Lunch time Hybrid meeting - 1pm - Steve Clark YES Recycling Glenrothes

On Thursday 16th June President Brian Johnson welcomed 16 club Rotarians and 1 guest Steve Clark to this our lunch time meeting.

Jim Boyd mentioned that he had been at the Centenary dinner of the Kirkcaldy club where ex PM Gordon Brown had given an excellent talk about the forthcoming Amazon Project. He also mentioned about the 40th anniversary charter dinner of Burntisland and Kinghorn club.

President Brian mentioned that along with new member Jean Haughey, that they had been along to a PTA meeting at Coaltown Primary school last Wednesday evening where they gave those present an insight into Rotary and in particular Rota Kids, where the school had shown interest in being involved in various projects that the Rotary Club are involved with and where they too would like to be involved. He also advised that during July we would only be having informal events with no lunch time meetings. A past President’s lunch was being organised at the Pitlessie Inn on 28th July 2022.

Treasurer Geoff Sampson advised that confirmation of membership was required by the end of June and membership fees were due effective from early July. He spoke about the afternoon tea and the Comedy Brunch. A further £220 was being sent through DEC for the Ukrainian appeal.

Our speaker this week was Steve Clark from YES Recycling Glenrothes. The Buckinghamshire-based, privately-owned recycling specialist, Yes Recycling has announced its plans for a state-of-the-art recycling facility in Glenrothes, Fife Yes Recycling, an experienced recycler of hard-to-recycle plastics (including bank notes, POS garment hangers, printed packaging film and post-industrial and construction waste-streams) has invested multiple millions of pounds into the mid-Fife facility, which will open in late October. It has received £520,000 from the Circular Economy Investment Fund, administered by Zero Waste Scotland with funding from the European Regional Development Fund and the Scottish Government. The plant will feature new state-of-the-art patented recycling technology and will recycle 15,000 tonnes per annum of low-grade post-consumer plastic. This will then be processed into pellets and flake, as well as creating a new generation of high strength Ecosheet, an alternative to plywood. The new generation Ecosheet will positively impact the construction and manufacturing sectors. The new product is as strong as plywood, in line with plywood pricing, and with a much greater life span than plywood. Ecosheet also diminishes the environmental impact that plywood has as it is recyclable at end of life. Much of the recycling material for the factory will come from Dunfermline-based Cireco, as well as some commercial streams. The new factory will create up to 60 jobs, which recruitment started for in August, for a wide range of roles including office management and facility floor.

The Rotary Vote of thanks was given by Ewen Macdonald.

Over last weekend, 17th and 18th June the district 1010 conference was held in the Rothes Halls, Glenrothes, where we were supporting District with some of the Admin.  A Jack Vettriano talk was given on the Friday night, where our Young Musicians Kirsten Fraser was singing, and Pianist Gordon Tulloch entertained the guests. At the conference on the Saturday along with two other clubs who gave separate talks on environmental projects, Geoff Sampson gave a 10- 15-minute talk about our Ukraine appeal and on behalf of her family our Ukrainian Natalya Averina responding with a letter written by her brother who had managed to reach Scotland after a week’s trek from war torn Ukraine, he himself and their parents’ houses having been totally destroyed by the Russians. They managed to survive an attack on a 12-car convoy where only 6 cars survived. There were two other Peace Scholars from Afghanistan and Iran who spoke about the ordeals they experienced with chemical attacks and the Taliban in their country. 3 very emotional talks from 3 young women. At night the conference finished off with an excellent Ceilidh.

This coming week Thursday 23rd June 2022 is a lunchtime meeting at the Gilvenbank Hotel commencing at 1pm prompt with this being our Presidential handover day. Unusually President Brian is staying on as President for a further year, with Scott Galloway taking over as Senior Vice President.

If you were interested in supporting the community and international projects get in touch by Private message on The Rotary Club of Glenrothes Facebook page. You will be made most welcome.