Monday 27 October 2008

Yes sir, three bags full!

So here's the thing. I've just finished university and live with my parents. We have recently moved house and haven't really finished unpacking, let alone 'settling in'. We have also downsized from quite a healthy sized kitchen to something more akin to the galley on a canal boat.

These are just some of my excuses for the shameful figure of 3 bin bags of trash which my household has produced in the last week or so. The composter is on order and I'm working on a scheme to separate out ANYTHING that can be recycled 'at source', so to speak. But in this day and age there really is no excuse for producing that amount of landfill-bound garbage. However, 16 hours into waste free week and I'm proud to say that I've not been responsible for a single morsel of rubbish. As I write, my girlfriend is out buying a deliciously waste-free lamb something-or-another for dinner, and the only rubbish I anticipate producing today is the lid from my yoghurt which I didn't get round to eating at lunch time. Note: please do not put yoghurt pots in your recycling bin! Unfortunately that type of plastic cannot yet be recycled in Norfolk, despite those annoyingly misleading 'recyclable' labels. I will be putting my yoghurt pot aside for our children's Christmas workshop where it will take pride of place in a shiny Christmas garland (feel free to donate any of your used yoghurt pots to Breckland Council Environmental Services. Seriously, please do). Yoghurt pots also make fantastic cress growers or seed planters - so there's no reason to chuck 'em!

To add a little to Friday's rant about supermarkets, I went in to one on Saturday to do some research on the feasibility of going waste free. I'd been asked to pick up some chorizo sausage so I headed for the deli, where I was disappointed to find they only had them encased in plastic. With a heavy heart, I picked a sausage. I was then shocked when the attendant tried to wrap it in yet more plastic, as you would do with meat cut straight off the bone, only so the price label could be stuck on it! Madness...

4 comments:

rae-ann said...

What a great day - I think we can let you off one yogurt pot lid and it's great you have found a loving home for the pots.

I'm hearing you on the supermarket rant ;)

Mrs green

Almost Mrs Average said...

Shame about the sausage, but what a great start ;-D

Katy said...

I had the same plastic-in-plastic problem at the local butcher as well!

On the Freecycle Cafe (chat group) I run, plastics recycling questions come up time and time again. I think people would welcome some communication about "what we don't collect for recycling (and why)", as well as the leaflets about what CAN go in the recycling.

Martin Mahony said...

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll definately mention it when we're planning our next communications bonanza!