My war on waste!!!

GrannyKate

I think you can make a difference and the war on waste can be catching. I find myself looking at packaging etc and thinking 'what can I use that for?' Very much how life was in my childhood in the fifties. We missed the preChristmas collection of landfill waste which was on an odd day but still had only 2 small bags when the next collection came round. ds2 came round for lunch today with his family and did the cooking. I noticed that he asked before discarding any items making sure anything I could recycle went in the right bin.

PasturesNew

GreyQueen wrote: »

A standard wheelie bin is 240 litres (with the lid down). Which will take two bulging black sacks.

Where I live the standard bin is 140 litres. It's a funny size as it's too narrow to take any bulging sacks. If one were to put one bulging sack in it, I'd expect it to jam and then tear in getting it out.

I nearly put a small carrier bag out for the landfill before Xmas, but then CBA to get the wheelie bin, put my tiny bag in it, then wheel the whole thing up the garden and through the gate .... so I didn't bother. Next bin collection day is next Friday .... so I guess I'll have to get round to it. Still only got the one small carrier bag to go out.

Such a nuisance of a bin size/shape. It'd be better (for me) if it were half the capacity and of a more regular shape.

GreyQueen

It's easy to tut and mutter and say Someone Should Do Something; meaning someone official, someone with power to legislate. And to also have the feeling that we're severely put-upon and treated like kids when such things do happen - how very dare they, those town hall hitlers/ the grubbyment/ whomever. :rotfl:

If you don't want to live in a police state (and I sure as hell don't) you have to accept that people will do things which are unhelpful, like not recycling, being wasteful etc. Since you can't force people, you can only lead by example.

This shouldn't be a hair-shirt exercise. Do it because it's no biggie, because it's easy. If you have the second holiday in a year and some colleague or acquaintance expresses envy that you can afford it, tell them blithely that you're very careful not to waste anything, which saves you thousands of pounds every decade, and adds up to a fair few nice trips and treats. Fib if you have to, it's a good cause.;)

In my neighbourhood, people have easy access to communal refuse bins, and still leave stuff lying around in our shared areas every single day. I can let my blood pressure rise, and mutter and putter to myself, or I can shrug and spend anything from 3 to 30 seconds dealing with whatever it is. Might be as simple as picking up a beer bottle which someone has left on the concrete stairs. A bottle which someone else will, either deliberately or accidentally, kick and break, leaving glass where people tread and where their dogs and cats tread.

As Gandhi said :You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

GreyQueen

PasturesNew wrote: »

Where I live the standard bin is 140 litres. It's a funny size as it's too narrow to take any bulging sacks. If one were to put one bulging sack in it, I'd expect it to jam and then tear in getting it out.

I nearly put a small carrier bag out for the landfill before Xmas, but then CBA to get the wheelie bin, put my tiny bag in it, then wheel the whole thing up the garden and through the gate .... so I didn't bother. Next bin collection day is next Friday .... so I guess I'll have to get round to it. Still only got the one small carrier bag to go out.

Such a nuisance of a bin size/shape. It'd be better (for me) if it were half the capacity and of a more regular shape.

That's funny, the default everywhere I know is a 240 litre. You can get the 140 litres in our county by special application. One of my pals has them, is a singleton household, doesn't produce much refuse or recycling and doesn't have much space to keep their bins, so the 140s are more suitable.

I have a stake in the communal bins (1100 litres) - those 4 wheeled monster bins. I was wildly excited to find one of them three-quarters full the other week, unheard of levels of recycling for my neighbourhood. Mind you, I have been known to stage an intervention and hoik easily-accessible items from the landfill bin to the recycling bin beside it before now.

PasturesNew

GreyQueen wrote: »

That's funny, the default everywhere I know is a 240 litre. You can get the 140 litres in our county by special application.

I just checked the county website. 140 is default county-wide.
The measurements they give for it are:
- 107cm/42in high
- 48cm/19in wide
- 56cm/22in deep

But they're tapered, so quite narrow at the bottom. I just find wheelie bins a faff.... dragging them out, worrying if it's windy, dragging them back. Getting the right week for the right bin. All faffery.

My recycling bin is 240litres. I've been lobbing stuff into it randomly for months now. It's not space-optimised, I just lift the lid and lob things in, whole. It's not full yet, but I will get it emptied sometime in the next few weeks just because I can.

fuddle

Lovely to see you posting again 7WW

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.

This is a lesson I have learned in using up Christmas leftovers. I'm now going to cook more with the intention of making a fry up or a roasted veg soup.

meritaten wrote: »

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!

Here! Here!

I've learned a whole lifestyle by reading tips and discussions on OS. I have changed my ways, my thinking and gained in practical experience by asking questions and reading answers from individuals.

I think one person's mission is one person's personal mission. Just because an individual sets out to change their own behaviour doesn't, for me, mean that they have to change others' perceptions by default. By writing about it those that are interested can take from it what they will.

meritaten

I am ashamed to say my brown bin (recycling) was chock full! But, in my defence, on Christmas day there were 15 of us and we all had at least two presents each packaging from lunch though was minimal. - plus - the day after Boxing day we all gathered again and did a Buffet Lunch (I supplied Gammon and Salads - and the kids all brought something in boxes which had to go in the oven - apart from boxes of dessert cakes!). I had to get OH to go jump in the bin to push everything down! I felt awful on seeing the full bin - I am going to think of how I can reduce that next year. oh and please don't suggest they 'make from scratch'...............they don't DO that!

silvasava

Just surfing the threads (DH watching Bruce Willis!) and came across this one with lots of familiar names :hello: Can I join please?

