four to thirteen and their parents and of course teaching staff. Our start was slightly delayed as the photographer from the Eastern Daily Press had gone to the site of the old school and was wondering where we all were, but once the team photos had been taken in the sunshine we could begin!

Free Recycled Goods Items & Products: Recycling Web Site

The waste had to be separated as we went along, recyclable items such as plastic bottles and drinks cans into clear sacks and everything else into black ones. Any glass bottles were collected and taken to the village bottle bank, the proceeds of which go to the upkeep of the Village Hall. We began in the grounds of the school, before separating out into smaller groups around the village. After two hours, we returned to the school and piled up our bags surprised at just how much we had gathered from amongst the hedgerows and ditches in such a short space of time. It was great to see the children doing something for their community in their own time and we are sure their neighbours will appreciate their efforts. Teacher and Eco-schools co-ordinator Dawn Burden said “I was really pleased that Mr Bushby asked if our school would like to help with the litter pick. Keeping our school on top of litter is difficult especially in the winter months when the wind blows it out of the bins! Lending a hand within our community is an area that we are good at as a school and welcome new opportunities to do our best for others. My group of three had a fantastic time