Crow Recycling celebrated a 40th anniversary this week. Pictured here is long standing volunteer David Wood (right) cutting the celebration cake with chairman of trustees Bill Smith. Volunteers, staff and supporters gathered for a celebration and a look back at the ups and downs of 40 years of community recycling. In his speech Bill remembered late founder Barbara Cowling, pictured below, whose determination and kindness turned an idea into a reality.

In 1985 when Coventry’s Crow Recycling was founded Madonna was at number one with Into the Groove, the miners’ strike ended in defeat for the unions and MPs salaries were raised to £24,250.  40 years later Britain’s last deep coal mine has closed, MPs earn £93,904, Madonna is a mum of six in her 60s and Crow Recycling is still going strong.  Chairman of trustees Bill Smith said: “It’s great to celebrate our 40 years of  helping the environment and helping people with various learning and physical disabilities.  “Times have not always been easy for Crow and there have been many occasions when we thought we would have to give up but we are still here.”  Crow was founded by Barbara Cowling in 1985 at the Barras Heath Wholesale Market. The organisation started out as the Big Green Business Machine later renamed Coventry Recycling of Waste, Crow for short.  Barbara was a pioneer of recycling at a time before kerbside collections. She was determined to reduce the amount of recyclable materials sent to landfill or incineration. Even before Crow began she used to collect newspapers, in Earlsdon, where she lived, to divert them from landfill.  Crow teamed up with Coventry City Council’s social services providing work placements and training for adults with learning difficulties.   In a time before kerbside recycling collections the best options for recycling cans and bottles  were supermarket can bins. Crow was responsible for emptying them and crushing and baling the cans to sell on for recycling.  Crow also processed and recycled office waste paper from a host of large organisations and companies including local councils, universities and automotive giants. That included destroying confidential office waste paper, a service Crow continues to [...]

A team from Jaguar Land Rover swapped desks and offices for spades and sunshine when they volunteered at Crow Recycling. The group from the Vehicle Efficiency Group at the luxury car giant's Gaydon base spent a day in Crow Recycling's garden. They planted fruit trees, built compost bins, laid a woodchip surface between raised beds and made improvements to access. The garden, currently being funded by the National Lottery, is where Crow's service users, mainly adults with learning difficulties, learn to grow food. This year's harvest included cucumbers, courgettes and tomatoes. The project has seen Crow's service users getting out in the sunshine and eating the vegetables they have grown. The newly planted fruit trees will see apples, pears and plums added to the list. The apple tree is a Wyken Pippin, a traditional Coventry variety named after the Wyken area of the city. Pete Taylor, engineering manager at JLR said: "The sun is shining - we thought it was going to be rainy. This has been good hard work and we feel we are really achieving something." Crow Recycling office manager Lucy Lynch said: "It was brilliant to have the help. The team worked really hard and we're really grateful they chose us for their team volunteering event. The building is called Orchard House but until now there was no orchard. Jaguar Land Rover along with with our grant from the National Lottery and Team SpringBoard CIC's horticultural know how have helped us put that right. And we have a woodchip surface between the beds, a step where one was needed, compost bins and the beginnings of better access." The gardening project is a partnership with community gardening organisation Team SpringBoard CIC. Team Springboard's [...]

BBC reporter Marion McNamee visited Crow for live broadcast on the BBC Coventry and Warwickshire's breakfast show. There was an earlier than usual start so Marion could have everything ready in time to go on air just before 8am then again later in the morning. Chairman of trustees Bill Smith explained to listeners about Crow's volunteering opportunities for people with learning difficulties. Lucy Lynch talked about volunteering opportunities for disabled people. Esther Kovacs, Team Springboard's horticultural manager, talked about the new food growing garden she's helping Crow with. Thanks to Marion and Phil at the BBC for getting Crow on air. Here is a link to the show with Crow on 1 hour and 52 minutes into the programme https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0j9zs36 Here is the report about Crow on the BBC website https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg11pxgdlro

A big thanks from Crow Recycling to members of Good Gym who helped Crow Recycling set up a gardening project. The group visited Crow Recycling in their spare time to spread an incredible three tonnes of top soil on the area which will become a vegetable and fruit growing garden. They ran from Coventry city centre to Crow’s warehouse in Sparkbrook Street, Hillfields, where the top soil was waiting in three bags of a tonne each. With a wheelbarrows, spades and shovels they spread it across an area levelled for the purpose. The gardening project will see Crow Recycling’s disabled volunteers growing food for themselves and for city food banks and social supermarkets. Crow Recycling is working with community garden not for profit Team Springboard CIC on the project. Good Gym were overseen by Team Springboard horticultural manager Esther Kovacs. Crow Recycling office manager Lucy Lynch said: “A big thank you to Good Gym for their amazing feat of spreading out three tonnes of soil. The certainly had a work out and we have the beginnings of a garden.”

Everyone at Crow Recycling knows the muscles in their legs are stronger than the muscles in their backs thanks to a grant for manual handling training from the Heart of England Community Foundation. The cash from the Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire Communities Fund has paid for one of the Crow staff members to train as a manual handling instructor. Once he had done the training he teamed up with fellow staff and some of Crow's trustees to devise and teach a course tailored to the needs of Crow's volunteers. Most of the Crow Recycling volunteers have learning difficulties so the course included lots of practical skills, plenty of time to learn key theory and verbal rather than written assessments. Office manager Lucy Lynch said: "The course means trainees can tackle a wider range of tasks at Crow. They have the knowledge, the practical experience and the certificate to prove it if they want to move on to a more demanding work placement or a paid job."