FOR its November meeting, Shobrooke Friendly Club invited Felicity Jones, Recycling Officer of Mid Devon District Council to give a talk on recycling and waste to the members.

Twenty eight members attended and were given a very interesting and informative talk. This included recollections of some of Felicity’s experiences in the role of the Recycling Officer.

Members were informed of which items could, and those which could not be recycled.

It seems that some of us discovered that items that had been black bagged for waste rubbish could be recycled, and also some items which had been put out for recycling should in actual fact have gone in the black bag.

Items put out for recycling were sorted for paper, card, glass, tins and foil and soft plastics. These could all be recycled many times over.

It was surprising to learn that an aluminium drinks can could appear back on the supermarket shelf in about 60 days after being put out for recycling having been reprocessed into a new can and sent to a drinks manufacturer.

Glass bottles could be melted down and turned into another glass item. Some even being combined with road building materials.

Members were surprised to learn that a fleece jacket might well be made of recycled plastic.

Local Authorities are not obliged to collect garden waste, but many do so as a service, which unfortunately has to be paid for, and anyone wishing to use that service is charged an annual fee, currently £49 for a large bin, or £37 for a small bin. The contents are sent for composting by a commercial company.

Waste, rubbish what goes into the black bag, originally went to landfill, is now converted into energy.

Members were reminded that if they were employing a contractor to dispose of waste items that a check should be made to ensure that the contractor was properly licensed by the Local Authority to handle waste.

There had been recent instances where a contractor had not been registered, had collected waste and fly-tipped it near from where it had been collected. If the fly-tipper could not be traced, and the dumped material traced back to the owner, then they could be in line for a hefty fine.

At the end of her interesting talk, and answering questions from members, Felicity was warmly thanked by chairman Jack Fey for the insight given on the subject.

Members were saddened to learn of the death since the last meeting of Margaret Bye, who had been a member since 2012.

Tea and biscuits were then served as usual by Dave Lee and Clifford Webber, who then washed up everything.

Margaret reminded those members who had not yet paid their subscriptions that these were now due, and that she was also collecting names for those who wished to go to the Club’s Christmas Lunch, and also the Tiverton Pantomime.

The Pantomime this year is "Sinbad", and the club has booked tickets at £8.50 each for February 1, 2018.

Anyone wishing to go, please contact Margaret on 01363 773282. There will be the coach fare to pay on top of this, but the cost of this will depend on the numbers going.

Norman Gale