Let's get this show on the road

jwil

I hate the ice too Hope it's not too bad.

Lifeisforliving19

No more sign of snow, but it was extremely cold this morning.....just been out and come back home now and outside temperature, according to the car, is still only 2C!! :eek: Still frost on the roof where the sun hasn't got to yet.
　
Been for a lovely Indian head massage this morning, so feeling all relaxed and full of beans now.......yes its an expense I could stop, but it is the only treat I have....don't smoke, hardly ever have a drink, don't hardly buy new clothes and don't really have an other hobbies that take my money, so I am not giving up my therapies. I don't go every week, normally only about every 3 weeks, so it is my one luxury and I am keeping it!
Just having a coffee and then will have a quick hoover and clean kitchen floor, then the plan is finally make a start on some packing to go away...think not getting it done is starting to stress me. GS's coming after school today, for about and hour and half.
Been reading up about how to reduce waste and save the environment etc. Definitely working more on that this year. Have found a lady, reasonably local to me who will take a lot of things that can be recycled through Terracycle....crisp packets, biscuit wrappers, toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes, pens, tassimo pods.... , things that we can't put out with normal recycling. So I have got 1 or 2 friends on board with it and I will be collecting from them and then dropping it off or posting to this lady who will deliver to Terracycle. I haven't got the space to save enough to send to Terracycle myself, think they want minimum of 3 kg parcels...that's a lot of crisp packets...lol I have been cutting up old Tshirts etc, ones that are well past sending to CS and I will be using them as polishing cloths and old cut up towells for cleaning bathroom, sink, floors etc. Save keep buying so many cloths. I am also making my own cleaning fluids now so as not to have to keep buying loads of different products with so many bottles. Also it means they are more natural and I know exactly what's in them.
Had a letter today about the breathing tests the GP wants me to go to...they want me to go on a day that I can't go....hoping we will be away on our little break. So all that waiting for someone to ring me and then they write to me instead and now I have to contact them to change it.....why is nothing simple these days? I will pop in after work tomorrow to save a phone call.
Well best get on. Hope everyone is having a good day.:)

Lifeisforliving19

ooh..another £5 overpayment made on the mortgage....:D

jwil

Congrats on the overpayment :T

Well done on recycling all your bits. I'm in two minds on Terracycle, I think it's a bit of a greenwash to be honest. They are recycling everything into low grade items, and it's just a way of companies making out they are green and avoiding the fact that their items are not easily recycled. If the products were easily recyclable and in demand by manufacturers, then we'd all be recycling it at the kerbside. However, with all the stuff about producer responsibility in the new waste strategy, we hopefully will see these companies using more sustainable and recyclable packaging.

Lifeisforliving19

jwil wrote: »

Congrats on the overpayment :T

Well done on recycling all your bits. I'm in two minds on Terracycle, I think it's a bit of a greenwash to be honest. They are recycling everything into low grade items, and it's just a way of companies making out they are green and avoiding the fact that their items are not easily recycled. If the products were easily recyclable and in demand by manufacturers, then we'd all be recycling it at the kerbside. However, with all the stuff about producer responsibility in the new waste strategy, we hopefully will see these companies using more sustainable and recyclable packaging.

Yes, you have a point there. Plastic packaging needs to stop all together and we need to go back to the old days where meat was wrapped in paper etc....never did us any harm.

jwil

Lifeisforliving19 wrote: »

Yes, you have a point there. Plastic packaging needs to stop all together and we need to go back to the old days where meat was wrapped in paper etc....never did us any harm.

I can go on for ages about this, but I won't clog up your diary I'll not get on my soapbox. I do think though that plastic is not always the evil it's made out to be, and in environmental terms it can be preferable to other things including paper and glass on some occasions. However, there are a LOT of things that are completely overpackaged or un-necessarily wrapped and that should most definitely be stopped.

Lifeisforliving19

jwil wrote: »

I can go on for ages about this, but I won't clog up your diary I'll not get on my soapbox. I do think though that plastic is not always the evil it's made out to be, and in environmental terms it can be preferable to other things including paper and glass on some occasions. However, there are a LOT of things that are completely overpackaged or un-necessarily wrapped and that should most definitely be stopped.

Feel free to say whatever you want.:) I am outraged with the amount of packaging people use these days, its unbelievable. OH bought something from Ebay the other week and it arrived wrapped in a plastic bag for life...ok that's not too bad, but then....I kid you not....the entire bag was overwrapped with parcel tape...just loads of strips going right round with no gaps in between, must have been at least a whole roll of tape!:eek: I can see your point though, that in some cases plastic is the ideal material for something. I am not saying I don't buy anything plastic, but it has to be something that I know is going to last for years or if it is something packaged in plastic then I will now only buy it if I know I can recycle it...plastic bottles, butter tubs,etc, but I now refuse to buy anything in the plastic type trays that can't be recycled. One of my little niggles that I hate is those double packets of biscuits that are 2 individually wrapped packets, then put in an outer wrapper!! Maybe I should start making my own biscuits....:rotfl:

jwil

I'm probably guilty of overpackaging my ebay stuff, but it's not worth the risk of stuff arriving damaged. I do recycle packaging where I can and am looking at alternatives.

I just think sometimes there are such knee-jerk reactions to situations and things actually get worse or different issues arise. Like when retailers start using compostable packaging instead of plastic - it can't be recycled, and there aren't many composting facilities that will accept them - it's then landfilled, and biodegradable material is really bad in landfill as it rots to create methane (hence why food waste is so bad in landfill). People switching to glass bottle milk deliveries - the glass bottles are not usually reused enough times to make them more environmentally friendly than a plastic bottle.

Palm oil - yes deforestation is terrible and needs to be stopped, but just giving up palm oil isn't the answer as it's more efficient than the other vegetable oils and takes up a lot less land.

I think basically, there is no simple answer and we've got to do the best we can. Waste reduction will always be the best answer.

I think you are right though in that if we are going to buy packaged items, we should buy those that can be easily recycled/reused and try and avoid those that can't.

Lifeisforliving19

Yes the palm oil is a tricky one isn't it? Not sure what will happen in the future about that one.
One thing that really makes me mad is fly tipping and people just dumping their rubbish anywhere. A friend of mine has started working with the local council in the city and goes for walks along the canal every weekend collecting rubbish....I am amazed at some of the things she finds. Apart from the obvious drink cans, food wrappers, etc, she has found shopping trolleys, bike frames, children's plastic slide, spray paint can tops....( where graffiti artists are just dumping their tins and lids), and the best ones last week....a fire extinguisher and a traffic light!:eek:

Lifeisforliving19

Well it is a wet, cloudy day today,:( but quite a bit milder, so something to be grateful for. :)Got to go to the haridressers this afternoon, so will be taking the car...not paying all that money for my hair to be ruined before I even get home.

Washing in already and downstairs cloakroom cleaned.

Today was payday from one of my part time jobs...the job I like the best ( I only have 2)...I had forgotten that although we were off on New Years day, it should have been a work day so actually got paid for it. That is £40 I wasn't expecting,:T so a bit more shared out to different savings accounts. Or actually, now I come to think about it, I could buy the bulk toilet rolls that I need, as have been wondering if I could get them before the end of the month, or if they should come out of next month's grocery budget...ooh, decisions, decisions.
Managed some time on the treadmill yesterday, so hoping to increase it a bit today...baby steps and all that.
Feeling quite positive today and quite a lot better, despite having a bad night and waking up several times. Had some odd dreams and at one point I was convinced that I saw a bright light flash near the bedroom door....still trying to re think that one and decide what it was.

Well, best get on, washing will be done. Have a good day everyone.:)