My land fill rubbish challenge

squeaky

I knew I wasn't throwing a lot of rubbish into my non-recycling bin because it was usually two, sometimes three, half filled non compressed carrier bags worth per fortnight. If two products on the shelf are similar in quality and price I'll buy the one that has the least packaging or packaging that looks like it will recycle easily and I do recycle the vast majority of stuff, glass, paper, plastic, cans... cooked food waste is minimal and joins the non cooked waste in the compost bin. With over twenty cats living within fifty meters of here rats are not a problem

Anyway, I compressed things a bit and have just put a single carrier bag's worth out for collection.

Just for fun I weighed it. 402 grams. For a fortnight.

Not bad.

Now I've got to think about how to reduce even this...:think:

MrsB_2

Hmmm, now there's a challenge I like the sound of!!

The only way to tackle this one Squeaky is to get up close and personal and to ask the 64 million dollar question.

What did that 402 grammes actually consist of (dont worry you dont have to tell us everything!!)???

squeaky

It was mostly the parts of packaging that had a label stuck on the plastic (because they can't separate the two), cling film from meat (one polystyrene meat tray thingy too) the odd sheet of kitchen towel that had stuff on that I wasn't happy about composting (the rest all gets composted).

My veggies pretty much all come loose from my box scheme and any of it that is packed is normally in brown recycled paper bags and I bung those in the composter - and the strong poly bag the whole lot comes in is returned to them so they can re-use it.

I use a proper shopping bag these days for my odds and ends shops and make a point of using as few as possible when doing my main shop at Asda so I haven't accumulated enough of late to need to bag loads of them for recycling - so they still wouldn't end up in my rubbish.

I dunno miss, that's the rubbish for just one person who's council (and the village pub) are set up to allow recycling of most things and I waste very little...

se999

Congratulations Squeaky, I think that's amazing :A

Hope we can get somewhere near that when we get a house again.

Simba_25

Squeeky thats fab! well done you!

i must admit recycling is something that isnt done very often in this house! our wheelie bin is often overflowing after just 1 week

It is something i plan on changing tho as soon as i move house..unfortuntely i wont be able to have a compost bin but i will be able to recycle in other ways

MrsB_2

Wow!! I'm very very impressed!! :T

I'm struggling to see how you could shrink that any more.

Crikes - best get my thinking cap on. I thought we did well, we recycle all our paper, plastic bottles (they dont take any other sort of plastic :mad: ), tins, glass, cardboard, and carrier bags. We dont compost cos we dont have anywhere to put it, but maybe it's time to think about starting.

Hmmm - thank you for starting this and for being such a tough standard bearer!!

culpepper

I've just finished going through my wheelie bin,undoing all the rubbish bags DS(16) put in it over the weekend(he was threatened with mum doing his room if he didn't).Most of it was paper and has gone in the paper recycling box.4 plastic drink bottles have gone down the shed for me to use in the garden and assorted small bits and pieces including about 50 sheets of untouched paper:mad: and a rechargable battery have been secretly reclaimed by me.4 bags are now one.

se999

Simba_25 If you visit this site and put in your new postcode it will tell you about the recycling available there:

http://www.recyclenow.com/

squeaky

culpepper wrote:

I've just finished going through my wheelie bin,undoing all the rubbish bags DS(16) put in it over the weekend(he was threatened with mum doing his room if he didn't).Most of it was paper and has gone in the paper recycling box.4 plastic drink bottles have gone down the shed for me to use in the garden and assorted small bits and pieces including about 50 sheets of untouched paper:mad: and a rechargable battery have been secretly reclaimed by me.4 bags are now one.

Way to go!

MrsB_2

Hoorah!!! I LOVE Gateshead MBC!!! Just rung to see if they do a subsidised compost bin scheme and they do. £10 for a 360 litre bin (actually might have been 320 but hey, what the heck!!)

So 2 questions:

1) Does that sound like a good deal to those in the know?
2) What on earth do i do with 300 and odd litres of compost? I do have a garden but it's 50% lawn, 40% patio, and only 10% flower beds and pots.

Any ideas (well, within reason ) gratefully received.

Thanks

squeaky

MrsB wrote:

Hmmm - thank you for starting this and for being such a tough standard bearer!!

I honestly don't think I'm tough. Maybe it's because I just don't like wasting stuff and it all comes naturally and, as with most things, once they become habit they're never hard to do.

And you do need a council that encourages recycling.

Having a composter helps too.

I'm going to mess up next time I'm sure. I've got a pair of jeans with a hole in one knee (so they can't go for clothing recycling) and they weigh 822 grams!!

So... the bottom half of the legs cut off could be made into bags for something, I know you can make shorts or even a carry bag out of the seat bit - though I have enough shorts and I don't need a carry bag... so I might just unpick all the pockets and the zip and put them by for future repairs.

Then again, my proper shopping bag is quite big, so a smaller one could be handy...