The last meeting held on 10th November was the AGM, Kendra summarised our activities during the past 12 months. Some ideas did not happen such as proposals for bike rings and the Environmental Film Festival. But others were successful; of note are the FOE market stall and street campaigns, screening of The Inconvenient Truth, construction of the plastic bottle green house at the Green Fair, our partnership with the market traders and Get Real –Recycling. Our achievements have been recognised at national level and we received the award of Best Group of the Year plus £250. Kendra thanked everyone who has contributed to the group’s success.

Green Market Success

Great news! In the regional round of the greenest market competition Darlington is the WINNER for the Northern region. Congratulations to them and especially to Darlington Foe member Wayne. Darlington now goes through to the national final later this month against Bristol and Nottingham, much bigger towns than us.

Next Meeting

Next Meeting will be our AGM
Would all members please attend and new members are always welcome to join us.
Friends Meeting House, Skinnergate, Darlington @ 7.30pm

Get Real Recycling Event

Our Get Real Recycling Event was a great success. There were members of Darlington Borough Council, and various other interested representatives present. However the turn out of the councillors was a disappointment as this was an informative view about recycling in Darlington. Kendra made a fantastic presentation as did Beatrix about recycling in Breman, Germany. The evening proved to be very informative and inspirational. Darlington Borough Council really need to listen to their constituents, as when we had our recycling stall at the Market Spectacular in August the residents we spoke to wanted more items to be collected at the kerb side rather than a reduction.
The evening has paved the way for future contact between Darlington FoE and the Council which we will encourage.

Get Real, Recycling event

Tonight at the Friends Meeting House, 6.30pm. All members are requested to attend this event.

Get Real Recycling Event

Here is a list of helpful briefings that can be found on the main Friends of the Earth website. Please have a read of them so we are prepared for our recycling event.
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/lats.pdf
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/mchnical_biolo_treatmnt.pdf
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/residual_waste.pdf
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/recycling.pdf
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/recycling_collections.pdf
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/food_waste.pdf
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/action_guides/food_waste.doc
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/anaerobic_digestion.pdf

Here are some group members with our award.

Peters Presentation for The Earthmover Award

Thanks to Peter Roberts for his hard work compiling these images for the Earthmover Award presentation.

An article in The Northern Echo (15th September) highlighting Darlington Friends of the Earths view on the new proposals by the council on future waste management.

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/local/darlington/3670978.Green_group_questions_recycling_policy/

Award Winners!

The Darlington FoE group have won the Earthmover group of the year award 2008. It really shows how all of the hard work and effort has paid off. The award was presented at the conference at the weekend.

At the meeting last night we talked about our group nomination for a 'Friends of the Earth Earthmovers' award which is a very prestigious award to get. The awards will be presented at the conference in Loughborough at the weekend where we have representatives from the group attending. We have all got our fingers crossed. A photographer from the Northern Echo took a picture of the group to highlight the fact that we have a nomination and to raise our profile in readiness for our recycling campaign. We were joined by three new members and have now got a link on our blog to Darlington Cycle campaign. The stalls that we had at the market spectacular in August were very successful, with over 300 letters getting sent out to councillors about the changes to Darlington Borough Council kerbside recycling scheme.

Darlington Market Spectacular

We have got a stall on Friday 15th and Saturday 16th August.
We will be getting letters signed by Darlington residents in support of a better kerbside recycling scheme which will then be sent out to local Darlington councillors. We will also be getting postcards filled in to send to MEP's asking them to vote against proposed EU targets to increase the use of biofuels in road transport.
Come along and support us.

Monthly meeting held on 14th July at The Friends Meeting House, Skinnergate, Darlington.
We talked about the Market stall that we had in Darlington at the weekend. The event was focusing on Darlington kerbside recycling scheme. Foe Members were asking members of the public to sign letters in support of the recycling scheme and encouraging the council to recycle more not less as the group fears may happen in the future. These letters are to be forwarded on to Darlington councillors to make them recognise that their constituents are concerned about recycling and waste issues. The event was successful as 130 letters were signed in favour of more kerbside recycling.
We discussed the possibility of having another market stall at the Darlington market spectacular in August. A possible date/s was Friday 15th and possibly Saturday 16th. Again the main focus will be recycling in darlington.
The group has been nominated for a 'Group of the Year' award by Jess Dolan, Northern network developer. The result will be announced at the conference in September.
Darlington Media Workshop is going to hold a Green film festival next autumn. We floated an idea about making a short film ourselves about tracking an item through the recycling process. We hope to get some funding for this project and hope that local schools and organisations would be able to use the film.

Next meeting is scheduled for 11th August 7.30pm at The Friends Meeting House, Skinnergate, Darlington.