Steps towards zero waste - 2019

dollypeeps

Little by little.... Step by step is my mantra at the moment.

I haven't used cling film for 2 weeks....:T

And I've used the upturned plate/ dish thing for covering some items in the fridge. It's worked quite well too

Iv been looking at the beeswax food wraps and watched several videos/adverts about them and they look quite good. My first thoughts were for wrapping up the packed lunches but they look practical for wrapping some items for storing in the fridge. However they seem pricey.

I also spotted old fashioned paper sweetie bags ( the old fashioned but made me chuckle). These were from Lakeland .....£3.99 for 20 I think but with care can be reused. Again the initial outlay can be off putting.

Again it's made me smile as my family used to save the brown paper bags from the shops, keeping them under a cushion on the kitchen so they would be neat and nice and flat. They used them for various things such as tomatoes form the greenhouse, garden grown new pots and runner beans, or for passing on cakes or pies that they had made amongst other uses.
I suppose I'm much the same in that I keep carrier bags....

In other news I've started to keeping a bag with poythene type waste such as thIn carrier bags, kitchen paper and toilet roll wrap and sliced bread bags to be recycled when I go to Mr T......

I'm keeping going ....don't think I'll ever be zero waste but I'm sure a little helps

dragonlily

Well done Dollypeeps, that is brill! Do all Tesco’s do the recycling of old plastic bags

Thanks to this thread I have been reading about TerraCycle. I am left wondering re my local authority how much of the stuff we separate for recycling, actually does get recycled. I looked on their website but there isn’t actually any info about where it all goes. We do have a good system where we live, and have four wheelie bins for landfill, paper and card, green and food waste, and one for glass and plastic. I just hope it actually gets recycled.

Has anyone else read about this Loop scheme that is due to get piloted?

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jan/24/coalition-of-major-companies-trial-reusable-packaging-for-online-orders

We have had another low purchasing week. While away visiting relatives this weekend we went to a lovely market, with loads of second hand sellers, as well as fruit and veg stalls etc. There was a zero waste stall there. I was pleased with my daughter as she chose to spend some of her pocket money on a stainless steel straw and straw cleaner. We also found a lady that had some off cut vintage fabric, one Laura Ashley pink sycamore and one a white with a pale blue small fern print. They were really big pieces, one 2.7 metres, and she sold us both for five pounds. Great for the Easter rabbits, we are planning on making next weekend.

It is a bit strange how when you start considering every purchase you make, you get more enjoyment about the things you have bought x

Lifeisforliving19

Excited....found out that our local council are starting to recycle carrier bags, plastic postage bags (apart from black ones), cling film, cellophane and bubble wrap from April 1st. Also pringles tubes and books...hard backs and paper backs. Its funny how excited I got when I found out.....:rotfl:

GreyQueen

Terracycle can do pringle tubes, too.


The thing about councils (I work for one) is that they don't recycle, they gather, bale and sell materials into the recycling trade. Therefore, there has to be a market but the councils can't create it. A bin lorryload of rubbish costs about £1k to landfill in my area, therefore items which can be diverted into the recycling stream have the ability to reduce the amount of money wasted on chucking stuff into a hole in the ground.


I was in Liddly this afto and found myself reaching for passata in tetrapak type cartons, then stopped and looked at passata in tins. Same price (the tins had a longer BB date) and steel is a lot easier to recycling. Yup, slightly more awkward to store and slightly heavier to transport on my pushbike, but I went with the cans.



One small step for personkind etc etc.

dollypeeps

Dragonlilly.. Not sure whether all Tesco stores recycle carrier bags..I know ours does ...sorry!!

GreyQueen .... Didn't think about tins for passata ....learnt something new again today ...thank you lovely.....oh and I like the PC personkind!!!!

I went to Lidl today too...... Bought fresh produce which was pre packed but am recycling it with the polythene bags etc.....interestingly there's recycling information on the reverse.....I bought apples, pears and red pots. They were in indentical bags but the recycling information differed on the pears saying that ithe packaging iw not currently recycled......but the apples and pots packaging could be ?!! How confusing .....an email has been sent

GreyQueen

Lots of plastic packaging has the recycling arrow triangle thingummy logo but it is often just greenwashing. Some plastics are technically recyclable in certain facilities but not all councils have access to those markets.


Also, plastic recycling is usually downcycling, and the next item made from the recycled plastics is rubbishy and the next stop from that is landfill. Some plastics are almost valueless in the recycling market, others have a negative value.



The better recylables are the soft plastic bottles such as shampoo etc comes in. The brittle plastics (flowerpots, sweetie tubs, yoghurt pots etc) are pretty useless and our recycling stream here hasn't a market for them.


I would like to see a world where proposed packaging designs had to be vetted by government and manufacturers made to account for how the finished article was going to be dealt with. As it is, commerce shoves its responisbilites off onto the council tax payers. Even for aware and caring individuals, it's hard to avoid plastics.


Had a minor triumph yesterday and got two large red peppers from Liddly loose, instead of three slightly smaller mixed peppers in a plastic sleeve. Still failed on radishes (in season, I grow my own) and celery, which were packaged.


I have also purloined a useful household article from the flytipping pile which keeps reoccurring alongside our bins. It will be cleaned immaculately and head chazzerwards, it's so nice that if I hadn't already got a nice example of this thing, I would keep it myself.:o

Pooky

We gave up paper towels a good 3 years ago now but I do keep a loo roll under the sink for the inevitable piles of cat sick (can then be flushed) and any really messy sopping up jobs (pasta boiling over). I just keeps box of clothes under the sink that are "all rounders" for washing up, wiping down sides and if one gets used to wipe something off the floor it goes straight in the washing machine. I only use a bit of loo roll and anti bac to wipe the loo round so no clothes needed for there. (It does get a glug of bleach down too).

[Deleted User]

growing up in the late 1940s and 50s it was perfectly normal if your Mum had not got enough bags for the shopping (mine had a string one that went into her handbag and was used for potatoes etc ) to be able to buy a carrier bag for 2d made from brown paper ,or a slightly stronger one for 4d which had little wooden handles.These were reused as much as possible and normally ended their life used to light the kitchen range or fire. I am glad to see the back of plastic bags and I think it would be better if supermarkets had small paper carriers to buy.In America you are always given a paper sack/bag to put your groceries in and there is even a young man (normally a student ) to help pack as well I wish as so many things seem to come over the pond from the US this trend would cme too I can remember my late Mum also using the brown carrier bags for wrapping parcels as well

RosyRed

After reading the info on terracycle I've got a bag on one side to save crisp and biscuit wrappers,and also toothbrushes etc.Might take a while to get enough to drop off but again it's a start - and one I wouldn't have known about but for this thread

Gers

When I was a lot younger our local supermarket was Safeway where they offered large strong brown bags for carrying all our shopping. Free of charge. Once it was taken over, inevitably, the paper bags disappeared.

I look forward to seeing the same type of bag being brought back.

Last week I had a bag for life replaced as it was all holey, turned out that I'd had it for over two years so I feel better about it.