My war on waste!!!

lillibet_dripping

... and look at this https://sweden.se/nature/the-swedish-recycling-revolution/
So, it can be done.

edwink

lillibet_dripping wrote: »

If Germany can do it, why can't we?

Here Here I fully agree with that statement lillibet, well said

Edwink x

sistercas

JackieO wrote: »

Here here suki1964 I think you have hit the nail on the head.I too waste very little and whether its food,utilities or paper ,waste is waste and if only 1% of the population thought about what we all try to do on here, it may help change our land from being a gigantic rubbish tip.

I have been recycling since I was a little girl back in the 1940s when everything was reused as much as was possible.There were no throw away things then as there was very little around to buy in the shops as factory production for all sorts of things had slumped when factories were turned over to munitions.
In the decade of the 1940s many women worked and had to send their children away to safer places.In the 1950s things slowly got better although I can still remember rationing and shortages of all sorts of stuff.Christmas for me as a little girl wasn't fancy electrical computer games, it was a dolls house that my late brother made for me out of orange box wood and painted with scavenged paint God know where he got it from but the outside looked suspiciously like the local council paint .The outside was painted brown,cream and green :):) the inside he managed to cover the walls with off cuts of paper he had begged from the ironmongers big books of paper samples The little sitting room actually had flock wallpaper which I thought was so smart:) My middle brother made me tiny furniture out of left over bits of balsa wood from his model airplane kits and the even managed to make a tiny sink and gas stove out of an old tin army plate of my late Dads.The amount of work that had gone into making me this dolls house must have been hours ,but I had no idea until Christmas morning when I was given it .I don't think I could speak for awhile I was so excited as I didn't know anyone who had such brilliant brothers as I had.
True my Late Mum didn't go out to work but then again she didn't have all the labour saving gadgets that we all take for granted today either .She never owned an ironing board it was done on the kitchen table with an old army blanket and an old sheet on top.The iron was a flat iron heated up on the range until my Dad bought her an electric on in the mid 1950s and she was chuffed to bits.That was plugged into the middle light as there were no ring mains then either and any floor plugs were not always that safe.
She had a boiler for the washing, and a mangle, and never owned a fridge,freezer washing machine or microwave but still managed to raise three healthy children.
Using less doesn't mean going back to candlelight,it just means thinking about what you have and making do with less.
I am happy to do that then I can spend what I have saved on things I enjoy ,like my family holiday annually. That's another thing Holidays were few and far between, it was usually going to stay at relations houses or them coming to stay with you.All our relations lived in Scotland so trekking up there was quite an adventure on the SMT overnight bus from Victoria and the excitement of having a blanket and sleeping on a bus was great.So we didn't have all the advantages of today's children but I wouldn't have swapped my childhood for anything .Nothing like a thick slice of toast cooked on a fork in front of an open range then spread with dripping and pepper and salt.Not a lot of money then ,but lots of good memories

I love to hear of your upbringing and the dolls house sounds amazing , as child in the 40's that must have been such a fantastic present

lillibet dripping that makes interesting reading , I'm not sure of the percentage of recycling done in the UK, but I imagine it's minuscule in comparison
One of my bugbears is litter , I've just driven down my road to see a takeaway cup blowing around on the road , why on earth can't people at least be responsible for their own waste , why do they think it's acceptable just to drop litter :mad: it really annoys me that people have so little respect for others and themselves and the environment

rockm87

Just started looking on the zero waste home blog

lillibet_dripping

rockm87 wrote: »

Just started looking on the zero waste home blog

Hello Rock :j
I've spent hours on that site! I don't think I will ever get to zero waste - some of her methods are pretty extreme. Good for inspiration though.

GreyQueen

lillibet_dripping wrote: »

Hello Rock :j
I've spent hours on that site! I don't think I will ever get to zero waste - some of her methods are pretty extreme. Good for inspiration though.

I really enjoy that blog, too, and have read her book.

I'm a long way from ZW but have got the refuse down to a smallish carrier bag per month, now. Reckon it'd take me about 9 months to fill a wheelie bin, so it's just as well that we have communal bins at these flats, so I just add my waste-morsel as necessary.

Re how out grandmothers did/ might have shopped, not every lady would have been out shopping daily or even twice weekly. A lot of people had their groceries delivered. My own mother was a 'shop girl' on the cusp of the 1950s/1960s. Customers, some who were in the town (bike deliveries) and some who were in the villages (van deliveries) had two small hardcover notebooks.

