Hugh's War on Waste

PasturesNew

VfM4meplse wrote: »

I've never come across this before, does it exist in isolation or do you have other specific fears?

Oh, if only it were in isolation. Included in my kitchen fears you can put: fear of anything electrical; fear of things that get hot (oven/hob) ; fear that everything's going to catch fire; fear of odd smells and noises. Fear of gas/water/electrical systems in general.

Petrified of the washing machine - that it'll burst into flames when it goes fast - so I used it once, got scared, now use the launderette. It's also under the gas boiler, so scared it'd catch fire and blow up all the gas/boiler.

I've been here 18 months and not used the oven once, daren't. Or the hob, petrified/daren't. There's a hood over the hob (never had one before), turned it on to try to see if I was scared of it, after a few seconds it "smelt like burning grease" so I turned it off.... won't use/do that again.

Scared that every time I empty the washing up bowl there'll be a water problem. Scared every time I use the water, hot or cold, that the whole water system will explode on me. Scared of the hot/gas system that it'll go pop or start banging. Scared of having a bath with hot water as I can't be 100% sure the boiler's shut down downstairs when I turn off the tap .....

And it's a fully modern, safe, house, with all the building regs in place and everything Everything works and is safe .... I am just scared of everything.

GreyQueen

Slightly off-tangent, but there are interesting websites such as zerowastehome.com about reducing the amount of refuse and recycling produced by households to almost nothing. The Johnsons of ZWH entire household refuse per year is one kilner type jar - 2 adults, 2 teen lads and a dog. Year in, year out. And they are totally not granola crunching hippies btw.

I'm not hardcore about avoiding packaging but still only produce the volume of a child's football in rubbish-rubbish per two weeks. Even if I were a in couple rather than a singleton, and producing twice that, it would still take me about 3 months to fill a conventional 240 litre wheelie bin.

Recycling at every household I've been a part of has outnumbered refuse by a factor of 3 or 4 to 1, and that excludes the composting, done at home, and handled separately.

Perhaps it's long past time that we individual householders looked into our own bins, as well as justifiably criticising the habits of retailers, and consider what we could be doing to reduce our output.

Right about now, local authortiies up and down the land will be inviting input from their council tax payers re the budgets which will be set for financial year 2016-2017. Put your two pennorth in and decide if you want to pay more council tax overall, or spend more money on handling refuse and recycling, or would rather the money went on other things.

honeythewitch

PasturesNew wrote: »

Oh, if only it were in isolation. Included in my kitchen fears you can put: fear of anything electrical; fear of things that get hot (oven/hob) ; fear that everything's going to catch fire; fear of odd smells and noises. Fear of gas/water/electrical systems in general.

Petrified of the washing machine - that it'll burst into flames when it goes fast - so I used it once, got scared, now use the launderette. It's also under the gas boiler, so scared it'd catch fire and blow up all the gas/boiler.

I've been here 18 months and not used the oven once, daren't. Or the hob, petrified/daren't. There's a hood over the hob (never had one before), turned it on to try to see if I was scared of it, after a few seconds it "smelt like burning grease" so I turned it off.... won't use/do that again.

Scared that every time I empty the washing up bowl there'll be a water problem. Scared every time I use the water, hot or cold, that the whole water system will explode on me. Scared of the hot/gas system that it'll go pop or start banging. Scared of having a bath with hot water as I can't be 100% sure the boiler's shut down downstairs when I turn off the tap .....

And it's a fully modern, safe, house, with all the building regs in place and everything Everything works and is safe .... I am just scared of everything.

Gosh that must be really hard for you to deal with, and it sounds like you must be really brave to tackle all those things on a regular basis.

PasturesNew

honeythewitch wrote: »

Gosh that must be really hard for you to deal with, and it sounds like you must be really brave to tackle all those things on a regular basis.

