Zero Waste Week - tell us your best upcycling and re-use tips

calleyw

Doing my bit by using up gravy powder dated Nov 2012 and ground coffee dated may 2013 LOL!!!

Yours

Calley

good_advice

This afternoon I have brought into the conservatory some plants to over winter, Wasteful letting Jack Frost kill them.

cepheus

MSE_Andrea wrote: »

Just bumping this up as we've moved it from the Green and Ethical board

excellent though this board is, it's rather worrying that this thread had to be moved from the [STRIKE]how to make a packet from Solar Panel subsidies[/STRIKE] sorry Green and Ethical board.

I've always felt the most sustainable culture is a 'don't use, use less, don't waste' philosophy which is also highly consistent with moneysaving of course!

[Deleted User]

How I hate the supermarkets for using this awful stuff to 'shrinkwrap' food.Why do you need to shrinkwrap a cucumber FGS,or even a bunch of banana's.Bananas come ready covered already.
I try to use my local greengrocer for fruit and veg and last week he had a great offer of 4 large navel oranges for 99p, similar in the SM was 1.80 in a net !!! My local chap also will sell half a cabbage which for pensioners living alone is a good bargain .I usually buy one every 10 days or so at 35p and cut off enough for me to steam and wrap the rest in the fridge in a bit of foil and it keeps very well I also wrap celery in foil and it will keep for 2 weeks at least.
No markets near to where I live unfortunately but several farm shops which my DD gets a bag of spuds from(she has 6 in her family) so well worth the effort for her.onions I buy and dice up and freeze.

kboss2010

It's the only thing I don't like abt Aldi - all the veg comes in plastic! Also, Scotland, you need to get your markets back!! You wouldn't believe how difficult it is up here to buy fresh, good quality, reasonably priced fruit and veg from a green grocers/farmers markets!

Aberdeen has NO green grocers and one veg stall (on Friday mornings and the first Saturday of the month) with a very limited selection consisting of eggs, potatoes, onions, leeks, carrots, cabbages, kale and, seasonally, raspberries and strawberries. The few other "farm shops" I've come across out of town are fancy, gourmet expensive deli-style shops that charge a fortune for fresh produce.

I miss the Barrows in my hometown of Manchester and Bury market where I used to live.

ginnyknit

Kboss, Bury market is still thriving although Bolton market has declined lately. Manchester doesnt seem to have the barrows that were at the back of Tib street however we have trendy ones in Piccadilly, not much in the way of bargains. I used to buy so much on the old barrows that I could barely get home

I have cut down on the plastic wrapping on everything, no carrier bags at all in the last 2 weeks after a concerted effort. Wheely bin barely half full in 2 weeks - all plastic I did have was folded and sifted all other rubbish to ensure everybit went in the re-cycling as possible. Still trying to convince Oh that if rubbish is in an old carrier bag you have to empty the bag into the bin and NOT tie it up and chuck it in. If you tie it up you fill the bin and have lots of wasted space :mad:

Realised there was a pot of emulsion in the spare room that Ds left so can spruce up the loo and bathroom.

Tidied the garden and half filled compost bin with old compost, depleted veg plants and a bit of compost booster bought from the £shop. I will not be buying compost next year. Hoping to gather fallen leaves and pop them in a bag made from an old net curtain, tied up and left behind the shed to break down - makes excellent compost eventually.

kboss2010

ginnyknit wrote: »

Kboss, Bury market is still thriving although Bolton market has declined lately. Manchester doesnt seem to have the barrows that were at the back of Tib street however we have trendy ones in Piccadilly, not much in the way of bargains. I used to buy so much on the old barrows that I could barely get home
.

My folks still live in Bury so whenever I go home the first thing I do with my Dad is go to Bury market lol! I'm really that sad! Last time I took my Scottish bf and friends and they were amazed at how cheap everything was compared to North of the Border lol! The worst part is, that most of the fresh fish on English markets comes from Peterhead (just North of Aberdeen) and the berries from Dundee yet it's cheaper to buy them in Manchester - what the heck?!

Is that fruit and veg stall next to the second hand book stall still on Tib Street? I haven't been to Mcr for a while but I used to walk thru there every day after school to get cheap fruit and veg - my school bag was always heaving with produce for less than £5 lol!

THIRZAH

I used to buy from those stalls in Manchester too. Most of the markets around here seemed to have declined. Stockport is much smaller and I wasn't very impressed with Ashton when I went there last week.

nursemaggie

Well that looks like most of us today either live in Greater Manchester or used to. I don't know what Bolton Market used to be like but I do know I love it. At least the food part I use very little of the rest.

It had several lovely butchers fishmongers and greengrocers. I do nearly half my shopping in money terms in the food market. I do use the knitting/sewing shop though not for yarn it is poor quality.

I think I love the market because I have been deprived of a market for the last 17 years. I love wondering in the last hour of the day and getting all the bargains. I have planned to go to Bury every Friday or Saturday since we moved here. Only three Fridays has it not poured with rain. Two of those we have had visitors and the other I had to go for a CT scan.

This week I have to go all the way to Withenshawe Hospital on Thursday so I expect it will be lovely on Friday and I will be too tired.

It is people putting convenience before quality and price that is killing the markets. We should have a national champagne to save our markets.

Agree with you Cepheus

Katiehound

hey zero waste week has gone but I am feeling very pleased with myself- got to post it somewhere!! I've just made a couple of bags out of last year's Christmas 'paper' tablecloths. They are not actually paper but some kind of plastic. I know they won't last as long as a fabric bag but they are saved from the waste bin for a few more uses - and they are seasonally decorated- think Scandi Christmas!!