Steps towards zero waste - 2019

the_cross_rabbit

Today I decided to put a piggy bank in the kitchen to try and curb food waste. Everytime something ends in the bin we have to put the price of said item in the piggy bank. Ashamed to say there is already £4.75 in there. Hoping this (and menu planning) will help us to cut our food waste.
CRx

Nonnadiluca

That's a great idea CR, carrot and stick!

newlywed

I used pure cotton yarn that was for a project never finished, he crochet eye makeup remover pads that then get put in he wash. I also crocheted a net bag to stop them getting caught in the washing machine seal.

Swapped to making some of my own face creams etc and to a shampoo bar and bar soap. Buy most clothes from charity or ebay.

Haven't used cling film in ages. But have a long way to go yet... everything from eBay seems to be plastic wrapped, so need to work on it some more.

Planning to cut up old unwanted sheets for a replacement for paper towels next...

dollypeeps

Plodding on slowly here.... not doing anything new but still mindful of excess waste and looking for more ways to recycle packaging especially food packaging...

I measure how successful I’ve been by how often my refuse bin goes out for collection. Last one was 21/3 so every 6 weeks or so.....

Twiggy_34

Nothing new to report here either. However one of the latest tv shows featuring David Attenborough has finally struck a chord with one of my friends.

She got into bad habits when she last moved and hasn't bothered recycling anything for over a year, depsite comments from me, but now she's back on it with fervour. She's also following my lead and making small changes like switching to bar soaps, I'm sure she'll catch the bug just like I did now she's taken those first steps.

greenbee

I've had to shop at supermarkets recently (lots of work travel, dental op) rather than my normal farm shop/health food shop/veg box and cook from scratch approach and have been horrified by the amount of packaging it has involved. More specifically the plastic/non-recyclable packaging.

While I reuse what I can (mostly for collecting up the other stuff that has to go in the bin), I'm trying to avoid clutter, so keeping it all for other uses at a later date isn't an option.

Hopefully I'll be able to get back to normal soon.

Catbells

Face wipes or handy wipes have been massively useful in the past 20 years or so but come plastic wrapped. I wash and reuse them at least once again for tissues, make up removing and so on. Also reuse aluminium foil at least twice before recycling it in my blue bin.

Nickitree30

Was wondering if any of you watched War on Plastic on BBC1? Just curious to see if any new members have joined this thread as a result of watching it?

Tink_04

Really feeling shameful about the amount of plastic we have in our homes

My mission for the rest of the year is to use up everything we have at home and when purchasing new to make sure we are more mindful of what we buy. This will mean we have
A) less stuff in the house
save money as we are using everything up we have already
C) replacing it with a better item in the future

Really enjoying this thread!

Tink

dragonlily

Hi, I've watched war on plastic. I was left feeling a bit overwhelmed to honest, it is all so out of control.

Since I started the thread I am still trying and making little steps like:
- Moving to a milk man to get milk in glass
- Getting out the soda stream so we can have fizzy water minus all the 2L plastic bottles
- Buying cleaning products from Bio D in bulk - not getting rid of plastic but reducing the amount overall
- Complete stop on ready meals
- Buying unpackaged fruit and veg from the market
- Buying a lot less of everything in general!

Still a long long way to go...... but I keep thinking like on that street on the programme if everybody just reduced a little, and made small changes, the big companies would listen. I think consumer power and choosing who you spend your money with can cast a vote for the world we want.