\n The project is being run by the Birnbeck Regeneration Trust and will turn waste plastic into products such as keyrings and picture frames.\n<\/p>\n
\n The hub is located in the trust’s newly refurbished headquarters, a former public toilet on Birnbeck Road, now dubbed the \u2018Loo-vre\u2019.\n<\/p>\n
\n Items produced will be sold to raise funds for the long-term restoration of the Victorian-era Birnbeck Pier.\n<\/p>\n
\n The scheme was made possible by an \u00a38,000 Sunshine Grant from Burnham and Weston Energy CIC.\n<\/p>\n
\n The grant funded the purchase of a plastic shredder and injection-moulding machine, which will allow shoreline plastic waste to be transformed into usable products.\n<\/p>\n
\n Susan Cooke, from the Birnbeck Regeneration Trust, said: “The most important part of this project is the educational aspect, and we\u2019re imparting that message through creativity.\n<\/p>\n
\n “People will hopefully stop and think about the amount of single-use plastic they purchase, and hopefully use less in the future.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The hub officially opened to the public over the weekend with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by Weston-super-Mare MP Dan Aldridge and town mayor Cllr Martin Williams.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Aldridge said: “The thing I love about this is that everybody has contributed something, it\u2019s the culmination of years of work going back to before the pandemic.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Creative people doing creative things is really setting a tone for this area, while being focused on sustainability and education.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Visitors to the hub were able to see the recycling machinery in action and view artwork displayed inside the building.\n<\/p>\n
\n Denys Rayner, from Burnham and Weston Energy CIC, said: “It\u2019s great to see projects like this come to life.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It\u2019s a win-win for the area with the positive benefits this will have on the coastline, and the trust\u2019s ambition to restore the old pier and give the area a real boost.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Rayner encouraged others to apply for the Sunshine Grant.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: “We are still welcoming applications from charities and community organisations in the area.\n<\/p>\n
\n “If you have an idea for something you would like to seek funding for, please head to our website.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The project is being run by the Birnbeck Regeneration Trust and will turn waste plastic into products such…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-284422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}