They'd mark what they'd want for the next week's delivery, and hand that over to the tradesman when he bought the current week's delivery to their home, along with the other notebook, turn and turn about. Milk was delivered out in the villages, so was bread, a majority of people grew their own veg and some kept hens. Even in the 1970 when only a few had a freezers, the ice-cream man used to arrive at tea-time on a Sunday, you'd send a kid like me out with a pudding basin and the ice-cream would be scooped straight into it, no packaging at all. Delicious stuff it was, too.

The coalman also delivered and there was (and still is) a wet-fish van coming in from the coast on a regular schedule. Country life was frequently interrupted by the milkman, the breadman, the fishman etc etc.

Country housewives certainly didn't shop daily as there was nowhere to shop in most villages and only a weekly market bus, if that, to the nearest market town. And cars were a luxury for the wealthy.

We're used to easy access to shopping and this breeds domestic disorganisation and constant running in and out of shops. I'm in my early fifties and can recall that not so long ago there was no Sunday shopping and, in many places, half-day closure on Saturday and on one weekday, which varied depending on where you lived..

What has changed a lot is that things like automatic washing machines and vacuum cleaners, as well as food-storage items like fridges and freezers, have made life a lot different for us than for our grandmothers.

My own grandmother aged 92.5 really likes her fridge-freezer and microwave and all mod cons, too.

suki1964

GreyQueen wrote: »

I really enjoy that blog, too, and have read her book.

I'm a long way from ZW but have got the refuse down to a smallish carrier bag per month, now. Reckon it'd take me about 9 months to fill a wheelie bin, so it's just as well that we have communal bins at these flats, so I just add my waste-morsel as necessary.

Re how out grandmothers did/ might have shopped, not every lady would have been out shopping daily or even twice weekly. A lot of people had their groceries delivered. My own mother was a 'shop girl' on the cusp of the 1950s/1960s. Customers, some who were in the town (bike deliveries) and some who were in the villages (van deliveries) had two small hardcover notebooks.

They'd mark what they'd want for the next week's delivery, and hand that over to the tradesman when he bought the current week's delivery to their home, along with the other notebook, turn and turn about. Milk was delivered out in the villages, so was bread, a majority of people grew their own veg and some kept hens. Even in the 1970 when only a few had a freezers, the ice-cream man used to arrive at tea-time on a Sunday, you'd send a kid like me out with a pudding basin and the ice-cream would be scooped straight into it, no packaging at all. Delicious stuff it was, too.

The coalman also delivered and there was (and still is) a wet-fish van coming in from the coast on a regular schedule. Country life was frequently interrupted by the milkman, the breadman, the fishman etc etc.

Country housewives certainly didn't shop daily as there was nowhere to shop in most villages and only a weekly market bus, if that, to the nearest market town. And cars were a luxury for the wealthy.

We're used to easy access to shopping and this breeds domestic disorganisation and constant running in and out of shops. I'm in my early fifties and can recall that not so long ago there was no Sunday shopping and, in many places, half-day closure on Saturday and on one weekday, which varied depending on where you lived..

What has changed a lot is that things like automatic washing machines and vacuum cleaners, as well as food-storage items like fridges and freezers, have made life a lot different for us than for our grandmothers.

My own grandmother aged 92.5 really likes her fridge-freezer and microwave and all mod cons, too.

Indeed GreyQueen, I'm of similier age and I too remember late night shopping was till 8pm on Thursdays and Fridays, shops run out of fresh products by Saturday lunchtime and most chip pies, fish mongrels and supermarkets didn't open Monday as there was nothing fresh to sell


We had the milkman deliver daily ( double on Saturday as Sunday was a test day) the ice cream van calling by the road daily. The pop man delivering weekly or bi weekly

And even though at the time we lived in the London suburbs, we didn't shop daily. Shopping was done on Saturday It was just the top ups done during the week, bread etc. done by mum in her lunch hour

At the same time though we never ate as much meat as we do these days. The same size chicken I spread for 6 portions would have done 10 portions back then ( not including the soup ). The 1lb of mince done 6 portions, now I add lentils to spread it that far

I can remember as clear as day the order I used to be sent into liptons to get every week

8 slices of thin cooked ham
1/2 lb mature cheddar
1/2lb middle bacon thin sliced
1/lb butter
Packet of stork ( changed to blue label marge when sainsburys arrived)

That was it, for the five of us

Then to the bakers for 4 sliced loaves

Then to the green grocers for
10lb spuds
2 lb carrots
Large cabbage or spring greens
2lb onions
1lb parsnips


( actually was the other way around cos the veg went to the bottom of the trolley lol )