I'm also doing my bit to try to recycle the recycling IYKWIM. My current LBM is to stuff empty toilet rolls with rolled up junk mail & put on the woodburner - keeps them tidy and I try to stuff as much in as I can!
We don't use the wood ash on the garden now as its had enough but I've managed to find a couple of people who like it for their gardens & when DH does his lumberjack impression I've found a lady who like to use the woodchippings for her chickens.
I usually do extra veg with roast dinners so there's plenty for the next day or it gets chopped up with an egg to bind and made into bubble & squeak cakes & frozen. I do particularly hate food waste.
Looking forward to lots of tips to help cut down my contribution to landfill.

beautiful_ravens

Hello all.
Ive just recently upped the ante with my own small war on waste in my household.

I reorganized my under-sink cupboard into a recycling zone, labelled and explained to the kids. I had to buy some containers unfortunately - I needed 3 small swing bins - but hopefully they will last a long time. I measured the space & bins before buying them!

So, I have my mop bucket which [unless Im mopping] holds cans, glass, cartons and plastic. These are all kerbside recycles, except for cartons [OJ/UHT milk etc] which I take to a tesc0 recycling point every now and then.

We have a cardboard/paper/combustible box, for recyclable card/papers and things I can burn like tissues or wrappings. [weighing up burning Vs landfill, I chose burning] sometimes some of it can go in the loo or the compost.

I have a miscellaneous box for other things that I can take to the tip - anything made of metal, broken plates/glass etc and also any bags that can be recycled.

Theres a smaller box [old mushroom box] for batteries.

And a box with a lid and handle for compost.

Finally there is the re-named 'LANDFILL' bin [previously know simply as 'the bin'] so everyone is aware of where its going : things you throw away never really go 'away'.

So far everyone [us 2 adults, 3 older kids] has got into the spirit of the different boxes - but mainly in the kitchen! Im still finding upstairs bins full of paper and living room bins with apple cores and banana skins in. So a bit more thought and talking needed maybe. Or perhaps more bins?

Outside we have larger versions of the same containers, because under the sink theres not much room and they fill up fast! So a variety of dustbins & boxes for all the above mentioned recyclables.

The stuff for the tip goes into special containers or bags too, so I can just empty a bin or bag into the metal section/paint section/battery section etc at the tip.

So for example, outside is a large tesc0 strong bag full of bits of metal - bottle tops and lids, used tea-lights, random metal objects from the house etc no matter how small. things get taken apart and divided into recyclable categories.

And another bag with small electrical things - headphones, old cables, bits of cd players, broken small appliances etc.

A plastic bag full of other bags for the bag recycling - tesc0 delivery guy will take them away.

My main problem is non-recycled plastic film or bags. Just so annoying. I usually knot them as many times as possible and stuff them into other things in the landfill bin. Theres quite a few things Ive no idea what to do with - net fruit bags; food trays & wrappers from meat or veg or biscuit tins; yogurt pots and similar; cling film from wrappers. I shop online as we live in the sticks, so I cant take my own containers to the shops like some can.

Another thing Ive been doing for years is cutting up bits of paper which have one blank side [school letters, some innocuous mail, A4 receipts from ebay buys etc] and keeping them in a scrap paper box for everyone to write notes on. They go in the burning bin after that.

And of course, most of our clothes get worn to death and then turned into rags, and after that if possible, composted or burnt. Nice clothes get either charity shopped, sold or they end up in the 'material store', and made into things ranging from draught excluders to hanging door hearts to dog blankets to gift bags to cushion covers - whatever's needed. [this year, all xmas gifts from us were wrapped in reusable fabric bags that I made a while ago, and can use again!]

Ive noticed that since composting and burning combustibles, the landfill bin is less that half what it use to be - but then the garden rat population is double [thats another story of another war..] but the chickens like scrabbling through the food waste as well [have to be careful theres nothing poisonous to them in there]

I do make a lot of cushions and stuffed things, and I get all my stuffing from old sofa cushions for free. Either the tip or freecycle. I wouldnt use it if gross and stained though, but so far been lucky with clean stuffing!!

As for xmas, everythings been eaten! Wrapping paper from others has been burned, xmas card pictures will be turned into next years tags and the rest recycled, ribbons off crackers have been kept to make gift tag ribbons, spare paper hats have been kept so the kids can make crackers next year out of loo rolls, and the wheelie bin was about a quarter full after 2 weeks including xmas. The most bizarre thing in the bin was half a pigs head - the dog would not eat it despite being on a raw meat diet, and I didn't want to put it anywhere outside because of the rats and it was getting gross, and was not meant for human consumption so I was not going to start eating it...its probably the only thing in my bin that was biodegradable.

Sorry that was a bit long!

GrannyKate

Hi I have also found that having a system for recycling helps others join in. We had a two bin recycling unit in one cupboard when kitchen refitted a couple of years ago. These are for card/plastic pots etc and tins/bottles. Our recycling collections include plastic pots and trays. Outside I repurposed a small green shed that was being thrown away to hold three types of stuff. The two kerbside boxes for tins/bottles and the paper. Then I have a similar box in which I collect things that I know will be taken at the RC centre - other metal, hard plastic etc. A small pot for batteries. I use a damaged plastic bag to fill up with other similar plastic which can be recycled at some supermarkets. We have a compost bin in garden and I use this in my garden pots. Polystyrene packaging is also used for drainage in pots. I have just realised I can use the polystyrene meat trays this way as well as large packaging.