Waste Less in Leeds Meet-up

Please join us for a couple of hours at Leeds Open Data Institute (ODI Leeds) to chat about opportunities to turn more "waste" into valuable resources in Leeds.

We've invited everyone we know who's involved in a social enterprise in Leeds that works on reuse, recycling, repair, food waste reduction and anything else we've forgotten there! The great thing about Leeds is that there are loads of you out there already doing good stuff - but I think we all agree that there's loads more to do.

*Update: the good news is that there's been plenty of interest in this meeting - and we've widened out the invitation to businesses in Leeds - mainly food businesses - that are interested in reducing the amount of waste they produce.*

Recycling rates have hit a plateau in the last few years - in Leeds and across England - and it seems like a good time to be thinking about how we can continue to help Leeds to cut down on the amount of valuable resources that end up thrown away.

The aim of today is to begin exploring if there are opportunities to work together to do more. We have nothing specific in mind - just a desire to encourage more good stuff to happen.

We'll send a more detailed agenda in January - but the morning is likely to look a bit like this:

• Arrivals from 930am for a 10am start

• Introductions - many of you will know eachother already, some of you won't.

• Context - 5 minutes from us about why we've invited you all along

• The bigger picture in Leeds - a few thoughts from people at Leeds City Council - including info about an upcoming review of their waste strategy

• 5 minutes for ODI Leeds to tell you about their plans to get involved in using open data to reduce the amount of waste we create in Leeds

• Three 15-20 minute small group sessions - with a focus on what kind of practical things we could do to help Leeds waste less as a city
  

• Roundup - and to see whether there's appetite to do more.

We'll be finished by 12pm - and then we'd like to invite any of you who'd like to join us to have lunch (on us) at Leeds Market - just over the road.

Please sign up above to let us know you're coming. If you'd like to chat with us before committing to come along, please get in touch and we can either meet up in early January, on chat on the phone.

ODI Leeds is on the top floor of Munro House - the building opposite Leeds Bus Station, which has Cafe 164 and Colours May Vary on the ground floor. We'd like to thank ODI Leeds for offering their venue to us for this meeting.

You can find out more about Social Business Brokers here. You can read more about why we're wanting to get more involved in local approaches to tackling climate change here.