Shoreham churches link with school for TerraCycle recycling scheme

The Old Shoreham and Kingston Buci scheme was started just over a year ago by Sarah Ringshaw at the united benefice incorporating St Giles, St Julian and St Nicolas churches.

Friend Gigi Backshall-Wilkinson started helping last summer and, as parents of children at St Nicolas and St Mary CE Primary School, the pair were then able to get the school on board.

The Old Shoreham volunteers are also working with St Mary’s Church in Shoreham and Recycling in Lancing, so anything on the extensive list of items that they do not take themselves can be passed on to these other TerraCycle funding streams.

Sarah said: “We wanted to make a difference and to help people, getting them into the habit of thinking about their rubbish. This was partly because I was struggling with the amount of rubbish that couldn’t be recycled, generated by a family of five.

“We also wanted support the church to be more environmentally friendly and work towards becoming an eco church.

“Through collecting extra items that can’t normally be recycled with the council, we are helping to raise money for local charities and do our part to look after our environment.”

Sarah and her team of helpers started by sorting and delivering items to Sue Wellfare, who runs Recycling in Lancing.

Sarah said: “In spring 2019, Sue suggested I see if I can sign up for some recycling streams ourselves, as we were collecting quite a lot. I was beginning to take recycling over to her on a weekly basis. She felt we could raise money for our own charities.”

The Old Shoreham volunteers then started sending off their own collections of crisps, biscuit wrappers and bread bags last Easter and raised £50 in six months.

They joined forces with the school in November and in just 12 weeks, a further £250 was raised.

Sarah and Gigi said they held an assembly to show the children how TerraCycle worked and involved the eco council in sorting at the school, to emphasise the message.

What they need now is more volunteers to help with the sorting, even if it is only an hour a month, and they hope to make more people aware of all the items that can be recycled.

Sarah said: “This enables us to recycle many items that cannot normally be recycled through the council scheme. It involves a lot of sorting out, which is done by a group of volunteers every Friday morning in St Giles’ Church hall.

“We feel it is a very valuable resource and really need more facilities and volunteers to get involved. More local people and organisations need to know about these schemes and to get involved.”

The sorting morning ties in with the new St Giles Pop-up Coffee meet-ups at the hall, in Upper Shoreham Road, on Fridays from 9am to 11.30am.

As well as crisps, biscuit wrappers and bread bags, the Old Shoreham team has been accepted on the Carex and Imperial Leather bottles and refill recycling, Kinder Surprise chocolate packaging and L.O.L. Surprise! packaging streams, too.

They also collect and sort everything that Recycling in Lancing accepts, and passes these items on.

There are bins at the school and outside St Giles Church hall.

Follow St Nics recycling on Facebook for updates or pop into the church hall on Friday morning for more information.