May 15, 2009 in section: Uncategorized by Mrs Green with 11,611 views
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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!
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Hi, just a thought, but many local towns and villages often have recycling centers where you can drop of your items. Worth checking out to see your nearest!
Congratulations folks…This is a fantastic site and I can’t wait to see how you get on…xx
Hello sweet pea, good to see you! We couldn’t have done it without you and all that………
Mrs G x
Well done in looking at your waste and trying to reduce it as much as possible. But I think the term Zero Waste is misleading as you are not aiming to achieve zero waste but just reduce your waste you send to landfill. Recyclable waste is still waste, it still has to be collected, sorted, stored and processed, all of which takes energy, resources and money.
Good point Sarah. However, we are very close to zero waste for our household waste collection! The one area that we are still struggling with is non-recyclable plastics. Everything else can be recycled, with a little bit of thought and effort on our part. I agree about your next point about the cost of recycling and this is a deeper more provoking subject. However, it can be shown that the overall energy costs of reusing old materials is still less than producing something from scratch, plus it lessens the burden on using raw resources. It’s not a perfect solution, but better than nothing.
Hi Sarah, thanks for taking the time to comment - we love hearing what people think.
I think you make an excellent point. The term Zero waste is a bit misleading; maybe Zero landfill waste would have been more appropriate at this stage.
To me, the idea of zero waste has two stages. There is the beginner’s stage, which is where we are now. For us this involves, as you rightly say, reducing the amount of LANDFILL waste we produce to zero.
But then I see a kind of ideal evolving where we don’t create any waste in the first place. I feel that this is pretty impossible with our current lifestyles, but maybe there are some things we can do to strive towards this.
I don’t pretend it would be simple, but I’d like to give it my best shot. I’m aware it will take huge lifestyle changes and a complete change in shopping habits, but I think it’s fun to look at the possibilities and see what we can do.
Watch this space as they say
Mrs G x
Hi Sarah,
Zero Waste refers to landfill bound waste. Everything which can be composted, recycled, reused has value and would be part of a virtuous cycle of sustainability. Recycling will always have a useful role eg packaging, bottles, paper.
Landfill is one of the worst factors in the current system, along with misuse of resources and harmful processing.
Do you think recycling is bad?
Regards,
John.
I’ve just ordered some washable cleansing pads (not sure of their exact name) from Natural collection to use instead of cotton wool. I’ll let you know how i get on …
Ah cool, Queenie. I’d always wondered about these. If you think about the amount we throw away if we use cotton wool to cleanse every day - it doesn’t bear thinking about really.
You can write a review on them when you’ve tried them if you like! I’ve only got two reviews in the section so far
I hope you get on well with them.
Mrs G x
OOOOO I’d be honoured thanks Mrs G. I’ll be back in touch once they’ve arrived and I’ve tried them out
Hello Mrs. Green
Great work on your rubbish reduction this week!!
Here’s a question for you - what are your suggestions for those of us who are the only ones willing/ready to try something like this in their family?
My husband has many, many fine qualities - but he’s a consumer in the truest sense, as many of us North Americans are. I am too in a sense, but feel ready to make a change for so many reasons. Unfortunately, he’s just not in a place yet where he’s on board with anything that’s going to cost us more money in the short term, nor is he ready to give up his spending ways. I know in time he’ll get there, but he’s always enjoyed shopping and buying things. I’ve been trying to introduce ideas gradually - not using plastic carrier bags or disposable coffee cups, baking soda for cleaning - but now i feel any next step is going to require more commitment from the whole family. Any thoughts?
Hey Melissa,
This is a brilliant question. I love it - thank you for sharing your dilemma here.
I think the important thing to remember is that ‘zero waste’ is really an ideal. It’s not a place of reality for many people and we really understand that.
We can think of a hundred reasons why zero waste is unattainable for many, but it’s the reasons we DON’T know about that are just as important.
