Recycle the Island 2009 - Update

At 8.45am on Sunday the 27^th September, a group of cyclists rocked up at Tesco's Ryde eager to sign in for the Recycle The Island 2009 50 mile Red Route! They were met by a few bleary eyed members of Bag It Up & Air Ambulance volunteers, who only vaguely knew that this time on a Sunday morning actually existed! But they were soon signed in and set off on their gruelling task ahead, knowing they would encounter many hills.

By 10am we had almost 30 cyclists signed in and on one of the two routes that were available. The 50 mile route was just as popular as the 15 mile route. And there were several cyclists keen to take part in the questions and answers in the hope that they would win a prize.

Shortly after 10am, the Air Ambulance graced us with her presence and soon people were flocking over to see what all the fuss was about. Not long after the Air Ambulance had landed, we had the Air Sea Rescue helicopter landing in the same car park, you wouldn't have thought they would have fitted, but somehow they both squeezed in. It was a spectacular sight to see both these helicopters together, showing off to the public, the amazing life-saving work that they do.

At 11am the Bag It Up cycling team set off with several other people in tow, including Fraser Rowbotham, Air Ambulance Team Leader who was supervising Josh Scrivener a 14 yr old. However, there were rumours that Fraser himself needs supervision as he was the only one who managed to fall off his bike! Much to the amusement of the rest of the group! Luckily the only thing that was hurt was his pride!

The Air Sea Rescue helicopter disappeared to practice their winch training over in Sandown bay. The Air Ambulance received a 999 around 1pm and unfortunately became so busy with 999 calls that it never returned to Tesco. Luckily the Air Sea Rescue had enough time to return to us in the afternoon, during which time Bazza Bank and a Lemur from the IOW Zoo turned up to entertain all the children!

The Bag It Up cycling team returned around 3pm, everyone was still alive but with very sore bottoms and needless to say a few expletives were thrown towards the event organiser about the amount of killer hills they had to endure!

All in all we had over 50 cyclists turn up to take part, a couple of them dressed in amazing luminous outfits, I think they took the recommendations to wear high visibility clothing to the extreme! But they looked fantastic and got a lot of attention from the press!

All the cyclists arrived back safely, unfortunately one of them endured an extra 10 miles on top of the 50 he was already doing because he accidently joined another cycling group and lost his way, but he finally found the finish, albeit a bit tired!

The Air Sea Rescue left Tesco's at about 4pm and we all celebrated a very successful day. It's estimated that over £2,000 has been raised from this event, not to mention media exposure for the Air Ambulance and public education of the Bag It Up Textile Banks that are currently raising, on average, £22,000 every month to keep the helicopter flying.

A huge Thank You needs to go to Tesco at Ryde for their generosity for allowing us to use their overflow car park for the day. Without which, there would have been nowhere for the helicopters to land! THANK YOU TESCO RYDE!

If you like the sound of this event, what are you waiting for, start your training now, in time for next year's Recycle The Island!

Finalists in the letsrecycle.com Awards for Excellence 2009

Great News!

We are finalists in the letsrecycle.com Awards for Excellence 2009. Our nominated category is the Best Community Recycling Initiative in conjunction with Southampton City Council. This is the culmination of many years of partnership working with Southampton City Council and of course everyone's support in our recycling scheme.

This award criteria was tough and aims to recognise the achievements of a social enterprise/community recycling project to delivering improved recycling and waste management services. An ethos we have been committed to since Bag It Up started back in 2005, by doing so we have raised over £1.4 million for UK charities – not bad in four years!

A big thank you to Southampton City Council for their hard work also please keep your fingers crossed for us. The final is on the 20th October.

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Thames Valley & Chiltern Air Ambulance - brand new recycling scheme

As of last week we reached over 30 clothing banks sited for the Thames Valley & Chiltern Air Ambulance, as one of our newest charities the response from the public so far has been phenomenal!

Many of the areas local business's such as the Sweeny pub group have allowed us to site clothing banks, as well as local councils a BIG THANK YOU to them!

We are still urgently seeking additional sites, every site located is a potential life saver for the Thames Valley & Chiltern  Air Ambulance and can earn them £1000's each year to continue their life saving missions. If you know of a good spot please contact us info@bagitup.org.uk

Please go to www.bagitup.org.uk to find out where your nearest recycling point is and donate your unwanted and unloved items.