I don't tackle them. I avoid them. Luckily I'm fine with the microwave and the slow cooker and the toaster. Although, to be fair, the toaster does scare me quite a bit as I stand beside it imagining that it's about to burst into flames from past/dropped/dried crumbs.

The kettle's OK, although I do imagine it's about to go BANG and trip the electrics every time I turn it on.

I can't leave much running. If I do ever get to the point where I feel capable of using the oven/hob, then I'd certainly NOT be able to leave the room at all until the food's cooked and I've triple checked I've turned it all off.

I can leave the microwave running, but I never have it on for more than 5 minute bursts max. I daren't. The SC's fine in the kitchen - and I just check it hourly.

It's like having a silent movie running in my head whenever I do anything. I am doing something .... and the movie in my head is showing me the explosions etc.... it's not nice really.

It's like living in your own parallel universe. Not sure if such a thing has a name .... but that's what's in my head 24/7.... the movie of my alternate life.

[Deleted User]

I have to admit we rarely even half fill our general bin but we do fill the recycling bin on a regular basis because our council will recycle a fair range of things. We have half a dozen thriving compost heaps, we always put un re-useable glass in the glass bank,(I never throw out a good jar with a lid), older clothes go to the clothing bank as do shoes and we even have a book bank in the village for the air ambulance's shop so any books needing to be shed go there. We also have one other wonderful asset in the regular jumble sale run by our uniform associations, particularly the Sea Scouts who some 6 times a year pop a little flyer through doors here with the date of the next sale on it so that on the Friday evening before the Saturday sale any donations may be put outside the door or at the end of the drive and the scouts and leaders come and collect them and take them to the village hall where they are sorted and then we all go and buy things someone else donated, like a stately dance. It's a wonderful working relationship with the village and I'm to the point of returning some things, particularly books for someone else to enjoy. It really works as a system and I'm certain keeps many things out of the rubbish chain.

honeythewitch

GreyQueen wrote: »

Slightly off-tangent, but there are interesting websites such as zerowastehome.com about reducing the amount of refuse and recycling produced by households to almost nothing. The Johnsons of ZWH entire household refuse per year is one kilner type jar - 2 adults, 2 teen lads and a dog. Year in, year out. And they are totally not granola crunching hippies btw.

I'm not hardcore about avoiding packaging but still only produce the volume of a child's football in rubbish-rubbish per two weeks. Even if I were a in couple rather than a singleton, and producing twice that, it would still take me about 3 months to fill a conventional 240 litre wheelie bin.

Recycling at every household I've been a part of has outnumbered refuse by a factor of 3 or 4 to 1, and that excludes the composting, done at home, and handled separately.

Perhaps it's long past time that we individual householders looked into our own bins, as well as justifiably criticising the habits of retailers, and consider what we could be doing to reduce our output.

Right about now, local authortiies up and down the land will be inviting input from their council tax payers re the budgets which will be set for financial year 2016-2017. Put your two pennorth in and decide if you want to pay more council tax overall, or spend more money on handling refuse and recycling, or would rather the money went on other things.

I am absolutely in awe at your tiny amount of rubbish.:eek: Mine is a mountain, and I have no idea how it can be reduced when everything comes wrapped in plastic twice?

eandjsmum

VfM4meplse wrote: »

I would like to know a bit more about the supply chain for these two firms.

Yes its annoying, but isn't the cause ignorance and lack of thought / maturity rather than intent? (Am thinking of the peroxide creature in the cafe). In which case HFW is doing the world a service on this occasion.

Aldi supermarket secrets Dispatches Monday 8pm channel 4 May answer some of this

honeythewitch

PasturesNew wrote: »

I don't tackle them. I avoid them. Luckily I'm fine with the microwave and the slow cooker and the toaster. Although, to be fair, the toaster does scare me quite a bit as I stand beside it imagining that it's about to burst into flames from past/dropped/dried crumbs.

The kettle's OK, although I do imagine it's about to go BANG and trip the electrics every time I turn it on.