Everyone has their unique lives and set of circumstances. Say, for example, you need daily medication for a serious health condition. You’ll be left with the blister packs that medication comes in and there is nothing at present you can do with them. It would be totally unacceptable for us to preach about a zero waste lifestyle for somebody in that situation.
We also appreciate that it is very hard for those who live in flats, have no garden, or have physical difficulties with managing their waste. It’s difficult too, for those without cars to get to recycling centres and those on a limited budget or for those families where both partners are out at work 12 hours a day.
I think our key message is along the lines of the WRAP’s campaign this year - they asked people to focus on ‘just one more thing’.
Personally, reading about your achievements (no carrier bags, reusable cups and home made cleaning products) you have done brilliantly - especially without the full on support of your husband.
As you may be aware, I began this challenge a few months ago, before Mr Green was on board with it and I totally failed; so I applaud you for the things you have done and kept up with.
I really can’t provide you with a magic answer. For me it happened unexpectedly when I shared a story with Mr Green about marine life and how it had been affected by plastic. I didn’t show him to persuade or manipulate, I was literally sharing a horrible story I had read and how it touched me.
I never, for one minute, thought it would affect him so strongly!
So I guess you never know when that moment of awareness is going to strike.
In the meantime, I guess you just keep on adding one more thing to the great list of things you are already doing. And you keep sharing with your husband what it is you are doing, and why. I think the ‘whys’ of what you are doing is vital to share with your husband, because then he can grasp your reasons and desires.
You don’t need to stop him doing the things he enjoys - marriage is about tolerance and compassion as we both know, but it sounds like you have a strong enough relationship to be able to share the things that matter to you.
Maybe tell him that you would like to achieve xxx goal this year. It can be simple such as ‘I’d like to look at one product that I buy, which is overly packaged, and find an alternative to it.’ or ‘I’d like to start a compost heap’ or ‘I’m going to reduce our food waste by a quarter’ or ‘I’m going to set up a functional recycling system at home’ and ask your husband to come up with some solutions to that.
Ask for his support. Don’t ask him to change, just ask for his support with the changes you would like to put in place. Maybe come up with a list of 5 things and ask him which he feels is the most attainable at this stage.
I don’t want to sound condescending or get involved with gender stereotyping, but generally, men are very solution based. They like the left brained stuff; so let him figure some things out because that might get him thinking more into the whole issue of recycling and the environment. If you want to step up your recycling, he might like to come on board with building some shelving for you. If you want a compost heap, he might like to help you build one. I don’t know if he is a practical hands-on kind of guy, but it will all help your cause.
Our mantra has to be ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day!’ There is a sense of urgency that threatens to overwhelm us at times, especially when you have a child, but I always hold on to the vision of a million people all recycling just one more tin can.
What happens is that once you start, with a baby step that doesn’t overwhelm you, it becomes easier to add more. Soon we are taking huge strides as a global collective.
I don’t think you need to stop your husband enjoying spending his money for one moment. You talk of changes that will cost you money in the short term and of the next steps that will require more commitment as a family. Can you share what some of those commitments are? Maybe then we can figure something out.
For now, I have a good feeling about your husband gradually joining you in your ways. It might not be instant, but I think it’s coming from what you have already said about him. You never know when he will read something, see something or take part in a conversation that changes his life for ever.
In the meantime, you’re doing great and I would encourage you to keep on keeping on. I’ve been known to take things out of the bin in the past, after Mr Green has put them in but it’s all changed now.
Old habits die hard and all that…………
I love your answer here Mrs G and find I agree with everything you’ve said. No surprises there then ;-D
I’d like to add one other message of encouragement for Melissa…My husband, wonderful as he is, really has been my very own waste saboteur. On one hand he’s supportive, then on the other he’s prone to dumping things in landfill if he gets half the chance!
Oh yes, even now I have to defend the bin from coffee cups and all sorts of trash that comes through his hands. The way I’ve managed so far is to allow him free access to the bin, but I then sort through the stuff that can be saved. it’s not a time-consuming task by any means.
