My war on waste!!!

Goldiegirl

The bin men are a day later this week due to Christmas, but most people round here put their rubbish out on the normal day.


I went for a walk yesterday afternoon, and it was amazing at how much rubbish was piled up outside houses. I suppose it should be born in mind that it's been Christmas, a time of increased consumption, but, even so, there were as many as six black rubbish bags outside some houses, along with recycling bags too. The average was about about 3 black bags.


It got me thinking about this thread.


For me, a 'war' implies a cause that is to be passionately fought for, by all means necessary.


So my thoughts are as follows


For those who have declared themselves at war with waste - is it enough to be taking tiny steps at home, bearing in mind that you waste was probably less than average anyway. Shouldn't you be fighting on a bigger battlefront, educating people, and campaigning in the media?


If every household just produced one less bag of rubbish a month, surely this would be more effective for the environment rather than a few individuals not using plastic bags in shops when they buy fruit and veg?


So, for those at war - would it be more appropriate to wage the battle on a larger front, rather than in your own house?

FunBrum

Did anyone watch Huge Fernley- Whatshisface, make a soup out of potato peelings on the Sunday Brunch, 27th?
No waste there, and everyone tasting said it was delish! One to try I think

sistercas

This week my landfill bin was only half full , much improved from last year when it was overflowing and I've 'hosted' 4 days over Xmas so would expect it to be much more full .

goldiegirl I agree the war on waste needs to more widespread , I think for a lot of people , this is new and they need to change their own habits before launching into an all out war with the rest of the country . I think it will come as people become more confident in their own abilities in reducing waste

TravellingAbuela

We have a new day for collection of our general household waste - and a new set of rules to go with it! Any bins so piled up with rubbish, where the lids won't remain flat down, will not be emptied! Any bin bags piled up at the side will not be taken away! I am wondering if the culprits will just dump their rubbish elsewhere? Or will it make them realise they need to take steps to reduce their waste? Hmm I wonder! Anyway I am pleased to report, despite it being the festive season, that our waste bin has only marginally more in it than usual. Just two small bags languishing in the bottom!

GreyQueen

sistercas wrote: »

This week my landfill bin was only half full , much improved from last year when it was overflowing and I've 'hosted' 4 days over Xmas so would expect it to be much more full .

goldiegirl I agree the war on waste needs to more widespread , I think for a lot of people , this is new and they need to change their own habits before launching into an all out war with the rest of the country . I think it will come as people become more confident in their own abilities in reducing waste

I really like this usage of 'landfill bin' as it concentrates the mind wonderfully on what is actually going on here.

I also enjoyed some photographs I saw online earlier this year (sorry, no links) of people who had agreed to be photographed lying fetchingly among a week's worth of their trash.They were glamourously-shot and revealed what a lot of refuse people produce by just living a modern life. Made me wince inwardly at my own life, and think deeply, too.

Personal changes vs societal changes don't need to be in opposition. I can't personally change society, I'm just a little person living a little life. Even the excellent zero waste and plastic free living bloggers are sharing with people who've thought to seek them out, so are inevitably preaching to the choir.

But aspiring to a better, less-wasteful life isn't futile. If a mainstream telly prog, newspaper or magazine article features something of this nature, and people go mouse-clicking out of curiousity, the seeds for change may be planted in that individual's life and in the lives of the other people they interact with. If some of the hundreds of people on the OS boards at any one time read this thread and make some changes, that's not futile either. If we chat, casually, about how easy it is to like a waste-lite lifestyle (the three week period of messed up collections over the holiday period won't be bothering us, f'rinstance ) other people might take that on board and think about it over coming weeks/ months.

Life will always be imperfect, but we must not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

ETA Travelling Abuela, the new rules you describe are exactly what has applied in council areas across my region for as long as there have been wheelie bins. It works because people learn that the crews won't take the side waste, as it is called. If it's fly-tipped, well, about 70% of bin bags contain stuff which bears the householder's name and address, and if they're fly-tipped, they can be searched and prosecutions can follow, with hefty fines.

I think we need to encourage people to down-size their waste rather than supply ever-larger receptacles or agree to take additional bags.