I can't leave much running. If I do ever get to the point where I feel capable of using the oven/hob, then I'd certainly NOT be able to leave the room at all until the food's cooked and I've triple checked I've turned it all off.

It's like having a silent movie running in my head whenever I do anything. I am doing something .... and the movie in my head is showing me the explosions etc.... it's not nice really.

It's like living in your own parallel universe. Not sure if such a thing has a name .... but that's what's in my head 24/7.... the movie of my alternate life.

It sounds very much like OCD. (which is nothing to do with cleaning)
Have you considered counselling? There are methods which can teach you how you block out the intrusive thoughts, and a lot of people find it really helpful.

GreyQueen

It's not really very hard. I only have one bin in the flat, which is actually a black plastic flower bucket from Morries lined with a carrier bag. Once the bag has been worn out for other purposes and is grubby or partially torn, of course.

In it right now is a sweetie bag, a wrapper from a baguette, a plastic sleeve off a pizza, the top seal off a 4 pint milk bottle and some teabags minus the tea-leaves. I rip these open to decant the tea for the allotment composter - the bags contain a % of non-biodegradable material and hang around in the soil like 'orrible little bogies, annoying me.

Re MrsLW's example of the individually-wrapped bars inside a cardboard sleeve inside another plastic wrapper - I leave the beggars in the store. Too much waste.

My rubbish-rubbish will contain non-recyclable plastics, the strips my tablets come in (life-saving medication, can't get it loose in bottles) and a few low-volume things like that. Glass, cardboard, non-plasticised paper, plastic milk jugs, t.p. roll cores and tin cans from food all belong in the recycling bin and that's where they go. I'm slitting open a large tube of handcream to use the dregs and there isn't any recycling facility for that so it'll become rubbish-rubbish, as will the toothpaste tube when I've finished with it. The roll-on deo has a couple more days' worth in it then it hits the recycling.

Worn-out textiles are used as rags at home or sent for recycling via a charity shop which takes them (not all do, ask first, and it's very helpful to separate them from other donations and clearly label them as rags). Things which aren't worn out but are re-usable are charity-shopped or freegled. As will be any household item. I once took a defunct stainless steel and plastic kettle apart with a screwdriver to put the different elements in the right recycling up at the tip. Only took 5 mins.

Wornout handlinits are pulled out and reknitted - I'm in the midst of a charity blanket right now from ex-jumpers and small amounts of virgin yarn leftover from other projects.

If it's a slow night on the telly, you could try auditing your household refuse; what it is, is it in the right place, could it have been recycled, could it have been bought in a different format, or not bought at all? If nothing else, could you have scrunched it up, knotted it, cut it up to reduce the space it takes up?

I work for one of the English councils and answer questions about refuse and recycling as part of my job. A standard wheelie is 240 litres (volume equal to two black sacks). Pre-wheelie, you would have had a dustbin which held one black sack, so a wheelie on a fortnightly-collection cycle hasn't actually robbed you of any service, you're just getting it differently.

PasturesNew

My waste bin items are about 1/2 a carrier bag per week, max.
My recycling bin could probably be put out once a year if I spent a bit of time ensuring it was tightly packed - as it is it needs to go out about once every 3-4 months. My main culprits are empty bean tins, Pepsi tins and cardboard food packaging (which I fold and slide inside the largest one, so about one fish finger box's worth per month).

As I rarely buy things in the first instance, I've nothing much to chuck out. Spuds come in a plastic bag (one bag/month), but I can't buy them loose at the local market as I'd have to pay for parking/fuel to get them so it'd more than double the cost of the spuds! And the spuds are pricier than the "cheapest" ones I buy.

Today's rubbish is nothing. I've had two pieces of bread from the loaf; I've had 3 teaspoons of coffee from the jar; I've used a teaspoon of marg on my toast and spuds; I've used 40grams of cheese.

This level of consumption would produce one loaf wrapper/week, 1 coffee jar/month, 1 marg tub/2 months; 1 cheese wrapper/fortnight.