As time has progressed, he’s got better and he even allowed me to present him with a set of rules for Zero Waste Week. One good thing is at least these days, he can be found turning down the odd plastic bag, something that six months ago would never have occurred to him.
He is now pretty much on board (at least in theory)despite the odd disagreement (in practice).
So I hope this offers some hope and err…good luck.
Speaking from the male preserve, the one thing I would add is that it really helps to see and experience something first hand before it ‘really bites’ about reducing waste. As Mrs.G said, for me it was the article about marine life and how they are suffering and dying through plastic pollution. It may be something very different for you, or even a gradual realisation about what we are doing. My only advice would be to meet your husband on his level of interest and perhaps allow him ito make ‘his own’ discoveries about how waste is polluting the environment.
Mrs and Mrs. Green and Almost Mrs. Average
Thank you for all your lovely suggestions! I will say, the decision to embark on any journey such as this really -does- need to come from oneself, and so I guess I was thinking of how since we are in different places I might be able to make things work on my own journey. I think meeting him on his level of interest is a terrific idea - and we’ll just carry on until we all feel it’s not so bad after all.
I think so far my resident consumer has made some positive changes, and I have seen him refuse carrier bags and remember to take them on a trip when I myself would have forgotten. I think I sometimes scare him with radical ideas - like “if we get rid of cable, we won’t watch so much TV and therefore save on electricity AND have more time to write etc” or “I want to not buy anything new this month, and only buy things from yard sales or secondhand!”. I’m beginning to see how I might be scaring him! So maybe I should go easy on the poor guy.
Mrs Green: In terms of the extra costs I was talking about - things like purchasing goods for our home that are made from more friendly materials. Also, we are building a deck next year and I wanted to research better choices than the typical pressure-treated wood for our variable climate. These are the options that cost more out of pocket, when we don’t have a budget for much excess. Also,buying organic food is a lovely idea until you look at the cost difference (and I know you can’t put a price on the health benefits, but in fairness it is a huge price difference) We are slowly finding ways to compromise - for instance we have joined an organic food co-op that’s working wonderfully for us.
So in short, I just think the whole process needs to eventually be a family commitment, and an interesting idea would be to ruminate on how to bring around some of the skeptics among us without scaring them off.
But I think you’re all correct in saying it might be best to lead by example.
Hey Melissa,
I’m so glad there was something of use for you in there. Sometimes I think I waffle away without actually saying anything constructive
It sounds like you have some really great plans in place, and you’re coming up with some creative ways in which you can compromise. I really admire that.
I know what you mean about the expense. One of my ‘things’ is trying to help people find financially viable solutions to some of these issues. There *are* ways that a greener lifestyle can SAVE us money, but as you point out, eco friendly options and organic products can be more expensive too.
I would just carry on doing as you are doing; sharing what you are doing in a non-confrontational way with your husband. He’s already making great strides with remember to take the bags. Just go ahead and have your personal ‘buy nothing new for a month’ challenge and let him do as he does.
Some of the things you do will intrigue or move him in such a way that he puts his own changes into place, and some of them won’t.
Do keep sharing your progress with us here; you know you can rely on us for a cheer and some moral support!
I think you’re doing really well
Mrs G x
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Message for Kristal Jones from Ribston Hall High School Studying textiles, making a dress from rubbish products. You contacted us recently but your email address kept bouncing back when we replied. Contact us again, we’re happy to help!
Another problem hit me today - Bank cards!
I had a new one through the post today and went through the usual process of cutting the old one to pieces to throw away, but then I stopped! I weighed it - 5 grams; and wondered what Mr and Mrs G would do with it to avoid adding to their already very slim bin. I went back to the letter that came with the new card to see if there was anything about recycling, but sadly not.
Is this a problem you have either faced or tackled yet? Obviously there is a security issue here, so leaving them lying around isn’t a very good idea, so what do we do with them?
