WHAT can and can’t be recycled in County Durham will be the topic of a free event at The Witham, in Barnard Castle, on Wednesday, February 19.
The event, called Recycling: All you need to know, has been organised by Teesdale Action on Climate Transition (TACT), which was formed last year.
It is being put on to help residents find out what they can and can’t put in their wheelie bins and blue bags.
The two-hour event will feature a presentation from Durham County Council recycling staff who will be on hand to answer questions about what they are doing to help reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.
Jan Fowler, from TACT, said: “There will be two presentations through the morning, one at 10.30am and another at 11.30am each followed by a question-and-answer session.
Gaynor Hemming, who has helped to organise the event, said: “We want to ask questions on what happens to the stuff that we send to be recycled and where it ends up.
“Does it end up getting shipped somewhere a long way away, or is it dealt with in the county?”
TACT has also organised a junk craft event aimed at families with youngsters, which will run at the same time.
Ms Hemming added: “It’s really to show that you can have a lot of fun with old stuff and make lots of different things from old cardboard and how things can be reused.
“We’ll be bringing a lot material that would have been thrown away and see what can be made of it.”
There is a suggested donation of £1 per child.
![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
