Congleton Town Councillors and members of Congleton's green groups got the month off to a positive start with a green stall in Congleton town centre promoting ideas for reducing, reusing and recycling. 

In the month that sees both Global Recycling Day on 18 March, and The Big Plastic Count from 11-17 March the team was keen to spread the word and to show simple ideas for reducing waste. ANSA who runs the borough's Love Food Hate Waste campaign, provided a Food Waste Game and some great recipe cards for making the most of leftover food waste. Amazingly the UK throws out over 9.5 million tonnes of food per year, even though 8.4 million people in the UK are in food poverty. 

There was also discussions and a demonstration on how to make compost, and fun things to make from plastic milk bottles. 

Cllr Kay Wesley, Chair of Congleton Town Council's Community Committee said: "Despite it being a cold and damp day, our spirits were raised by some great conversations with local people about the importance of reducing waste and sharing advice and tips on recycling and reusing plastic and other commodities." 

Cllr Wesley encourages people to find out more by: 

• Taking the food module of the free sustainable living in Congleton course on the Town Council's Website: Food - Learning Congleton
• Joining the 2,500 Congleton people on the Congleton Recycling Facebook page – offer things that you don't need, see if anyone is offering things you need 
• Joining the 1,100 Congleton people that advertise and receive free left-over food
• Joining the 81,820 people in the UK who have signed up to The Big Plastic Count from 11 – 17 March

For lots more information on making Congleton greener, head online.