Oh gawd woman, credit cards are this month’s Dustbin demon
But as for what to do, I really don’t know. Now you have me thinking and perhaps it’s time for a return to the issuing company for disposal; a bit like the WEEE directive.
That’s the page on the site where I’m allowed to rant without being helpful, constructive or come up with any suggestions LOL! There are a couple of there, one thanks to Diz
Anyone else? Answers on a postcard please!
Ooops! Sorry Miss, I hadn’t read that bit
I will whizz over there right now for a studious read
You’ve inspired me, Poppy. On my ‘to do’ list is to write to my bank and ask if they have any suggestions….. I’ll let you know.
Well, first off I LOVE this site. I’ve been away visiting family a lot this summer, and so I haven’t seen it in awhile. The progress you’ve made is amazing. Good job!
We’re plugging along on our journey over here. Though I haven’t popped by, each week as I’m taking the trash out to the curb I cringe and think of all the hard work you’re doing wondering if I could do the same. Baby steps though, yeah?
At any rate, I just wanted to let you know how great everything’s looking and wish you luck on your challenge!
Cheers,
Melissa
Hello Melissa, thanks for your comment here. When we started looking at our kerbside waste, it amazed us how much in terms of volume, we were throwing out. Then when we looked more carefully at the individual items, we noticed that many of them were packages, just full of air. Things like tins, small boxes, bottles and tetra paks. We simply started by crushing many of these things, so at least we were not throwing away air!.
Yes, you are right, just little steps is the way to go. Staying in your comfort zone and doing things that are meaningfull. The initial stages are quite easy, but it seems to get more challenging as it goes on. Mainly because you run out of options in disposing of those pesky plastics.
Anyway, thanks for your encouragement, we’re going to log as much as we can here on the site this week.
Melissa! You’re right - baby steps it is. I really never thought we would be in the space we are in right now, producing as little rubbish as we do. I tentatively made a guess at 50% reduction back in June, but a series of baby steps has led us to where we are today.
You’re doing fab with your own challenges and the fact you are stopping to think about your actions is a step in itself. Keep it up!
Hi Mrs Green,
I have just successfully started my 1 Jar 1 Lid campaign. At ASDA this morning, I purchased a Kenco Rapport 300g jar along with 4 loose Pink Lady apples and a tin of Ambrosia Low Fat custard.
When I spoke to the customer service lady, who was friendly at all times, explaining that I already had such a lid at home and that the removed lid could be sent back to Kenco as it was unused. She accepted this with good grace.
Would you like to start a topic called Campaign News where one and all could put their contributions to the various efforts, in one place for easy access.
John, well done on the first day of your campaign. A page for such news might be an idea. Do you think there would be interest from other readers to contribute their own news? I could certainly set that up easily enough.
Hi Mrs Green,
Maisie and Gai both have had ideas, sending stuff to the HQ. That is a campaign in itself. Having all such details, and the results achieved, under one topic will let others read through and see what fits their attitude. New ideas can emerge following earlier experiences. Poppy has also emailed about biscuit packaging. This could be linked to container use and practice.
I would inform Maisie and Gai about this campaign focus and they might feel it would suit their interests. Possibly it would be better to ask them first. A central location makes sense. There should be plenty of activities with the possible Ruby visit a good post as well.
ARG!!! I’m gathering all my ingrediences for holiday baking when I notice my flour is WAY OUT OF DATE! What is the best way to recycle my flour without doing any CRAFTS!!
Flour is a natural product, so if you have a garden, you could easily dig it into the soil without any side effects. Just make sure it’s well dispersed in the ground.
Hi Kali,
Welcome to the site. Dare I say this on a public forum? I would use the flour. Not for bread, but certainly for cakes, biscuits and crumble topping. Oh, and Christmas pudding and mince pies LOL!
I wouldn’t waste it unless it had weevils in it.
Probably not the answer you are looking for, but it’s my honest one
Slice of cake anyone?
I appreciate you don’t want to do crafts, but something genuinely useful to do with it might be to make glue? Depends on how much you have I guess!
