Great Big Green Week

This year, the Great Big Green Week will take place from Saturday 8 June to Sunday 16 June. The week is the UK’s biggest celebration of community action to tackle climate change. The theme for 2024 is ‘Let’s swap together for good’. 

Whether you’re swapping driving to the shops for walking there, or swapping clothes with family and friends, the aim of the week is to make greener choices.  

Leicestershire County Council will be attending several talks and events across the week, from Harborough Carnival to Melton’s Great Big Green Week event, to speak to people about swaps they could make. Here are a few swap ideas – which are you going to adopt? 

• Swap one meat meal a week to vegetarian 

• Swap to buying second hand clothes 

• Swap driving to school for walking to school twice a week 

• Swap any 40°C washes to 30°C 

• Swap buying pre-packaged fruit and veg to loose items 

For more information about this year’s Great Big Green Week visit 

 Leicestershire CAN: Collaborate to Accelerate Net Zero 

Leicestershire CAN (Collaborate to Accelerate Net Zero) was awarded £2.56m from Innovate UK to deliver a national ‘demonstrator’ project, aimed at supporting the delivery of net zero carbon emissions across Leicestershire. This ambitious project is designed to address the complex challenges associated with reducing the county’s emissions and demonstrate to other local authorities in the UK a replicable approach that they too can follow and learn from.

The project brings together a diverse consortium of partners, including De Montfort University, University of Leicester, Energy Systems Catapult, National Grid Electricity Distribution, Green Fox Community Energy Co-operative and Community Energy South. The project’s collective expertise span across various sectors, enabling the project to take a holistic approach to addressing challenges with the co-ordination and delivery of net zero across the county.

To do this, Leicestershire CAN are delivering four interconnected work packages: 

1. Governance: focussed on developing and piloting models for effective governance between Leicestershire’s organisations, business and communities to support Net Zero. 

2.  Decarbonisation Pathway Plan: delivery of an innovative Local Area Energy Plan (LAEP) for Leicester and Leicestershire, to help identify and understand potential solutions to help reduce carbon emissions.  

3. Community Energy: supporting a network of new community energy organisations to accelerate the delivery of community driven low carbon projects. 

4. Advisory Service: information and support for organisations, ensuring they have the necessary tools and knowledge to contribute to the delivery of net zero in Leicestershire.  

How to shape our Local Nature Recovery Strategy

A Local Nature Recovery Strategy is currently being developed for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland. There will be a range of stakeholder and resident events talking place over June and July. We also have an interactive map where people can let us know about current and potential opportunities to protect and enhance nature as well as any local pressures on nature.

Barbecue waste

Food worth £430 million is binned each year in the UK because of British barbecues.  The main cause of this waste is thought to be hosts putting on an overly large spread to impress guests. 

While most people will willingly munch on a slightly carbonised sausage to avoid wasting food, it’s often the unsung side dishes that go unnoticed and uneaten. Salad leaves, burger rolls, hot dog buns, coleslaw and potato salad are the most frequently wasted barbecue food items.  

 
Fortunately, it’s simple to reduce food waste while still impressing your guests, and you can save yourself some cash and reduce the environmental impact of your meal too. Read more here.

Every summer fire crews across the UK see increased call outs to fires linked to barbecues, including bin fires owing to the unsafe disposal of hot coals and gas canisters.

Find out how to safely dispose of barbecue coals and ashes here.

You’ll find advice on the safe disposal of gas cannisters here.

Recording sightings of Invasive and Non-native Species (INNS)

As the warmer and lighter days are on the horizon, more of us are getting back out enjoying the great outdoors, be that by walking your dog, doing an evening run, or even taking a lunch time walk to get a bit of fresh air. Whatever your reason for enjoying the outdoors, there are even more ways than ever to help our local wildlife. Many people underestimate the power of wildlife records and sightings, without up-to-date data on species sightings and distribution it makes it incredibly difficult for us to help protect and monitor our native wildlife. 

Making a wildlife record is easier than ever. All you need to do is make a free account with NatureSpot to start your recording journey. We are strongly encouraging participant’s to also submit sightings of Invasive Non Native Species, garden wildlife, common species, or other wildlife you have encountered. 

If you would like more information on INNS, and are interested in getting more involved with some of our dedicated volunteering please contact:  EnvironmentTeam@leics.gov.uk 

Swift Awareness Week  29 June - 7 July

May is the time that our skies come alive with the sounds of Swifts, returning from their winter stay in warmer places such as Africa. Swifts can fly hundreds of miles to gather their insect food. So, one of the ways to help our local bird populations is by encouraging more insects into your garden by planting native plants. Insects are an essential food source for many birds but also small mammals like bats and shrews. 

