A year ago, the Herald ran a piece by Philippa Davies on local efforts to cut our living costs and help the planet with sustainable ways to save money:
With the climate crisis and the cost of living crisis making regular headlines, it is easy to feel that we are at the mercy of circumstances beyond our control. But in fact there are ways to reduce your living costs and benefit the environment at the same time.
Cut your living costs and help the planet: sustainable ways to save money | Sidmouth Herald
Here’s a further look at the groups and services the piece covered:
Welcome to SAVE food hub:
Fighting waste. Saving the planet. One meal at a time.
We collect perfectly good, surplus food from local stores in East Devon. We operate seven days a week and offer FREE food from over twenty individual collections a week. Our first step is to donate as much food as possible to local food banks. Then we make items available to everyone in the local community. There is generally plenty on offer and it’s always changing – expect to find meat, fish, ready meals, fruit, veg, bread, pastries, cakes and more!
Sidmouth Unwrapped:
We are big fans of reducing plastic waste, and this beautiful sustainable local produce shop is a fantastic addition the high street. With a range of household refills, sweets, alcohol and more this is a great visit for stocking up the pantry.
Sidmouth Unwrapped – Local produce store and off-licence
Sidmouth Repair Café:
We have a great team of fixers including electrical engineers, and people with woodworking, textiles and general repair skills. One of our core values is to share skills and encourage learning, so repairs are carried out in conjunction with the person who brought along the broken item.
Sidmouth Repair Café – CAG Devon
RIO: Ottery:
Meanwhile in Ottery, low-cost furniture and other household and garden items are available from the community re-use centre RIO. RIO, based at Station Yard, was originally called Recycling In Ottery, but now prefers the term ‘re-use’.
https://www.facebook.com/rioottery/
The Champions Awards pages have looked at more such groups and projects and services:
News – Sustainable Sidmouth Champion Awards
Do you know of any that you’d like to nominate for a Champions Award?
Enter the Champions Awards 2023 – Sustainable Sidmouth Champion Awards