This is probably a daft question, but it’s something I do but am not sure about.
I love smelly candles, but if they don’t burn right, I’m left with a lump of smelly wax without a home. I’ve been removing the metal disk to put in with my odds and sods recycling and putting the wax into the compost.
Is that okay? I haven’t had any complaints from the worms, but I’m not sure if it’s the right thing to do.
One of your articles says that Japan recycles 80% of its waste. I believe that Germany also recycles a large percentage. How do they recycle all that plastic that we think is not recycleable?
Hello David, thanks for your comment. One basic problem we have in the UK is there is more post-user and industrial waste plastic than we can reprocess. If everyone diligently collected and recycled all palstic waste, there is simply not the infrastructure here in the UK to recycle it and reprocess it into usable items again. This is why so much plastic waste is shipped to China, where they have a huge market in plastic goods and massive support for recycling large volumes of plastic recyclate. The sad thing is we are part of the economic loop, because many of the plastic products made in China is exported back to the west, like the UK where we consume and recycle it again.
We are caught in an unholy alliance of consumerism of cheap goods that have a short life, that end up being recycled into new cheap goods that we buy again.
I’m not sure about Germany’s logistics on recycling, except that as a nation they have a very tight hold on efficiency in industry. Remember waste is a product of ‘bad design’ That kind of ‘product’ is not welcome in the german mind set.
Poppy, candle wax in the compost probably is not a good idea as most of them are not natural beeswax, they are petroleum based. Let’s hope your compost doesn’t get too hot LOL!
We use the stubs to light the fire. You can melt the wax and pour it into pinecones as a pressie for people with open fires.
Maybe next year;s Christmas presents will be home made candles from you
The UK seems to only recycle a minimal amount. Plastics have been divided into 7 types, see http://www.naturalcollection.com/organic/recycling-guide.aspx#plastics ; it says that only types 1, 2 and 4 can be recycled. Do they recycle the other types in Japan, Germany and other countries, how successful are they? Why do our local recycling centres not accept the other types?
Hi, love the zero waste idea. But can you suggest anything useful to do with old hold ups (old tights are sent to tightsplease.com for their charity) and I don’t really have a garden to use them to hold plants up. Also, do you have any suggestions for jiffy bags (the envelopes with bubble wrap attached). I reuse them where possible and pull out bubble wrap and recycle the paper but still have a huge pile. So any suggestions would be very much appreciated!
Personally, the biggest difference to the amount of waste I produce has to be getting my compost bin. I’ve no idea what I’ll do with the compost when it’s ready (maybe freecycle it?) but in the meantime I now produce one small bin bag (mainly packaging) every two/three weeks instead of a bin bag a week. I’m saving up to get a bokashi to deal with all the other food I can’t compost which will reduce my kitchen waste even further.
I’m proud to say that I have trained my husband to say to checkout staff “I don’t need a carry bag thank you”. I’m amazed at the amount of times we have to say it sometimes though before some people get it, we’ve even in the past had to physically remove the items from the bag and hand it back. Once, the member of staff took the bag, declared it used and threw it in the bin! He got really confused (annoyed?) when I asked for it back so that I could reuse it if he was only going to chuck it anyway.
Anyway, it’s only with commitment from people like you that we’ll change those attitudes.
Hi Shona welcome to the site,
Will Tights please not accept hold ups too for their charity collections? I think that scheme is great. Other uses might be as a stuffing material for crafters - maybe a bag of them offered on Freecycle would yield a result.
A month or so ago, I offered a large box of jiffy envelopes on Freecycle and I had three enquiries; so it’s well worth sorting them and advertising them.
You’ll have no problem getting rid of your compost either! Do you have any plants at all - some containers or hanging baskets perhaps; because you could use it in these. Otherwise, Freecycle will come to the rescue again, I’m quite sure. Failing that, advertise it in an area with allotments and I’m sure it will be snapped up.
