To mark Great Big Green Week in June, St Bees Green Future organised a hobby item swap. Suggestions to run a swap related to craft items, outdoor and sports equipment had been made, so this swap tied these themes together. The event was popular and lots of swapping of craft items took place, including fabrics, wool, kits, patterns and books. The remaining craft items were shared between St Bees Village Primary, Little Learners Nursery and the local Beavers group. Given that it was so popular, there will be another craft swap in the future.
This year’s theme for Great Big Green Week was “Let’s swap together for good”. By swapping items, we reuse what is already in circulation, which helps reduce the production of new items, saving raw materials and energy, and reducing waste.
St Bees Green Future already runs a quarterly clothes swap, but took part in Great Big Green Week with a Book, Game, Jigsaw and Plant Swap at Adams Recreation Ground.
Although it was a wet day, various swaps took place over the afternoon, with jigsaws proving particularly popular! Free refreshments were served, with time to catch up with friends over a cuppa.
Some of the leftover board games were donated to St Bees Village Primary School and some of the jigsaws to Cumberland Libraries. The remaining items were distributed between Barnardo’s and Far Place charity shops in Whitehaven.
Look out for details of the next swap event in St Bees.
Each year on 22nd April people around the world mark Earth Day. This worldwide event is an opportunity to raise awareness of protecting the environment by engaging people and helping to raise environmental issues on national and international agendas. In 2024 the theme is “Planet vs Plastics” which highlights the harm plastic pollution can do to the health of humans and the planet.
St Bees Green Future created a poster on the theme of simple swaps to reduce single-use plastic, while also saving money. This poster was displayed in prominent windows and shared via social media. The aim was to get people thinking about what else they can do to reduce plastic consumption and reuse what they can, and to share these ideas with others.
St Bees Green Future also took the opportunity to remind residents where they can recycle plastics that can’t go in their kerbside bins and boxes, such as dental items, pens and soft plastics. A list of collection points within St Bees and West Cumbria was shared via social media.
As part of the 2023 Christmas Tree Festival at St Bees Priory, St Bees Green Future created a preloved book tree. This was decorated with paper chains made from magazines, cardboard stars made from toilet roll tubes, garden greenery and topped with a book-folded angel.
Labels were also available during the Christmas Tree Festival to let people claim any books that they wished to once the tree was taken down. The remaining books from the tree were donated to Oxfam, Samaritans and Great North Air Ambulance.
If you are looking to pick up some preloved books in St Bees, take a look in The Little Library outside 61 Main Street or browse the shelves in the beach café. Alternatively, check out the buy and sell, and share swap and give away groups for St Bees.
Second Hand September is Oxfam’s campaign to encourage people to rewear the clothes they already have, donate the clothes they no longer need and choose preloved over new clothes. Wearing preloved clothing helps to reduce the demand for new clothing, which in turn will reduce the greenhouse gas emissions generated by the fashion industry.
St Bees Green Future ran a “bring and take” event on 30th September in New College Hall for Second Hand September. As well as clothing, we invited people to bring along books, toys and household items that they no longer needed so that others could take them away without charge. Some of the items that found new homes included organic children’s clothing by Frugi, a set of Le Creuset pans, a pull-along suitcase, the game Articulate, a set of Dr Seuss books and embroidery materials. Lots more items changed hands and the remaining items were donated to charity shops to find another home.
St Bees Green Future is running a clothes swap on Saturday 18th November, 2 till 4pm, at Adams Recreation Ground. It costs £4 to take part, with refreshments included. Bring along clothes and accessories that are still in good condition and see what garments you can find to take home!
Globally, clothing production doubled between 2000 and 2015, while the average number of times clothes are worn fell by around one-third. We are producing and buying far more clothes than we need, and this has an impact on the environment.
Carbon Emissions
The fashion industry is responsible for 8-10% of global carbon emissions. There are carbon emissions at every stage, from fibre and fabric production, cutting, sewing and finishing items to packaging, transport and sales.
Recycling and Waste
Clothes are difficult to recycle, especially if they are made from multiple fabrics, so less than 1% of clothing is currently recycled into new garments. The vast majority of clothes are made from new materials, with synthetic fibres that are made from fossil fuels accounting for over 60% of clothing materials. According to WRAP, around 350,000 tonnes of clothing is sent to landfill annually in the UK, with synthetic fibres taking around 200 years to break down, releasing microplastics in the process.
