On Thursday night Steph and Kash met at the Acton Town station for the final (this time really final) leafletting task for the last Reduce and Recycle Hub. The two hit the estate with many letterboxes on each building to make the most of the task in the short time preceding the Saturday hub. Fingers crossed that some residents will find the flyers and pop in to Acton Market to recycle something they wanted to throw away.

When Sevan and Kash reached the group run starting location, they wondered if Mohamed had already arrived - they couldn't see his red t-shirt anywhere. Suddenly, they noticed a ninja figure clad all in black. It was Mohamed in his brand new 50 good deeds t-shirt that had been delivered today! A leafletting task was a fitting one for the debut of the black top - you don't want to bring that unique outfit to a painting session, Mohamed!

The three followed Uxbridge Road to get from Ealing Broadway to Acton town centre, then hit the Mill Hill Park streets. That was the area chosen to announce the departure of the Reduce and Recycle Hub - a monthly event encouraging the residents to think about what they consume, reduce how much they waste, and recycle their items responsibly at the hub or elsewhere. Sadly, the March event was going to be the last of the series and tonight was supposed to be our final task for that community project.

While distributing the leaflets, we encountered uneven surfaces lurking in the dark (fortunately, no one fell after tripping), friendly cats, No junk mail letterboxes and other attractions. Despite the team being small, we managed to distribute most of the flyers within one hour task and ended up with a small stack of undistributed leaflets. Since it is the last instalment of the hub, we'll be loyal to the principle of the hub and reduce waste ourselves by finishing off the distribution on Thursday evening - come and join the final-final task if you are around!

It's hard to believe we are already three weeks into January and the next Reduce and Recycle Hub is approaching soon - on the first day of February. For GoodGym Ealing, that means lending organisers a hand and exploring the residential streets of Acton while dropping leaflets promoting the hub into letterboxes.

Tonight's route included Acton's street art trail - with the obligatory photo at the shark mural at the corner of Stuart and Newburg Roads. We could not miss the beautiful mural of the lady wearing a kimono on Myrtle Road. The same street hid a surprise: in the Poet’s Corner Community Garden, we found not only cherry blossoms painted on a house wall but also a real blossoming cherry tree in front of the wall. Check the photos if you don't believe! Is the Spring around the corner?

To distribute 400 flyers, we had a strong team of eight GoodGymers - with a special guest among the Ealing folk: Jack from the Central Team. Welcome to your first Ealing group run, Jack - hopefully, the first of many to come! Jack joined Kash's 4-people squad with Steph and Chris, while Sevan led Christos, Mohamed and Liuba through the parallel streets to meet with the first group where the roads joined.

The success of the one-hour-long task had a tradeoff: freezing hands. Before heading back to Ealing Broadway, the whole team fulfilled the tradition of Acton group runs and stopped to warm their hands with a cup of chai. Afterwards, Liuba, Steph, Chris, Sevan, Jack and Kash ran back to Ealing and Christos and Mohamed made their way home on their own.

Next week we are running to a different part of the borough: Blondin Park in Northfields to mulch the trees we are yet to plant later this week. Sign up now for next Tuesday's task!

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!