Beith Community Development Trust are now involved with Junior Climate Challenge Fund and keep Scotland beautiful in an exciting youth led project; the Carbon Crib, aiming to help the community of Beith lead the way in environmentally friendly living. These enthused young people are growing their own food in the community garden space, coined their ‘food classroom’ giving them a sense of where their food comes from and feel a sense of connection with food and self -sustainability. The youths are involved in planting, caring for and harvesting the food and enjoying it through social activities such as veggie BBQs and outdoor activities.
In our attempt to reduce waste, therefore landfill figures, we are also developing a strong motivation for the Reduce, Reuse and Recycle concept.
As a means of reducing food waste the people of the community are encouraged to bring food waste for our composting areas, or alternatively, they can contact BCDT and we can collect the compost material on our collection bicycle. The community are also encouraged to bring food scraps for our free range chickens, or food to share at our social events. We also hope to inspire the people of the community to begin growing food at home, or to buy locally grown food reducing air miles through food transportation, therefore reducing carbon emissions.
The youths are also leading by example in eco -friendly food consumption by eating at least 1 vegetarian meal per week. Due to the fact that 60% of the world’s grain is fed to livestock and that 80% of the deforested areas of the amazon rainforest are now used for livestock farming, we are asking the community to join us in ‘meat free Mondays’ and we would love you to share your vegetarian recipes on our Facebook page to help inspire others, one meal per week makes a huge difference, over a period of a year, one person can reduce carbon emissions by a significant amount. By eating just one les burger each week, you reduce carbon emissions equivalent to driving 320 less miles in your car. Check out our monthly meet free Mondays’ competitions on Facebook too!
As a means of reducing household waste we have created a ‘donation point’ at the development trust. This is an area where unwanted clothes, books, DVDs, electrical goods, furniture and ornamental items can be dropped off whilst attending the ‘carbon crib’ club and the staff at the trust will be happy to transport the unwanted goods to local charity shops, injecting money back into the community, and simultaneously reducing landfill, resulting in a reduction in carbon emissions produced.
The youths are keen to promote recycling at home and have been learning all about what materials can be recycled, how to buy eco -friendly products and how to buy ethical products, promoting fair trade and local businesses.
The project also aims to recycle as many materials as possible within the community garden. This may include recycling wood into structures such as tree houses, shelters and seating areas, bicycle wheels into decorations, fencing into chicken enclosures, buckets into growing spaces, stone into herb gardens, containers into water conservation areas and household waste into decorative items and practical activities.
We are striving for all households to be connected with the effect of living on the environment and to educate the next generation on ways to create a more sustainable future. We are achieving this through practical, fun outdoor activities, educational plays and workshops, which can also be delivered to your organisation. Please also tune into our Facebook page every Friday for your ‘Friday fact’ on climate change.
Carbon crib is held on a Wednesday evening, Friday evening and Saturday afternoon and is open to everyone in the community, especially children from Primary to secondary school age. Please see Beith community development trust website and Facebook page for more details.