Water Consumption and Pollution
The fashion industry is the second largest consumer of water globally. For instance, it takes up to 10,000 litres of water to produce one pair of jeans. Using so much water, the fashion industry is also responsible for around one-fifth of waste water globally and dyeing fabric is the second biggest contributor to water pollution in the world.
Reduce and Reuse
The key is to buy fewer clothes and to choose second hand clothes when you can. Charity shops, car boot sales, local Facebook buy and sell groups, eBay and other online sales platforms are just some of the places to find preloved clothing. Swapping clothes with friends and family or taking part in an organised clothes swap is a low cost option to reuse clothing.
By swapping clothes, you can help reduce carbon emissions, conserve water and save clothes from landfill. You’ll also save yourself money and can update your wardrobe regularly.
St Bees Clothes Swaps
St Bees Green Future runs quarterly clothes swaps at Adams Recreation Ground on Beach Road in St Bees. All clothes and accessories in good condition are welcome; just bring them along to the start of our events. Come along and enjoy a cuppa and chat while you browse. Look out for details of our clothes swaps via St Bees Parish News, village notice boards and Facebook.
We have recycling bins or boxes for plastic, cans, glass, card and paper at the kerbside, and recycling crates for the same materials at the seafront car park. There are also recycling points for batteries, pens and medicine blister packs at St Bees Post Office, dental items outside 61 Main Street and snack packaging at the beach café; there is even a collection tub for soft plastics at the back of St Bees Priory. So, plenty of opportunities for recycling!
While it’s far better to recycle waste items than send them to landfill or for incineration, recycling still uses a lot of energy, so it’s a last resort and should be limited to items that can no longer be used. For items that you no longer want or need, reuse by someone else is the best option. And by reusing preloved items, this reduces our reliance on new products. The extraction of raw materials, manufacture of items and transport at each stage uses energy and, as a result, produces greenhouse gases. So, choosing preloved items can help reduce your carbon footprint. You also preserve resources, such as water, and save on packaging by choosing preloved goods. And if you’re looking to reduce your consumption further, repairing items can extend the life of your clothes, toys, electrical and household goods.
We informally pass items on to friends and you will often see items outside people’s houses in St Bees that are “free to a good home.” You can list items on St Bees Parish Buy and Sell or St Bees Parish Share Swap and Give Away groups on Facebook, but these groups are a good place to find preloved items and advertise for items wanted too.
If you have books to pass on or are looking for some new titles to read, there is the Little Free Library outside 61 Main Street. You can also browse the book shelves in the baptistry at St Bees Priory and the beach café, where you can leave a donation for any books that you take. St Bees School also holds an annual book swap for charity.
While clothes can be recycled via the collection points at the beach and station car parks, there is a Recycle With Michael clothing bank at St Bees Village Primary School, which raises money for the Salvation Army and the primary school. St Bees Green Future also runs a quarterly clothes swap. If you have clothes and accessories that are still in good condition, bring them along to the start of a clothes swap – look out for details of the next one! Once hung up and everyone has had chance to browse, you can then take as many items as you would like to. Preloved uniform is also available via St Bees Village Primary School.
Children grow quickly and develop new interests, so the preloved sales for children’s items that have restarted in the village are a great place to pick up clothes, toys, games and books for your children. These are now run jointly by St Bees Green Future and St Bees VSA, helping to raise money for St Bees Village Primary School.
That’s just what we are doing in St Bees at the moment. If you can’t find the preloved items that you’re looking for here, why not try Egremont Car Boot Fair, West Lakes Freecycle group, one of the local charity shops or the various buy swap and sell groups around West Cumbria?
You wouldn’t have thought so many people had pens to recycle, but they did. The same was true for dental items, snack wrappers and medicine blister packs.
The idea for a sustainability group in St Bees came from the interest in using the recycling points for these harder to recycle plastics around the village. If people were keen to recycle items that would otherwise be binned, what else could we do as a community towards reducing waste and our carbon footprint?
St Bees Green Future began in July 2021 as a Facebook group; a place to share ideas for how we can live sustainably and encourage other people to do the same. Although we have held several online meetings via Zoom since then, the St Bees Green Future Facebook group is still active and that’s where most agenda items start as ideas.
