What the parish has done so far

LED lighting has been installed throughout most of the church building to save energy and lower our carbon footprint. The lights in the church ceiling windows remain to be replaced with LED lighting in the future.

The parish has stopped using disposable cups, cutlery and plates. 

Thanks to the generosity of parishioners, new double-glazed windows and doors have been installed.

RECYCLING

We have established a recycling station in the church building. Here you can leave:

  • oral care waste, such as toothbrushes and empty toothpaste tubes (see the poster)

  • empty printer ink cartridges (not toner cartridges)

  • Marigold gloves

In the Charity Recycling box, you can also leave:

  • unwanted gold and silver

  • costume jewellery and watches

  • electronic items such as mobile phones, games consoles and cameras

  • UK and foreign currency and stamps.

Crisp packets can be recycled at most larger supermarkets (including Tesco, Sainsburys and Co-Op) in their carrier bag/soft plastics recycling areas. They also accept any plastic film wrapping that cannot be recycled with your council kerbside collection e.g. fruit, veg and salad bags, bread bags, sweet wrappers, clear film used to wrap meat and fish.

You can now take empty blister packs from your medication to any Boots store to be recycled. The aluminium foil, which is infinitely recyclable, is separated from the plastic. The plastic is recycled into many different products. You can put the empty blister packs in the container in the Boots store.

There are now recycling boxes alongside most waste bins in the church building.

Rymans have stopped accepting used writing instruments for recycling. So, for now, we are not collecting these at the Recycling Point. If a new scheme is put in place to recycle used writing instruments, we will start collecting them again.

The future

We plan to have a ‘car-free’ Sunday when we will encourage parishioners to come to Mass in a more sustainable way – walk, cycle, use public transport or car-share.

The long-term plan is to work towards de-carbonising the parish by:

  • installing further LED lighting

  • replacing all windows with double glazing

  • investigate installing solar panels on the roof

  • investigate installing rainwater collection to water the flower beds.