About Us
May 27, 2008 in section: Uncategorized by zero with 16,217 views
Welcome to My Zero waste!
Join us as we reduce the amount of rubbish we send to landfill each week.
We are a family of four:
- Two adults (Mr and Mrs Green)
- An eight-going-on-sixteen year old child (Little Miss Green)
- An sixteen-going-on-eight year old cat (Cattus Green)
We live in semi-rural Gloucestershire with an assortment of visiting chickens, sheep and horses.
Edited Dec 09: Our beloved Cattus Green died this year from ‘old age’. Her internal organs started to fail, so we had her put to sleep on 25th September.
Mrs Green
I’m a thirty something woman who loves writing, making messes in the kitchen, reading labels on food packets and getting irate when people take a plastic carrier bag for one loaf of bread in the supermarket.
I love creating meals from nothing, staring into the flames of the fire, listening to music, thinking, dreaming, watching the sunrise, and turning up the music until the windows rattle to dance around the house. I enjoy sweeping the floors and a nice clean bathroom. Hmmmm.
I’m always in six minds about everything and according to Mr Green, even when I’m wrong I’m right. When asked to describe me in three words Mr.Green offered: eccentric, enigmatic and completely unreliable. Ho hum.
Mr Green
Mr Green, drives me insane with his love of stuff. I’m trying to minimalise; while he loves nothing better than scouring through charity shops and coming home with new finds. When I create a space on a shelf he asks me what I am going to fill it with. He has more clothes and shoes than me and enough wood to build an ark.
He has an extraordinarily annoying habit of his ‘one day’ stuff actually coming in useful. He has built a conservatory, put in a shower, and installed radiators from his ‘it might come in useful one day’ hoard.
However, he is incredibly handsome, has a voice to die for, is a good listener, is creative, passionate, dynamic and practical. All in all he’s a bit of a Robinson Crusoe and a bit of a catch; even if I say so myself.
Little Miss Green
Little Miss Green is home educated. She is very creative and never uses any object for its intended use for long. Storage boxes rapidly become elaborate dens, houses or boats, pencils are rabbit food, curtains are the sea, her bed is for swinging from and her mattress is a trampoline.
She loves reading, writing stories and can usually be found creating a work of art somewhere; often on her bedroom wall. One day she is going to write a book and sell it for a million pounds (on the days that she is not being a vet, running her shop or being a farmer’s wife with five children). Her farm is going to be large enough so we can move in and look after her children while she looks after the animals.
She is a natural Buddhist. I can’t garden with her because every creature has to be saved, made a bed for and reunited with its mother, so it takes about 3 hours to dig a square inch; and she has an attachment to none of her possessions. When she is done with them, she gives them away - horrah!
Please do comment on the site or contact us and say Hi - we’d love to hear from you.
Mrs Green
xxx
Sunday Roundup
National butcher’s week - March 15-20
Why falling in love can create waste
Dan Norris MP shares the government’s vision for a zero waste nation
Love your leftovers
Little miss green’s Birthday present
Say hello to another Gloucestershire zero waste family!
Sunday Roundup
hi starchild, indiebird here! Love the site!
Hello Mel,
Thank you for taking the time to comment. We love it when our readers stop by and say hello or share something about their own recycling journey.
What are the facilities like in your area?
mrs G x
Well, talking of waste, where do we start? The most important thing is that we don’t have guilt or fear pangs about the matter [substance ] that is all around us. If you start thinking about girating atoms, they are everywhere, depending on whether they are ’stuck’ in a polystyrine container, or gently rotting in our compost bucket or growing fresh and new in the garden. We tend to think of ‘rubbish’ as bad and living as ‘good’, but they are both part of the whole process of growth and degeneration. What happens though with a substance that is SO contracted it cannot change - like plastic? Are we sometimes like that too? Let’s all make sure we understand the whole process and not get ’stuck’ in fear or condemnation.Love you !
Hi Angela!
Thank you for dropping by and leaving a comment.
Looking at our waste as a spiritual aspect of life is something we’ve not covered on the site. Initially myzerowaste it’s a resource of information and hopefully, inspiration for others to join in and look at their waste in a different light.
I agree we must not get fearful or feel guilty ( or try to make others feel this way), but I do feel that we need to do something. We are already seeing signs of our decadent and wasteful lifestyles in this country and across the world; especially with the devastating effects of our plastic waste on marine life and the way our CO2 emissions are leading to climate change.
