My war on waste!!!

sistercas

Happy new year everyone , I'm even more determined to reduce my waste in 2016 , my landfill bin was emptied on Wednesday and so far nothing has gone in to it , I'm going to try and keep the contents as low as possible

Today's lunch is a leftovers affair , we are having beef and gammon left from Boxing Day' roasties , parsnips, sprouts and carrots from Xmas day ( all prepped and frozen when fresh ) and Yorkshire puddings ( frozen in yesteryear I think but look fine )

I finished off the Xmas pud and brandy sauce last night it still tasted fine , so no waste from the festive meals :T

I went to our recycling place on Xmas eve and was very disappointed to find the paper ones absolutely chokka, goodness knows how much stuff would be dumped over Xmas as people would have been unable to squeeze any more paper in , I struggled with just a meagre amount . What with the Winds from storm Frank I would imagine it would be an unfortunate combination :eek:, I would have thought the council would try and empty them before the Xmas onslaught of wrapping paper and boxes :cool:

Pollycat

We don't normally have any leftover veg from Christmas lunch - there's only the 2 of us and I'm pretty good at judging what we'll eat but neither of us were feeling great so there was some leftover cooked veg - roast parsnips, leeks, sprouts, romanesco, carrots, cabbage and gravy so I scraped it off the plates into a pan, added a stock cube and boiled it up then zuzzed it with my blender stick and it's made 3 portions of fabulously tasty veg soup.

lillibet_dripping

Pollycat wrote: »

We don't normally have any leftover veg from Christmas lunch - there's only the 2 of us and I'm pretty good at judging what we'll eat but neither of us were feeling great so there was some leftover cooked veg - roast parsnips, leeks, sprouts, romanesco, carrots, cabbage and gravy so I scraped it off the plates into a pan, added a stock cube and boiled it up then zuzzed it with my blender stick and it's made 3 portions of fabulously tasty veg soup.

I deliberately cook more veg than I need as the left-overs get whizzed briefly in the food processor (not to the consistency of baby food, but left in large'ish chunks), then dotted with butter and covered in grated cheese, baked until golden and bubbly.

Just browsing the wonderful Rhonda Hetzel's blog and saw this on her side bar
http://www.ecostore.com.au/pages/carbon-capture-pak-au.
So it is possible......:T

My kitchen bin currently contains one 'opened too far' kirby grip! That will be perfect for pegging down a strawberry runner so it is now NOT in my kitchen bin.

Wishing you all a happy, peaceful and waste-free 2016......

lillibet_dripping

Goldiegirl wrote: »

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?

Morning Goldiegirl,:)
I read this post the other day and had to take a few days to ponder my answer.
Going right back to the beginning when I handed the celery wrapper to the cashier, I accept that my 'war' is simply a drop in the vast (plastic-ridden!) ocean - but at least I am doing my bit. The longest journey starts with the first step!!!

Waging the war on a larger front is, I believe, best left to the likes of HFW who, with his media clout, can lead the battle. I guess I am a soldier in his army!
I chose the thread title 'My War on Waste' because it was the day after (or thereabouts) the tv programme where Hugh berated Morrisons for their stance on wasted veg. Maybe I should have titled it 'My reduction in packaging' or somesuch.
Either way, I am personally still at the very early stages of reducing my waste and increasing my recycling. I'm still getting used to pre-cycling.
Maybe I will see if the local paper would introduce a 'War on Waste' column each week. Maybe I will see if I could prepare an interesting presentation to give to U3A's or WI's. Maybe I will offer to work with the local Scout and Guide leaders to get the youngsters on board.....:eek:
Watch this space in 2016....:j

7_week_wonder

lillibet_dripping wrote: »

I deliberately cook more veg than I need as the left-overs get whizzed briefly in the food processor (not to the consistency of baby food, but left in large'ish chunks), then dotted with butter and covered in grated cheese, baked until golden and bubbly.

Oh my goodness, I'm drooling at the thought of that. It sounds wonderful!

Here, the veg peelings are being put aside and I'll use them with some left over mash and carrots to make my favourite "root soup" over the weekend.

One thing I'm going to do that I've never got round to before is keeping a veg peelings tub in the fridge. I'll even keep onion skins and once it's full I'll use it to make veg stock.

And on the subject of peelings - it was someone on this forum who pointed out that if you are making butternut squash soup you don't have to remove the skin. Just cook for 10 minutes longer and the skin will go soft too. I've tried it and it is brilliant!

Fiftys1

I love this thread and will be using some of the tips - especially the fact that it's not necessary to peel the butternut squash. I will try this next time as it's my favourite tasty soup.


I too have used all leftovers from Christmas festivities. We have had cold meat with bubble and squeak and the adults visiting loved cold turkey sandwiches. Anything we may not be able to eat quickly has been frozen. Must try the veg peelings as soup or stock. I seem to remember Shirley Goode cooking this many years ago - nothing went to waste in her kitchen.


Our black landfill bin is so huge I'm wondering how long we would take to completely fill it. When you see the bins in our street on the normal fortnightly collection they are bursting. Our local council has recently carried out a survey asking what additional kerbside recycling we would prefer (currently no cardboard or plastic collected only at local drop of locations). They also asked if we would have a problem with 3 weekly landfill collections. I guess that would be difficult for some people. Perhaps that would encourage more recycling (or precycling) and may be the push for producers to reduce their plastic packaging. On the other hand would there be more fly tipping?

Goldiegirl

lillibet_dripping wrote: »

Maybe I will see if the local paper would introduce a 'War on Waste' column each week. Maybe I will see if I could prepare an interesting presentation to give to U3A's or WI's. Maybe I will offer to work with the local Scout and Guide leaders to get the youngsters on board.....:eek:
Watch this space in 2016....:j

I would say any one of those things would be a massive thing for an individual to do


Good luck with your ongoing battle

tooties

today i opened a bag of porridge oats to decant into jars and i automatically put the bag into the kitchen bin, whils't doing a bit of baking i realised the bag could be burnt in our woodburning stove so the bag was rescued from land fill and burnt, our ashes go in the garden so does this count as waste reduction?

regards

7_week_wonder

Goldiegirl wrote: »

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?
.........

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

Lillibet dripping's reply to this got me thinking! I'm in my late 40's and work with an office of bright young things (PhD students, post-doct researchers in their early to mid 20s) who regard me as the office auntie! Without deliberately meaning to I think I've been encouraging them to re-think waste.

• They see me sorting the office rubbish into recyclables and landfill and after just a couple of months it has become natural for them all to do the same.
• They see me coming back from the fruit and veg stall at lunchtime with a cloth bag full of vegetables, and suddenly they start going across to the stall too rather than buying expensive pre-packaged stuff that doesn't all get eaten.
• They know that if they donate their jam jars to me they will get rewarded with the odd pot of homemade jam (apparently very precious when you are a starving student).
• Ditto, egg boxes occasionally get rewarded with eggs from my hens.

It's just small things that most of us on this forum probably do automatically, but apparently other people don't always think about.

Ok, it's not changing the world, but maybe they will take these habits away with them, spread the word and make just a little bit of difference

meritaten

I can never understand the attitude of 'I wouldn't bother doing that - you aren't going to make much of a difference'.
well, me on my own might not - BUT, if I do it, and the hundreds of Oldstylers do it - and their families and friends do it - then US THOUSANDS of people WILL make a difference!