The first Reduce & Recycle Hub - an Acton-based initiative to reduce waste and live more sustainably - in 2025 takes place on the second, not the usual first Saturday of the month. A tactical move? The January hub has a special seasonal event: unloved gift swap! After the Twelve Days of Christmas, we enter the season when bare Christmas trees suddenly start populating the pavements and supermarkets experience a reenactment of year 1066 where minced pies are the Anglo-Saxons and easter bunnies are the Normans. It feels like the right time to live the principle that one man's junk is another's treasure and let go of those unwanted presents.

Tonight, GoodGym Ealing, reinforced by GoodGym Hounslow, united in Acton to promote the make love, not waste mindset and increase the chances that no Christmas gifts in Acton go unloved. The runners Mohamed, Steph Ducat, Sevan and Kash met the guests from Hounslow, Alan and Michelle - both critical to distributing all 400 leaflets before our fingers get frozen!

The temperature was dropping close to 0 degrees. We felt it in our fingers, we felt it in our toes - Well, the chill was all around us and so the feeling grew! Only Kash got to wear an extra layer - and not just any layer, but the legendary item worn so far only by Ana from GoodGym Hounslow: the Cape of Thousand Deeds of West London crafted by a skilled GoodGymer Milly. Kash couldn't part with her backpack, which resulted in quite a unique sight!

You look like the glamorous version of Hunchback of Notre Dame - Michelle

To distribute all 400 leaflets, the GoodGymers went down a different avenue than usual: namely Avenue Road, Avenue Crescent, Avenue Gardens, Mill Hill Road and Heathfield Road. Thanks to having six people on the team, the task didn't take ages and everyone could spend the rest of the time allocated to the group run sampling the Acton's delight: karak chaii! The chaii places became a staple of post-Acton tasks in winter and the Ealing folk wanted to introduce the Hounslow neighbours to that treat. Alan, who kindly got us a whole round of chaii, was amazed by how magnificent beverage that was!

Having dealt with a task of such gravity - searching for recycled love for unloved Christmas gifts - the team deserved a little snack. As the lyrics of Habanera from Bizet's Carmen go Love is a rebellious bird that naan can tame, Kash got some cheese-filled naan and tried to slice it for sharing in the utmost messy way. Taming melted cheese does not come as easily as a thousand good deeds.

Next Tuesday we are visiting Walpole Park to dig out some bramble roots - sign up now for next week's group task! The week after we are back in Acton for another recycling-themed initiative: creating the Reduce & Recycle Hub banner and work on other upcycling crafts that benefit local communities.

On a very windy Sunday morning our GoodGymers at Acton junior parkrun did everything to prevent the scanned finish tokens from flying away. Another would-be escapee was the GoodGym flag weighed down by the shoes we collected to be recycled with Jog On. The last challenge of that morning was not letting the flyers to be blown by the wind at our third session.

After a break for a coffee, Alan, Mohamed, Sevan and Kash ventured to the streets of Acton to distribute 400 leaflets to spread the word about the Reduce and Recycle Hub before 7th of December. In the spirit of sustainability, they decided to:

• Recycle the task listing to include leafletting for another partner at the same time
• Reduce the time needed to help promote two sustainability initiatives in Acton
• Reuse the bundle of flyers they had collected after the Tuesday session for Library of Things!

The highlight of the Reduce and Recycle Hub flyer that caught the public's attention was the Jolly Christmas Jumper Swap. Hopefully the residents so excited about replacing their last year's jumpers with a new (preloved) outfits will find their way to the hub in the couple of weeks.

The Library of Things features didn't go unnoticed either!

Lady 1: £8.50 for a wet and dry vacuum per day is good.
Lady 2: If only I could hire someone to do it!
Sevan: You can't hire the people only the stuff.
Lady 2: For enough money, you can hire anyone.

Any takers?

On a warm October evening, Sevan and Kash set off from Ealing Broadway, weaving through the lively streets towards Acton. Their mission? To spread the word about the November Reduce & Recycle Hub, an initiative to encourage residents to extend the lifespan of their items, avoid unnecessary purchases, and recycle clothes, small electrical items, and books.

