It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

Brambling

borefest said:

Hi Lurker here, found some out of date dried fruit, would like to make a fruit cake with it, do you think I should revive it in cold tea? or just use it as it is.........any tips appreciated thanks x

I would use hot black tea as opposed to cold tea or you could use just boiling water just enough to cover it and allow it to sit a while to rehydrate the fruit. The liquid in the fruit may make for a wetter cake batter so maybe check out some tea loaf recipes 

YoungBlueEyes

Just to go back - I remembered something last night. A while ago someone asked what they could do with some properly mouldy yogurt they’d found at the back of their fridge. People were saying they’d pour it down the sink and flush it away, I said I’d bag the whole tub and put it in a street bin. I was (rightly) pulled up for suggesting that cos it’s apparently illegal to put household waste in those bins!

This is for you and your varmints @slinky. 

Also if that OP recognises what I’m talking about, any misrememberings are mine  

Pollycat

euronorris said:

If too much of a recycling load is contaminated with non recyclables it will be rejected by the recycling plant. So yes, sometimes whole loads can still end up in landfill.

For this reason, our council will not accept any christmas wrapping paper, regardless of whether or not it is plastic free. They ended up with too much contamination and rejected loads. Not only did this mean more stuff ended up in landfill, but fuel was also expended in both directions (to the recycling plant and back). So they have only accepted brown paper at Christmas time for the last few years.

It's really hard to get the message across. They have put the message out about this in quarterly magazines, emails, on their Facebook and twitter pages, as well as the council waste management pages over, and over, and over again (soooo many times in the lead up to Christmas) and still I spoke to multiple people last year who were unaware of the rule. I really don't know how else they are supposed to educate people on it. When people aren't interested in the subject, it's really hard to make them care.

That's been our council's policy for a lot of years.
Ditto Christmas cards.

I'm interested in the subject and I do care.

During lockdown, we cleared out our loft.
I found some clothes that weren't good enough for the charity shop.
The website said I could recycle them.
I hunted for a clear plastic bag to put them in and left it on the top of my recycling bin.borefest said:No contamination from me.
I know what can go in my recycling bin.
I don't just rinse out (as requested by the council) - I make sure the packaging is clean.

Slinky

YoungBlueEyes said:

Just to go back - I remembered something last night. A while ago someone asked what they could do with some properly mouldy yogurt they’d found at the back of their fridge. People were saying they’d pour it down the sink and flush it away, I said I’d bag the whole tub and put it in a street bin. I was (rightly) pulled up for suggesting that cos it’s apparently illegal to put household waste in those bins!

This is for you and your varmints @slinky. 

Also if that OP recognises what I’m talking about, any misrememberings are mine  

@YoungBlueEyes Yes I'm very aware of the rules on household waste in litter bins. I'm very familiar with the town council chap who is in charge of our local parks, he is very happy about the amount of litter picking I do around the local area. They are happy for litter pickers to drop what they collect into any council owned bin. I'm sure he would forgive me the occasional mouse.  I've put far worse things in that I've found - a bloke's underpants full of poo, for example......

tooldle

Aside from the mandatory efforts of supermarkets to reduce plastic in their current packaging, packaging companies are working on alternatives with some focus on biopolymers, as these i am told far easier to degrade. 
I suspect we will see a lot more 'coated' paper and cardboard appearing as food packaging.

grunnie

borefest said:

Hi Lurker here, found some out of date dried fruit, would like to make a fruit cake with it, do you think I should revive it in cold tea? or just use it as it is.........any tips appreciated thanks x

Coming out of lurkdom to give my teabread recipe. 2cups of dried fruit 1cup of sugar(  any kind of sugar) and 1cup of very strong boiling hot tea. Leave overnight to soak.Add 1whisked egg and 1cup of sr  flour .stir and put it into a round 8 inch cake tin of 2load tins. 170 degrees for about 55 minutes.

QueenJess

tooldle said:

Aside from the mandatory efforts of supermarkets to reduce plastic in their current packaging, packaging companies are working on alternatives with some focus on biopolymers, as these i am told far easier to degrade. 
I suspect we will see a lot more 'coated' paper and cardboard appearing as food packaging.

I hope not. I fear it screams greenwashing at me and is not a replacement for just getting rid of non-essential packaging. Any company that tells me we can carry on and just switch out one thing for another is definitely greenwashing.

Some of the problems I’ve briefly skim read about (I am definitely not an expert, but I do remain sceptical of such claims) is
- bioplastics being touted as better even though this term is used when only a small proportion is made from ‘eco’ roots and the rest is still from fossil fuels.
- bioplastics being the same compound as traditional plastics once complete and have the same problem with decomposition
- Potential contamination of recycling bins if paper/cardboard is covered in it.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2542504823000088

Katiehound

borefest said:

Hi Lurker here, found some out of date dried fruit, would like to make a fruit cake with it, do you think I should revive it in cold tea? or just use it as it is.........any tips appreciated thanks x

I used 5 year out of date fruit to make a tea loaf - recipe below. Absolutely fine
The recipe is on the link (and very topical!!)- just reduce the sugar by at least half.
Any fruit can be used
https://www.pressreader.com/uk/good-housekeeping-uk/20170501/285808603288724

AnimalTribe

As I live fairly remotely my council doesn't collect my recycling. I store it in a bin and take it to the recycling center when I make a rare trip to the local town. They have a wide range of things that they will accept so it's a good service. General rubbish is supposed to be collected every two weeks, but sometimes the lorry driver forgets to come, so my rubbish can sit for a month. In winter when snow makes it difficult to get to us, I have to take my general rubbish to the town recycling center myself. It luckily has a big skip for genuine rubbish. The rubbish never smells as I don't have any food waste. I only put on our plates what we will eat, any leftovers are eaten the next day or get frozen. 

Doom_and_Gloom

euronorris said:

For this reason, our council will not accept any christmas wrapping paper, regardless of whether or not it is plastic free. They ended up with too much contamination and rejected loads. Not only did this mean more stuff ended up in landfill, but fuel was also expended in both directions (to the recycling plant and back). So they have only accepted brown paper at Christmas time for the last few years.

The simple answer is to switch to fabric wrapping and reuse it every year.
My family mostly use festive bedding to do this. Pillow cases for little bits all together as a sack. You can use the festive duvet covers for larger gifts as needed. No need to cut them up.
We have been using the same set for many years now as have my parents. It saves waste and money over time.
You can of course do the same for birthdays. 
You can also just use a piece of fabric that is large enough. I have a largish square scarf that has been used a fair few times to wrap gifts. I took the ideas from Japanese furoshiki; cloth wrapping. 

I've also got gift bags and bottle bags that have been in use many years also.

Unfortunately my OH likes to use wrapping paper for a lot of his gift giving to his family, which he usually buys in the sales.
I do get him to reuse gift/bottle bags where possible (and he does ask for them back if they won't use it again themselves, indeed he's been given ones others had been given gifts in to add to our little collection 😁).

It is a shame that wrapping is being dismissed in recycling if not brown traditional paper. However I understand their reluctance as it isn't always or easily obvious which ones are recyclable Vs those that aren't by glance which is no help for workers.