Communication Materials for Community Groups

Zero Waste Scotland has been working in partnership with the Highland Good Food Partnership and The Highland Council to develop a Community Composting Resource for communities in the Highlands that are interested in starting or further developing community composting projects.

The resource provides a step-by-step guide to composting, taking users through everything they would need to consider if looking to set up a community composting project.

Community composting provides a mechanism to deal with materials locally. Dealing with green waste and food waste at a local level avoids waste streams from being hauled long distances for disposal and provides a substitute to buying expensive and sometimes environmentally damaging composts (in particular if containing peat).

View the Highland Community Composting Resource.

The Love Food Hate Waste materials are designed to get across key messages about the easiest ways for people to reduce the amount of food they waste in a really clear and motivating way.

Our suite of materials includes:

• ‘What’s in your kitchen recipe collection – recipes from around Scotland for using up leftover food, including information leaflets, and recipe cards
• Food Waste and Home Composting Toolkit - this combined food waste and home composting toolkit contains associated leaflets, posters, social media posts, press releases and an infographic.
• Posters, leaflets and other items - a colourful selection of print material aimed at different food groups and audiences.
• Education Pack- this is an interdisciplinary learning pack for all of primary and early secondary levels. The activities, PowerPoints and resources can be used in or outside the classroom by anyone who works with young people.
• Website - the Love Food Hate Waste Scotland website has a huge range of recipes for using up leftovers, plus great information, for example on portioning and planning to reduce food waste.
• Facebook – the Love Food Hate Waste Scotland Facebook page is an active and engaging page for sharing ideas and promoting food waste events and projects.
• Presentation slides - a Powerpoint presentation with facts and figures is available for giving talks to local groups. This can be amended for you to add your own slides in too.

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The reuse materials are designed to raise awareness and change behaviour around reuse. Consumer research shows that people often don’t consider the difference between reuse and recycling, and therefore don’t think about the many additional environmental and social benefits of reuse when disposing of items.

• Posters and Flyers - our suite of materials designed to highlight the benefits of re-use includes posters and flyers to encourage donation of a wide variety of different items, posters and flyers to encourage people to buy a variety of re-used items, web banners and more.
• Session guides - there is also a suite of guides for running different reuse workshop sessions which are ideal for community engagement.
• How-to guides – there is also a series of ‘how-to’ guides for reuse activities such as upcycling workshops, repair workshops, swish/swap shops and more.
• Repair and Sharing Guide - there is also a detailed Repair and Sharing Guide, featuring in-depth case studies, hints and tips from several successful community re-use projects from around the UK focusing on repairing and sharing items. 
• Reuse Tool – you can direct people to the Reuse Tool as a way to pass on any furniture, white goods and bikes to reuse organisations in the area. 
• Upcycling – head to How to Waste Less for easy upcycling ideas.

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The average woman will dispose of 11,000 period products in her lifetime – most of which are made from plastics and synthetic materials.  #TrialPeriod aims to raise awareness of the issue and provide useful information on what the alternatives are. 

• Website – the #TrialPeriod website contains information on why single-use period products are a concern and what the alternatives are.
• Partners site – the partners site is free to access and provides useful downloadable resources for you to use to promote reusable alternatives.  This includes posters, social media graphics, an email signature and mirror vinyl.

The Recycle for Scotland suite of materials contains a range of posters and materials that you can use to highlight the benefits of recycling across various material streams including glass, plastic, metal and food waste.

• Education resources - there are also education resources for use with schools covering household recycling and food waste recycling.
• Poster creator – you can use this online poster creator to create bespoke signage for all of your recycling facilities that are in line with the national Recycle for Scotland brand.
• Website – the How to Waste less website contains a wealth of information on how to recycle almost any kind of household item, a postcode locator to find local recycling sites, plus videos and recycling advice.

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Zero Waste Scotland sees litter as a waste of valuable resources – much of which could have been re-used or recycled and generate revenue rather than costing Scotland money, damaging our environment and wildlife.  Our work is focussed on the ‘prevention’ of litter in the first place.  For more information on ‘litter picking’ and for risk assessment guidance, visit the Keep Scotland Beautiful website. To find out about beach cleans and other ways your community group can get involved see the Marine Conservation Society website.

Litter Prevention Action Plans – find our starter guide, action plan, template and suggested actions to create a bespoke litter action plan for your area

Campaign toolkits – downloadable toolkits to help raise awareness and change behaviour in your area around litter and fly-tipping

Beyond the litter pick – an ideas guide of ways to change behaviour including examples of successful campaigns around the country

Community led campaigns – an ideas guide for how to run a campaign, and a report on previously funded campaigns

Education resources – aim to teach S1&2 pupils about the harmful effects of littering and mobilise them to act as influencers in their own communities

If you are running an interesting and innovate litter prevention campaign or project we are keen to hear about it, and how you are planning to evaluate this, get in touch with us at flytipping@zerowastescotland.org.uk

The Love Your Clothes campaign is delivered by UK waste reduction organisation WRAP, and features a huge range of materials aimed at reducing the environmental impact of clothing. The materials are designed to be used freely by organisations such as community groups.

This includes:

• Buying guides – downloadable guides to buying clothes that will last longer.
• Care and Repair guides – downloadable guides to caring for clothes to make them last, simple repairs and stain removal tips for a wide range of items.
• Refashioning and upcycling guides – downloadable guides on refashioning and upcycling clothes.
• Disposing of unwanted clothes – the Love Your Clothes website also has a range of tips and guides on how to dispose of unwanted clothes responsibly.
• ‘Film a week’ social media pack – a suite of over 50 short films covering a huge range of clothing tips is also available. This covers simple fixes, stain removal, maintenance and much more, allowing you to post high quality video content on your social media feeds every week for a whole year. These are available on request from miriam.adcock@zerowastescotland.org.uk

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Zero Waste Scotland’s Energy Efficiency Business Support Service offers businesses free support to reduce energy costs by an average of 24%. Perhaps you have a simple question regarding lighting or are looking for a detailed energy opportunities assessment, we can provide specialist and independent advice, for free. Our package of support includes training, funding, tailored advice and specific tools, delivered through a variety of channels: online, on-site or over the phone. 

These materials and tools may be of use to any community organisations that are looking to improve the energy efficiency of community buildings or tackle resource efficiency in their own offices.

They includes:

• Campaign materials - the Staff Engagement Toolkit includes free, professionally-designed campaign resources to help you encourage users of community buildings and office staff to adopt resource efficient behaviours.
• Bespoke report on how to find savings - use The Savings Finder and within minutes you will have a free report highlighting the energy, water and raw material cost savings that you could make in your organisation, office or community building.
• Green Champions training – a free online CPD certified training course that can be done in bite-sized chunks as and when you have the time.  It helps you to improve the resource efficiency of your organisation and give you the background knowledge around a wide variety of areas.

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