Justamum

FunBrum wrote: »

Did anyone watch Huge Fernley- Whatshisface, make a soup out of potato peelings on the Sunday Brunch, 27th?
No waste there, and everyone tasting said it was delish! One to try I think

I just watched it on catch-up. What he was saying was so logical - most of the taste in a potato is in the skins, so I should imagine it would be a delicious soup. I'm going to start saving the potato skins when I peel spuds and make soup out of them. Most peelings I put in the compost but I read somewhere that you shouldn't put potato peel in the compost because of the chance of blight, so they usually go in the bin.

Justamum

TravellingAbuela wrote: »

Any bins so piled up with rubbish, where the lids won't remain flat down, will not be emptied! Any bin bags piled up at the side will not be taken away!

That makes no sense. Where are people expected to put that rubbish? Do the council think the fairies will come and make it disappear?

GreyQueen

Justamum wrote: »

That makes no sense. Where are people expected to put that rubbish? Do the council think the fairies will come and make it disappear?

I think some householders think that the bin crews are a bit like mummy, who will empty their bin and spend time scooping up anything else they've chosen to leave in the general area....... never thinking that the bin crews are working like stink and rush-rush-rushing to get round in the time they're allowed.

A standard wheelie bin is 240 litres (with the lid down). Which will take two bulging black sacks. The galvanised metal dustbins we had in the sixties and seventies would barely take one black sackful but you sure as hell didn't see people with fleets of binbags alongside.

You can reduce the volume of recyclables a lot by breaking down boxes and landfill refuse will scoosh up a lot in a bin bag, too, there's typically a lot of fresh air in a bin sack.

I unpacked some shopping into the freezer within the last hour. As the ice-creams came out of their cartons, a couple of finger-flicks broke the boxes down and they went into the recycling wheelie in a neat stack.

General refuse here is usually non-recylable plastics which scoosh down pretty small. This household is normally 3 adults and 2 cats and produces one black sack of landfill refuse per fortnight and one 240 litre recycling wheelie (3/4 full) per fortnight. Veg trimmings are up the garden in the compost heap. Recyclables not handled through the household recycling chain (batteries, textiles, lightbulbs and similar) are taken a couple of times a year to the household waste recylcing station across town.

Whenever I've seen overflowing bins (and I have gone out with the crews as part of my job, and once spent a fortnight with a bin crew as a leafletter) I can see two causes; packaging not being broken down, or things in the bins which should have been in the charity shop or HWRC (toys, small furniture, clothing, footwear, saucepans, musical instruments, bits of trees, bits of pushbikes, rubble...............)

Goldiegirl

TravellingAbuela wrote: »

We have a new day for collection of our general household waste - and a new set of rules to go with it! Any bins so piled up with rubbish, where the lids won't remain flat down, will not be emptied! Any bin bags piled up at the side will not be taken away! I am wondering if the culprits will just dump their rubbish elsewhere? Or will it make them realise they need to take steps to reduce their waste? Hmm I wonder! Anyway I am pleased to report, despite it being the festive season, that our waste bin has only marginally more in it than usual. Just two small bags languishing in the bottom!

It takes a shift in the status quo for change to happen.


This can be illustrated with the 5p charge for plastic bags. Since that has started, everywhere you go you see people carrying their shopping bags with them - it's rare to see people with a brand new carrier bag from a shop!


So I think your local council could be on to something here, by cutting down on the rubbish they collect.


People could take their excess rubbish to a council run tip, or just fly tip it - but both require some sort of action by the consumer.


People may start thinking that it's just easier to produce less waste!

FunBrum

Justamum wrote: »

I just watched it on catch-up. What he was saying was so logical - most of the taste in a potato is in the skins, so I should imagine it would be a delicious soup. I'm going to start saving the potato skins when I peel spuds and make soup out of them. Most peelings I put in the compost but I read somewhere that you shouldn't put potato peel in the compost because of the chance of blight, so they usually go in the bin.

Yes I heard that about blight Justamum....
What usually do with my veg waste is, dig a trench, place the waste in then back fill. After a few months I plant on top. An old dear on my allotment site told me to do it. It saves composting. The only thing is, on one occasion, there must have been 'eyes' in the spud peel as I had a few potatoes appear when I know I hadn't planted there! I don't mind, veg is veg and free veg is a bonus! :rotfl:

I'm definitely doing the peel soup when I cut up potatoes next.