There is clearly a fine balance between revering and respecting the environment, accepting what is as perfect and whole in this moment and getting paralysed by fear so that we lose sight of the bigger picture. I agree with what you say up to a point, but I wouldn’t want to use that as an excuse to do nothing.
And if I put my condemnation and judgmental head on, I hope you’ll be here to give me a nudge in the right direction - I’m well aware that although I strive not to, I am very capable of judging and criticising others
Mrs G x
Hi Rae and family!
Just thought I’d say I like the site (haven’t managed to look at everything, theres loads) and I’ll add a link on my site so hopefully more people find you if that’s OK?
Poppy
Hello Poppy
*waves*
I believe I know who you are
We’d love a link to your site - thank you so much! I’ve just taken the quickest of looks at your site and in the words of Arnie ‘ I’ll be back’; I never knew all these things about you. What a rich and wonderful life you lead……..
Mrs G x
Do you mind if I post your tips regarding food waste in my monthly green tips section. I write for a small newspaper wethepeoplenews.org in the coastal City of Corpus Christi Texas.
Thank You
Theresa Holland
Hi Theresa,
I’ve written to your personal email address, but this might be helpful information for other people with similar questions.
You are welcome to share articles we have written for the site, and we ask in return that you provide a live link to our home page which is:
http://myzerowaste.com
Please don’t use rel no follow on website addresses.
Please get in contact again if you need any further help or clarification on things. You can read more about issues such as using information printed on our pages on our Terms of use page.
http://www.greenwala.com/Trash_of_the_Year
Here’s a video of a man I interviewed packing up all his saved trash from one year of trying to create zero waste. His wife and daughters supported him but did not participate in his zero waste experiment so it seems like you are doing more. Still, it’s a great idea and helps raise awareness.
I just found this blog today, and am very fascinated by it. I do just a little recycling, but I have never been wasteful, something I have not been able to pass on to my kids. I guess it’s because they’ve never had to go hungry.
I have sent your link to most of my friends, and have subscribed to your site.
Thank you for all the info… still not finished reading it all.
Hi Dorris - welcome to the site; I love your avatar! It sounds like you are living a very conscious lifestyle. Thank you for spreading the word; do feel free to jump in with any comments throughout the site - we love hearing what our readers have to say.
Hi Justine - sorry I did not acknowledge your last comment. Sustainable Dave is great and has done so much to increase awareness of recycling and the rubbish issue in general. Thank you for the link.
@Mrs Green: Hi, Mrs Green, I have only just discovered you,and put a lot in Speak Your Mind. Sorry I shot my mouth off, it was so nice to find a group of like-minded people! I intend to keep having a look at the site from now on, as waste makes me see red.
Hi Ingrid - welcome to the site; it’s great to see you here and we love that you shot your mouth off! you’re most welcome to share your views as it can lead to fabulous discussions. So glad you feel you’ve met a group of like-minded people and I look forward to your further comments around the site. You’ve found us at a great time as we are taking part in a pledge next week to declutter our garage whilst creating the minimum amount of landfill waste possible. It should be interesting
Hello!
Just stumbled across your site whilst searching for recycling hints/tips, and it’s the most fun and informative I’ve found
I now know what I’ll be looking at for the rest of the evening, hehe - I’d better bookmark you, as I have a feeling I’ll be coming back
Hello Arachne, welcome to the site - glad you found us. Enjoy browsing and feel free to jump in on any of the posts with comments
Hi
Im on the Problogger program with you and thought Id say hi!
Great site.
Your ‘name’ has led my husband and I to have quite a discussion on the use of the word Mrs in type. I think this is the first time Ive ever come across anyone called Mrs in cyberspace! (but then again I dont get around cyber very much).
Ciao
See you on Problogger
Rosemary
Hi Rosemary - welcome! Thank you for coming along to say hello. How interesting about the ‘Mrs’ part LOL! I’ve never really thought about it; perhaps it’s a British thing
Enjoy the 31 day challenge
I read the recent article about your family in the Times & noticed the comments about toothpaste tubes. I not know how “environmentally sound” the following suggestion is, but it will help to totally transform lives. Please consider sending them to Philippine Community Fund (PCF) in Southampton. It is a British based charity that helps very poor families living on a dumpsite in Manila, Philippines by providing education, healthcare & livelihood programmes. They need old toothpaste tubes which are reused to form bags, etc which are sold to help provide income.
http://p-c-f.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Walker
Andy
@Andy: Hi Andy, this sounds great - thank you so much for bringing it to my attention. I’m going to find out more details to share with our readers