The ‘Say No to Plastics’ scheme was launched at our General Meeting in March. One thousand organic cotton bags were given out, printed with the Village Green Teams logo on one side and our sponsor’s, Dedham Vale AONB and Stour Valley Project Sustainable Development Fund, on the other. Inside the bags were information leaflets to persuade people to give up plastic bags. The campaign was a great success, thanks to the efforts of the participating shops and farms: Park Street Stores & Post Office in Stoke by Nayland, Lower Dairy Farm in Little Horkesley, Scotland Place Farm in Stoke by Nayland, Polstead Community Shop, Assington Farm Shop, and Brewery Farm Shop, Polstead Tye, and to Stoke by Nayland CEVC Primary school and our local churches, who also gave out bags.

The shops also switched to compostable cornstarch bags for a month, and reported that use of disposable bags had fallen considerably. The campaign was reported in the Suffolk Free Press and got a mention on Radio Suffolk.

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On May 21st a small group organized by the Green Teams visited Tools with a Mission near Ipswich. Tools with a Mission is a Christian charity which sends refurbished tools to vocational training schemes mainly in countries in Africa. When people complete these training schemes, they are given their own tool kits. So old tools which are no longer wanted here enable people to make a living in Africa. As well as tools, TWAM also send out school books – a project started by Carol Lindsay Smith, now merged with TWAM – and sewing and knitting machines and materials. They have a large warehouse where the tools are collected, cleaned, refurbished and made up into kits. It is an impressive place, run by volunteers, and to see the pallets of sewing machines, racks of tools, and piles of yarn and cloth stacked up ready to be shipped out gives an idea of the scale of their work. Last year, they sent out 21 containers of tools. (more…)