Farington Waste Recovery Park visit

On a hot summer’s day in late July, a waste recovery centre is the last place you’d wish to visit – yes?
Well, not everyone would agree, especially the two dozen or more who made their way to Farington, near Leyland, last week, and enjoyed a truly educational tour of the facility that processes nearly all of Lancashire’s domestic waste.

The Farington Waste Recovery Park is operated by Global Renewables Lancashire Ltd, under a 25-year PFI contract with Lancashire County Council and Blackpool Council. When built, it was the second fully enclosed waste treatment facility in the UK.

We followed the progress of household waste as it arrived from one of the waste collection centres in Lancashire (our nearest is in Skelmersdale), and then passed through a series of separation stages to recover as much material as possible, and minimise the amount that has to be sent to landfill.

More photos in the gallery.

Bridge Building with Straws

Wednesday, 3rd July 2013 – Under the supervision of Janet Custard, who talked to us about Medical Scanners a year ago, 24 members threw themselves into the challenging practical task of building a bridge out of straws.

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and particularly enjoyed the strawberry cream teas.

The bridges were tested (to destruction?) by Janet using standard weights and the winning team of Lucy Meadows and Geoff Siggins are pictured in studied amusement.

Lucy Meadows and Geoff Siggins built the best straw bridge

More photos in this gallery.