Sustainable Choices – Reduce Reuse Recycle
The group decided to focus its initial efforts on reducing consumption of new goods by organising swap events, where people can bring their preloved items along to swap for something else. There was most interest in organising clothes swaps, so that is where we started. We held our first clothes swap in May 2022 at Adams Recreation Ground and since then we have run quarterly clothes swaps there.
There was also interest among members of St Bees Green Future to set up a repair café, where broken items, from clothing and furniture to bikes and tools, could be brought along to be fixed by volunteers. Although a small number of volunteers with repair skills from the parish were interested in getting involved, we started to make enquiries about running a repair café in Egremont. However, as the Revive programme at Mirehouse will include a repair café, we are waiting to hear further information before taking this project any further.
We have since held a preloved toy and book stall at the 2022 Bees Bash and a further two preloved events for children’s items at St Bees Village School. Our most recent preloved children’s event was run jointly with St Bees Village School Association and the two groups plan to organise further preloved events to raise money for St Bees Village School.
Planting for Pollinators
Cumbria Wildlife Trust and Cumbria County Council have worked to reverse pollinator decline across north and west Cumbria by creating, improving and connecting pollinator-friendly habitats. This provides food, shelter and nesting spots for bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects.
As part of this Planting for Pollinators project, St Bees Green Future received 100 packets of local wildflower seeds and information booklets about pollinator-friendly gardening to distribute. The wildflower seeds were given to residents that expressed an interest, and the remainder will go to families via St Bees Village School and the local Beaver group.
Great Big Green Week
In 2022 St Bees Green Future ran a community craft event during Great Big Green Week – a UK-wide celebration of community action to tackle climate change. We used fabric scraps and leftover craft items to create bunting and a welcome sign for use at events. There was also a craft station to decorate a green heart – the symbol for caring about climate change. The highlight for children was using a sewing machine to stitch the bunting fabric!
We are currently organising events for this year’s Great Big Green Week, which runs 10th to 18th June. Look out for details!
Working Together
St Bees Green Future also has representation on St Bees Parish Council’s Climate Change Working Group. As part of this group, we are working with parish councillors and other community members to explore how as a community we can take further steps to act on climate change.
Keep up to date with the activities of St Bees Green Future via our email newsletter – contact stbeesgreenfuture@gmail.com to subscribe.
Find out about the steps our community is already taking towards a more sustainable future and be inspired to get involved.
St Bees Green Future, St Bees Parish Council, Adams Recreation Ground, the Community Garden, Eco Church and the schools are already taking action to protect the environment and reduce our carbon footprint.
Reduce reuse recycle
While we have recycling collection points in St Bees for various items of waste, recycling is always a last resort. So, for items still with lots of life left in them, we reuse what we can. We have Facebook groups for the parish to buy and sell or share, swap and give away items. St Bees Green Future organise swap events and preloved sales, and there is also a Little Free Library in St Bees. These opportunities allow us to pass on and use preloved goods. And by doing so, we reduce our reliance on new items.
Food growing
St Bees Parish Council provide allotments for residents. The Community Garden (next to St Bees Priory) produces fruit and vegetables, with produce available to residents and visitors. St Bees Village Primary School is also developing a vegetable plot and orchard, which the children and their families will benefit from.
Transport
St Bees Parish Council proposed a near-level traffic-free cycle track along the valley between St Bees and Mirehouse, which is now part of the Whitehaven Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan. Commuters, leisure cyclists and walkers alike would benefit from this route.
St Bees Parish Council has also proposed a Travel Hub at St Bees Train Station. The extension of the station car park would help encourage rail travel by commuters. The plan also includes charging points for electric vehicles and e-bikes, as well as improved cycle parking.
Energy
Community energy includes collective action to install renewable energy systems for the benefit of the community, as well as tackling fuel poverty and reducing energy use. Community energy is one of the topics that St Bees Parish Council’s Climate Change Working Group will explore.
Rewilding
As well as Priory Paddock, a wildflower and conservation site, rewilding projects are also underway along the verge on Beach Road, at Adams Recreation Ground, in the Community Garden and in the grounds of St Bees Village Primary School.
Tree planting
St Bees Parish Council plants trees in the parish. The schools and Adams Recreation Ground also undertake tree planting in their grounds.
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Sustainable St Bees 