No Good Deed Need Go to Waste

The significant number of activity packs, which have been hand-collated by a team of eight people at North Yorkshire Youth’s Carlton Lodge, contain fun activities to encourage primary and secondary school students and their families to get active, stay busy and eat well during the Easter holidays.

Containing everything from sporting accessories, like frisbees and beanbags, to craft supplies and healthy eating ideas, in the coming weeks, the packs will go out to 11,000 young people across North Yorkshire who are on the free school meals programme.

In creating several thousand activity packs, however, the team has also generated over 700kg of packaging waste, mostly consisting of cardboard, which recycling and waste management company, Yorwaste, known for managing over half-a-million tonnes of waste every year, has stepped-up to take care of.

At no cost to North Yorkshire Together, the firm, which offers a dedicated commercial cardboard recycling service to its commercial customers throughout North Yorkshire, has coordinated the supply and collection of a 14-yard enclosed skip, ensuring that the large amount of boxes will be effectively recycled - much to the relief of the activity pack coordinators.

Bex Plant, Activities Manager at North Yorkshire Youth, explains: “As an organisation, it’s important for us to be sustainable in everything we do, from the solar panels on our building, to environmentally friendly activities, like restoring and replanting around the local landscape.

“Yorwaste has been brilliant. Not only has the company supplied the skip free-of-charge, it has emptied it twice and taken the care to provide an enclosed unit to keep the boxes dry and of optimum recyclable quality.”

Yorwaste’s principal sales manager, Matthew Wilkinson, adds: “The work North Yorkshire Together is doing to support families in our region is phenomenal. These activity packs are going to make a real difference to thousands of families this Easter and we’re delighted to do our bit in supporting this fantastic initiative.”

North Yorkshire Together is a partnership between Rural Arts, North Yorkshire Sport and North Yorkshire Youth, which is made possible by the organisation’s collaboration with community support volunteers, National Lottery Community Fund and North Yorkshire County Council.