A £1,000 cheque was presented to Michael Dolling of the ACE Waste group to enable them to increase recycling opportunities in Aylsham.
The grant, from waste management company Veolia, will also help fund the medicine tablet blister pack recycling scheme.
Left to right: Sue Catchpole, Broadland DC, Jan Davis, Michael Dolling, Ilana Shaw, Veolia General Manager for the East Region, Anna Magyar, ACE, Dave and Szara from Earthglade, and Duncan McBurney Contracts Manager at Veolia.
Since November 2023, Michael, from Aylsham, has been raising money for St Michael’s Primary and Nursery school by collecting and recycling “unrecyclable” items from the community which are sent in for recycling with TerraCycle.
These items include a range of products such as cosmetic packaging, Marigold rubber gloves, toothbrushes, stamps, broken lunchboxes, reusable water bottles, spectacles, BabyBel packaging and Pringle pots.
Residents are encouraged to bring their items to St Michael’s Parish Churchyard and recycle these in the ACE Collection Bin.
Blister packs can be taken to the Earthglade stall at the weekday markets on Mondays and Fridays, or at the Quaker refill stall, at Aylsham Food and Craft Market on the first Saturday of every month.
The blister packs have to be flattened using an old-fashioned mangle to get as many as possible into the boxes provided by Terracycle who then take them away for recycling. Each box costs £150, that’s why the need to flatten them.
ACE chair Grizelda Tyler, said: “This grant has enabled ACE to work towards helping Aylsham achieve its goal in tackling climate change because the very act of recycling a man-made product means that its components can be reused instead of virgin materials and minerals. “We are all, by the very nature of this simple and easy act, playing our part in ensuring a better future for our children.”
