Green initiatives at the New Forest Basics Bank
At the New Forest Basics Bank (NFBB) we aim to reduce our footprint and adopt Green sustainable practices where possible.
Bags
During 2022 we are forecast to pack over 5000 parcels and with an average of 6 bags per parcel, we definitely do NOT want to introduce 30,000 new plastic bags into our community! Over the course of the Covid pandemic, NFBB was fortunate Becton Rotary and other volunteers stepped up to sow over 2000 cloth bags from surplus materials. We stamped each bag with the NFBB logo and a request to return them to us. In addition, NFBB recently invested in 2500 sustainably sourced green bags that were produced in the UK.
We also recycle plastic bags and other bags that come into the NFBB when we receive food and basics donations. Additionally, several other local community organisations pass us their surplus ‘bags for life’. Any plastic bags or wrapping that is no longer useable is separated, compacted in our crusher, and recycled.
Having enough bags is critical to packing food parcels, because it enables our volunteer drivers to use their own cars to deliver around 70% of our parcels. To reduce the demand for bags we request clients that collect their parcels to bring their own bags.
A plea for help: if you come across any of our NFBB cloth bags or sustainable green bags or if you have surplus plastic bags for life, then please drop them at the New Forest Basics Bank any weekday between 9am and 3pm.
Pigging anyone?
Every evening the New Forest Basics Bank (NFBB) van and a small group of volunteers collect surplus food from supermarkets and shops around the southern New Forest. Additionally, NFBB receives surplus bread from community organisations several times a week. All these items are carefully reviewed, sorted, and shelved or crated. Over 90% is redistributed via the New Forest Basics Bank into food parcels. The question is what happens to the remaining food?
Every day at the NFBB you will hear the call: Pigging anyone? This means one or more volunteers are needed to remove packaging from the fresh produce and bread and place the food into sturdy bags to be collected by the pig man. Some of the fruit and vegetables will have gone limp, soft, discoloured etc whereas some of the bread will have gone hard or mouldy. To the pigs it is all a treat! From our perspective we are delighted to contribute to the reduction of food waste!
Crushing to be Green
Every week lots of donated and purchased food and basics items come into the New Forest Basics Bank (NFBB) in bags, crates and boxes. The resulting daily mountain of cardboard boxes is extraordinary! We use some of the boxes to pack parcels for clients who collect from us, however that only makes a small dent in the overall quantity.
Thankfully our generous donors enable us to lease a professional compacter! All our surplus boxes, paper and cardboard packaging are crushed throughout the day and turned into big cubes. A professional recycling firm collects the cubes and we hope some of it will come back to NFBB as recycled packaging. Which would start the entire process again!