Then it was the usual tins- beans , speghetti , peas etc. a dozen eggs

Mum would then go shopping and choose the joint and whatever other meat she could afford and things like salad veg and fruit ( I was too young to be sure the stall holders weren't palming me off with rubbish )


I couldn't live today without my mod cons but I still prefer to shop only when I need to and only buy what I need

Was watching something there tonight about meat maybe having a link with bowel cancer and the suggested meat portion sizes. Where I cook the only 6 oz steak comes along with a chicken fillet, a pork chop,sausage, bacon and egg. Our burgers are 6oz and the steaks start at 10oz

There is not a meal on our menu I could eat. If we do eat there we share a meal

[Deleted User]

Indeed my late Dad worked in Horseferry Road in Westminster and his half day was a Saturday,can't imagine central London having Saturday half day today :):) Our local half day in Blackheath was Thursdays.
Where I live now in Kent the few local shops that still observe half day closing are usually the lawn mower/ironmongers shop and the cobblers and its on a Wednesday.
I wouldn't mind going back to Sunday closing as today Sundays are just another day .when I was small Sunday was family day. although I suppose a lot of folk shop on Sundays now.Our local large supermarket car parks are always fuller then.Shopping has become a leisure pastime for people (not for me though, I hate shopping, and if I never went into another shop it would be too soon.)

GreyQueen

Of course, the thing about the two-notebook shopping system as decribed in my post above, is that it is less flexible than shopping in person, on shopping online. If you could get to a phone you could always call the shop to amend an order, but most people didn't have phones and wouldn't have bothered to hike to a phone box. If you didn't tick it, you didn't get it. And if you didn't specify the size, the Arkwright-type grocer Mum worked for instructed that you got sent (and charged for) the biggest version it came in.

I think supermarkets are a marvellous wheeze, don't you? We think we're so advanced when we hoik our groceries from the shelves to the trolley, the trolley on and off the conveyor, and from the trolley to the car/ bike/ up the street in our wally-trolley or our two hands. I can't imagine what our great-grandmothers would of thought of shopping once a week for a whole load of un-fresh overpackaged stuff of dubious provenance in many cases, and carrying the stuff ourselves.

I shall be buying milk later today, on my way home. But, apart from that, I shall be avoiding the shops like the plague.

eandjsmum

GreyQueen wrote: »

Of course, the thing about the two-notebook shopping system as decribed in my post above, is that it is less flexible than shopping in person, on shopping online. If you could get to a phone you could always call the shop to amend an order, but most people didn't have phones and wouldn't have bothered to hike to a phone box. If you didn't tick it, you didn't get it. And if you didn't specify the size, the Arkwright-type grocer Mum worked for instructed that you got sent (and charged for) the biggest version it came in.

I think supermarkets are a marvellous wheeze, don't you? We think we're so advanced when we hoik our groceries from the shelves to the trolley, the trolley on and off the conveyor, and from the trolley to the car/ bike/ up the street in our wally-trolley or our two hands. I can't imagine what our great-grandmothers would of thought of shopping once a week for a whole load of un-fresh overpackaged stuff of dubious provenance in many cases, and carrying the stuff ourselves.


As a full time working mum I do use supermarkets for the convenience. I just wouldn't have time to to do each shop individually. My local high street doesn't have a supermarket and no longer has a butchers or a fishmongers and the small convenience store is much more expensive than the major supermarkets. I miss not being able to visit the street market in my lunch time, I used to do that when I worked in London. My supermarket shop is combined with a trip elsewhere ie work or dropping the kids off somewhere. I am a creature of habit so Wednesday is supermarket night followed by a top-up possibly Friday night or at worst on Saturday. I don't want to spend Sunday in a supermarket or shopping centre or waste time and petrol shopping.

I did have a Saturday job in a Green-grocers when I was much younger. The week before Christmas was bedlam. We took orders both over the phone and in shop and then the stuff was packed up and delivered. I can remember the 23rd of December the shop being stacked with boxes and crates that we had no time to display the contents. One of my jobs was to make up baskets of fruit that were given as gifts.

Today I took some old drugs to the pharmacy for disposal and then recycled a pair of shoes and an old shirt at the recycling centre . The bin was so full that the flap wouldn't close. There was a piece of polyester cotton poking out from the top I was curious so I pulled it out. A piece of pale blue fabric with a ditsy pattern measuring 75cm by 150cm and with both selvages intact somehow found its way into my bag.http://static.moneysavingexpert.com/images/forum_smilies/redface.gif