Cashing in on trash
Zero Waste Challenge to get going
Where there’s muck there’s brass – and for residents in Pitlochry, Ballinluig and Blair Atholl, the challenge of turning waste into cash steps up tomorrow.
The Zero Waste Challenge for householders in the postcodes asks people to think twice before throwing rubbish into their green-lidded bins.
From April 30 to May 25, money saved from materials not being sent to landfill will be handed to good causes in the area, with the community also able to have their say on where they would like any cash award to go.
Suggestions can be forwarded to zerowastecommunity@pkc.gov.uk before the end of the challenge on May 25.
The gauntlet has been thrown down in other communities in previous rounds of the Zero Waste Challenge. In neighbouring Aberfeldy, Kinloch Rannoch, Kenmore, Grandtully and Glenlyon residents took part in their follow-up Zero Waste Challenge last autumn and reduced general waste by 25 per cent and increased their recycling by 17 per cent, saving £973.66 in disposal costs. These funds were awarded back to the newly established Men’s Shed in Aberfeldy, which anyone from across Highland Perthshire is welcome to attend.
To support the drive a series of events The Zero Waste campaign was launched in Pitlochry last year and now residents are invited to save waste from landfill
are taking place to promote the Zero Waste Challenge and to give advice on ways to reduce, reuse and recycle more – wasting less and saving money in the process.
These include a Zero Waste lunch on Saturday, April 29 in Pitlochry Scout Hall. People can drop in between noon and 2pm for some free soup and cake made by volunteers using ingredients provided by the Co-op.
On Saturday, May 6, from 1pm, there will be a free film screening and a clothing swish at the Atholl Centre in Pitlochry. Groundbreaking documentary The True Cost will be shown, which considers the environmental and social impacts of our fashion habits; and this will be followed by a clothing swap-shop and repair activities.
Bring along an unwanted item of clean, good condition clothing to swap for something new to you, and get advice on repairing and altering your clothes from local expert Ruth Morris of Roobedo.
Future events include a composting workshop at the Biodynamic Garden, Camserney, on Sunday, May 14.
Zero Waste Highland Perthshire will also have stalls at the PUGs Gala Day on Saturday, May 13 and at Pitlochry Market on Saturday, May 20.
Zero Waste Highland Perthshire is a project funded by Zero Waste Scotland and forms part of the European Regional Development Fund supported Resource Efficient Circular Economy Accelerator Programme. It is delivered by Perth and Kinross Council to encourage the community to reduce, reuse and recycle more, sending less waste to landfill.