HCWP support a 'hat trick' of climate campaigns

All eight partners of the Highland Community Waste Partnership (HCWP) have been busy in the last month with a ‘hat trick’ of climate activity, contributing to the The Highlands and Islands Climate Festival.

Running from 1 Sept-30 Sept, the festival aims to highlight and celebrate community climate action across the region, with a particular focus on localism and community engagement.

As such, our running programme of events was dedicated to the festival, including the following:

• 12 Food waste workshops
• 5 Share/swap/swish events
• 13 Climate conversations
• 2 Film screenings
• 12 Repair/upcycling workshops
• 5 Other events including: family foraging, litter pick, eco-friendly interior design session and 2 community planning consultations.

The HCWP partners hosted 49 in-person and online waste reduction events across the Highlands and engaged with, and supported, businesses, schools, communities and individuals to ensure they knew what they can do at home, work and in their neighbourhoods to combat the climate crisis by reducing their consumption and waste.

In addition, September saw us participate in Sustainable Fashion Week (25 Sept - 8 Oct) with a clothes swap, Sashiko Visible Mending session and a Make Do and Mend workshop and launch our brand new Conscious Consumption campaign during Scotland’s Climate Week (25 Sept-1 Oct).

Starting with a focus on single-use items and packaging, this campaign encourages consumers to #ChooseToReuse when consuming food and drink on the go and also to #TryRefill, by promoting businesses that offer packaging-free groceries and household items across the region.

Georgina Massouraki, HCWP Coordinator for Keep Scotland Beautiful, said:“Local community climate action is as important as ever, and it’s been fantastic to have the opportunity to ramp this up and be part of something bigger through the Highland Climate Festival.

We’re grateful to the NHI Climate Hub for organising this great event and look forward to seeing it grow.

Congratulations to all the groups and organisers for producing a fantastic programme of events and activities and demonstrating the important part that people can play in creating change and caring for our environment, communities and places.”

Explore our web page to learn more about how the Partnership is working to address climate change by changing the way that we use resources and visit our events page for local and online activities to get involved with.