The streets grew quieter as the runners approached The Vale and branched off onto side roads to start their walking route. They dared to venture into the Bermuda Triangle of Acton, where they had managed to misplace their group in another leafletting endeavour in the past. This time, however, they stuck close, which was not difficult in such a small team.

The Halloween season hung in the air, though the streets were surprisingly bare of decorations - adding to the feeling of being ghosted as the tandem had expected a few new runners to join following the exciting Let's Lift the Curfew campaign. Maybe the invisible companions followed them after all and secretly helped with the task as Sevan and Kash managed to drop 291 leaflets in an hour - not bad for a duo!

Last week GoodGym Ealing gang ran to Acton to team up with Ealing Repair Cafe to upcycle old jeans and make draught excluders for the Soup Kitchen clients. To keep the partnership and the recycling theme going, the GoodGymers returned to Acton this Tuesday night to support another project set up by the people behind Ealing Repair Cafe: the Reduce and Recycle Hub - a monthly event created to help Acton and Ealing residents think about what they consume, start using and wearing items for longer, reduce how much they waste and reuse their items more.

Steph, Sevan and Kash met at Bodyline in Ealing Broadway for a 3 km run to Acton to do leafletting for the hub. For Steph, the run was like military training as he carried a heavy work rucksack. The GoodGymers, being low on numbers, decided on a tactical move and slightly changed the task location to tackle buildings with more residents than the regular street houses. The tower blocks between Acton Town and South Acton were within a 15-minute walk from the hub and had an abundance of letter boxes - a real treat for a small team! It took 25 minutes to distribute 400 flyers with a special edition event on them - the school uniform swap! Sevan was accused by one of the residents of knocking on the doors (which he hadn't been doing) while the kids were sleeping. At least we knew that people with children lived in the tower blocks, which reassured us we targeted the right spot!

With the early finish, we headed to the monthly social location to meet other GoodGymers and GoodGymers-to-be.

Next week we are running towards Perivale to create an IMPACTful Dressing Room at the IMPACT Theatre - sign up now!

Three runners in red joined forces to promote the Reduce & Recycle HUB for Acton Market which occurs on the 1st Saturday of the month. After a short run, they started leafleting and walked around 3km around the market area. They were once again closely monitored by our 4 legged friends...mainly the cats who were at the doorsteps, on car bonnets or wondering the streets. One of them looked like a panther and was on top of his patrolling and keeping and eye on milk bottles from the bonnet of a car park on the drive way. Were they checking the goodgymers of waiting for the milkman and his van as a lot of houses had the empty milk glass bottles in front of the doors?Milk delivery for our feline friends? Chris , Sevan and Steph Ducat distributed just over 300 leaflets

Exceptionnal community mission or group walk on a hot Thursday evening in Acton Town or Catland. 3 Musketeers joined forces to spread the word about the Reduce and Recycle Hub happening on the 6th of July at Acton Market. Steph Ducat arrived early with his 4 envelopes which he would share with Kash and Sevan who arrived running through the busy streets near Acton station. This regular leaflet task is known to be in the town run by the 4 legged Mafia : will the Musketeers meet the boss Puss in boots or will the town have been taken over by the Doberman crew? As another very hot day, they wondered if the 2 gangs would be out or hiding in the shade to keep their cool! The start of the group walk/run/jog was very quite and the only dogs or cats to be seen were the signs on the doors, the door mats or the pet store...pretty harmless and non agressive dogs. Puss in boots not to be seen. Then the dogs started barking from inside the houses when the Musketeers started putting leaflets through the letterboxes. This probably woke the cats as started to see the stray cats on the streets. The cats checked what was in the envelopes and gave their seal of approval to the 3 Musketeers who covered nearly 3km each in cat and dog territory to finish and enjoy a well deserve iced chaii. Nobody was hurt or attacked and the area is still under the reign of Puss in boots and his crew.