From Saturday 29 June to Sunday 7 July 2024, you can join walks, talks, and events with local Swift experts and enthusiasts to enjoy watching these extraordinary birds and find out more about them. 

The county council and partners have been promoting the provision of Swift nest boxes all around the county so that we can encourage more pairs to nest here. If you would like to explore the supply and fitting of a box, please contact environmentteam@leics.gov.uk.  

Recycling reminder for Euros and Olympics 

This is a big year for sport, with the UEFA Euros taking place June and July and the Olympics being held July/August. 

If you’re having a get-together to watch one of the big events, let’s all remember to recycle what we can during this summer of sport, from metal cans to any plastic bottles. If you’re hosting a party and will be decorating the house, see if you could reuse decorations, buy second-hand or get creative with what you already have.  

Once it’s over, please don’t put any sports clothing (or any textiles) or food waste in your kerbside recycling bin. This causes contamination and can lead to loads of recycling sent for disposal. 

Solar Panels and Battery Storage: Leicestershire’s Council-Backed Scheme Returns 

Considering solar panels for your home or business but don’t know where to start?  

Thanks to the council-backed scheme called "Solar Together", installing solar panels on your rooftop has become easier than ever. The new edition of the scheme is open for registration in Leicestershire on 17 June, allowing more residents to benefit from solar panels and battery storage.  

Solar Together is a community-led scheme that aims to facilitate the transition to solar energy for households in Leicestershire. The scheme works by bringing local residents together to secure a better price for solar panels and battery storage, making it more affordable for everyone involved.  

The Process is Simple: 

1. Register: Express your interest for free at solartogether.co.uk. 

1. Auction: Solar Together holds a reverse auction where pre-vetted installers compete to offer the best price. 

1. Personal Recommendation: Receive a tailored offer based on your home and energy needs. 

1. Decision: Decide at your convenience, with support available for any queries. 

1. Savings: Enjoy reduced energy costs with your new solar setup. 

Installers are vetted and MCS accredited. All installations are backed by a 10-year insurance guarantee. 

 Textile contamination in recycling

Textiles should not go in your kerbside recycling bin; do you know why? 

When we say textiles, we mean anything from shirts and socks to curtains and bedding. 

Whilst textiles are recyclable, they cannot be recycled if they go in your kerbside recycling bin.

They can become wrapped around the sorting facility equipment causing extensive and costly damage. Additionally, when they are mixed with other materials, such as glass, they become contaminated as it is difficult to remove pieces of glass from clothing and makes it impossible to recycle them.  If you have textiles that have holes or buttons falling off, try to mend them first. To find out how visit our Wear, Care and Repair page 

If you no longer wear the clothing, but it is still in good condition, try selling on an online selling site, consider giving away to  friends or family, donate to a charity shop or take to your nearest Recycling and Household Waste Site.

If the clothes are no longer wearable, you could try:  

• using them as cleaning rags at home  

• composting them at home (if they’re cotton or bamboo)  

• giving them to an animal shelter  

• donating using M&S/Oxfam’s new post-back trial 

• checking your nearest clothing and textile bank (many now only accept wearable clothes) 

Volunteers’ Week 2024 - Celebrating our Environment Action Volunteers 

This Volunteers’ Week, (held the first week of June each year) Leicestershire County Council’s Waste, Environment and Carbon Reduction teams would like to say a huge “Thank you!” to the hardworking volunteers who support our work, the Environment Action volunteers (EAVs). 

EAVs are a dedicated group of Leicestershire residents who share a passion for the environment. Last year they collectively gave over 850 hours of their time to make Leicestershire a cleaner, greener and more sustainable county, and helped around 5,000 Leicestershire residents to take positive steps for the environment too. 

Home Energy Retrofit Offer (HERO) 

Additional support is available to households as part of a local demonstrator project. 

Eligible residents living in energy inefficient homes can receive tailored support via home visits to access grant funding or assess their homes to identify suitable improvements. 

The scheme aims to support residents to have the knowledge and confidence to improve homes, affordable warmth and cut carbon emissions. The service will be promoting retrofit of homes and providing advice at events across the county through to March 2025. 

To find out more visit the HERO webpage or telephone the Warm Homes service on 0116 305 2524.