Latest fundraising total - £ 1,412,680.01

We've just had the figures in for August, and we have now raised an amazing £ 1,412,680.01 for charitable causes.

Unlike most of our rivals, we provide a fixed percentage of sales revenue to the charities we work with, and make payments to them on a monthly basis.

As the market is fairly stable (at the moment), this allows the charities to benefit from a regular, and fairly predictable, revenue stream.

We work with many charitable causes, including many of the UK's Air Ambulances, Whizz-Kids, Cancer Care, and Wigan Warriors Community Foundation.

We are always interested in new charities to work with, so if you have a reputable charitable cause, we'd be pleased to hear from you.

If you'd like to know more about what we do, please check out our web site.

Bag It Up: FINALIST in the National Recycling Awards!

Bag It Up Limited are a National Recycling Awards FINALIST; nominated for the Best Partnership Project for Recycling for their work with Southampton City Council.

Bag It Up Limited has been working in partnership with the Waste & Fleet Transport Division at Southampton City Council. It has been a key strategic decision for Southampton City Council as it has underpinned a number of successes that relate to waste minimisation and a reduction in disposal costs.

The 'Bag It Up' recycling schemes enable the council to recycle materials that are unsuitable for the ‘blue lidded’ recycling bin.  These items include unwanted clothes, shoes and household textiles, such as blankets, curtains, duvets.  By recycling these items Bag It Up Limited generates sustainable funds for the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Air Ambulance Charity.

2008-2009 was a particularly successful year for this partnership. Together we achieved significant:

• Greenhouse gas savings by diverting materials from landfill
• Income for the air ambulance charity [Our donations alone keep the helicopter flying for two days a week]
• Waste disposal savings
• Increase in the number of textile banks in the city

Our partnership with the council is changing behaviours regarding waste management and recycling, which have implications for the local environment and the residents of Southampton in terms of how they recycle and dispose of their waste.
Just as important is the generation of vital funds for the charity partnership, Hampshire & Isle of Wight Air Ambulance.  The donated items help save the environment, provide an affordable clothing supply to communities worldwide and the income that is generated helps keep the helicopter flying and saving lives.  Win, win all round.

The Partnership

Bag It Up's collaboration with Southampton City Council, is pivotal to the work the council undertake with their residents and other stakeholders in the city, including the universities, community groups and local hospital, to name a few.  Southampton City Council and Bag It Up promote each other’s services and the importance of recycling/reuse to save lives, as well as recycling in general for the benefit of the local environment and the city.

There are 51 textile banks in the Southampton City area, which have diverted over 544 tonnes from landfill since just 2006. These banks alone have raised over £74,000 for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance, which is a fantastic achievement.

Key achievements that this partnership has delivered include the following:

• 212% growth in textiles recycled since 2006
• Prevented 337.5 tonnes of greenhouse gases being generated in 2008/09
• Saved over £11,000 on waste disposal in 2008/09 and this is predicted to rise to £15,425 in 2009/10

Why we should win

This partnership is unique and goes beyond the mutual benefits of reducing waste and encouraging reuse and recycling.  It is about shared values, involving residents, jointly promoting the recycling ethos, motivating and exciting stakeholders and working with local communities.  Additionally, it helps fund a critical emergency service, that has NO goverment funding.  By operating in such an innovative way, we are not only looking after the environment, but also helping to save lives.

Working in partnership really does make a difference.

Recycle the Island 2009

The Hampshire & Isle of Wight Air Ambulance & Bag It Up invite you to take part in our RECYCLE THE ISLAND event on Sun 27th September to raise vital funds for YOUR Air Ambulance.

RECYCLE THE ISLAND 2009 is a FREE fun cycling event which will take place at Ryde on the Isle of Wight. The event is open to anyone over 12 years old. Its not a race, its a challenge!

The Air Ambulance helicopter will be operational from Tesco's at Ryde in their overflow car park and there will be plenty of opportunities (operation dependent) to meet and talk with the pilots and paramedics and to see the helicopter up close.

There are 2 cycle routes available; a 15 mile BLUE route and a 50 mile RED route for those wanting a bigger challenge! Raise over £50 and be in with the chance of winning one of MANY FANTASTIC PRIZES on offer! For more information on the event and to ENTER ONLINE please visit - Our Event Page

We hope to see you there on the day.

The 'Recycle The Island 2009' Team