Well done to your DH for refusing carrier bags; but how infuriating about the person who wanted to throw the ‘used’ bag away.
Keep up the great work and enjoy making your own compost
Did you know the business have to pay to recycle there trade waste, so all them posh coffee shops, cafe and pubs that go through plastic, cups, card board etc put them stuff in land fill, wrong isn’t it
I getting a wormery on Wed, so excited, then in the nicer weather going to put s green (Garden) roof on my shed,raaaaaaaaaa
I hope Lancaster council do a zero waste, week month and or implement this idea into school cafeteria and government office!
@Sarah: Hi Sarah, if it gets recycled or reused as the word suggest then it not waste as some one else wants it. Or have I got it wrong?
Hi Rik, it would be great if your council took up a zero waste challenge - why not suggest it to them this week while we have things going on in Gloucestershire. I’m sure someone from our council would help them
I wonder how large businesses get away with sending things to landfill; I would have thought there would be lots of precautions taken to prevent that happening…….
I e-mailed the council about this and got the you need ti give us 5 working days to get back to you answer from them.
There is not seem to be any precautions re business land fill as it wol appear this is not a governmental issue. A few of us started a face group up as we thought it was just Lancaster but found out that it country wide.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=37369204175&ref=ts. Help suggestions would be soooooooooooooooooo helpful
Well done on setting up your group, Rik. I think a phonecall rather than an email would work better. Emails can be ignored, but if you’re on the end of the line you can’t be. What is it you are trying to achieve with your group? If it’s business waste, I don’t know anything about that - our site focuses on what the householder, as an individual can do.
Not really a comment, so much as a note that, reading the Stroud News and Journal online, I see that the Zero Waste Challenge Week is going to feature on ITV this Monday, on the Tonight programme (not to be confused with the Today programme, or the Tomorrow People):
http://www.stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk/news/4157012.Zero_waste_challenge_week_hits_the_headlines/
Joe that is a good link. Wider TV coverage can only help the trend. For me, this is part of a sustainable future which will emerge gradually. Once changes are taken on board previous practice becomes alien. The incineration issue overlaps this as Zero Waste is a viable alternative, alongside alternative waste processes.
Is there a way to watch this on the computer? We don’t have a TV but I have to see it! Maybe I’ll camp at a friend’s house for the night!
you should be able to watch it on itv.com following the links for tv listings, may have to watch in a couple of days on catchup though as i think live watching needs a tv licence.
I am inspired by the reduction of weekly household waste and am trying my best to reduce our family of fours waste. Could do with some top tips in growing salad in wooden boxes…anyone?
Well done to all who strive to make our world a little greener for our children.
@zoe bawtree: Hi Zoe, good to see you! We are growing salad in troughs for the first time this year. We have simply ensure drainage holes in the bottom of the containers, put a layer of gravel or broken pots in the bottom as no salad likes to have ‘wet feet’ and filled the containers with compost; although if you have decent free-draining garden soil, they will do fine in that as well.
Sow them thinly and only sow a few seeds at a time, otherwise you get a huge glut that you can’t eat. Every couple of weeks, when the seedlings have appeared, sow a few more seeds. It’s good to look out for mixed salad leaves, especially cut and come again varieties as you’ll get about 4 lots for your money - each time you cut it back (as long as you don’t do what LMG did and pull the leaves out by their roots LOL!) it wlll grow again.
Keep moist, and in a slightly shady position - too much sun makes salad bolt or grow hard and woody
We have rocket, mizuma and red mustard as Mr Green likes his peppery tastes. We’re even growing watercress as it does not need to be grown in water at all!
Following all the food waste friday and no food spend projects I thought I might recommend a book to you.
It is the Victory Cookbook by Marguerite Patten OBE and is a collection of recipes and info from 1940 - 1954 when rationing was in force and it was actually illegal to waste food. There are lots of very cheap recipes, and also lots where things like carrots are used instead of sugar. There is also the ultimate zero waste soup - pea pod soup!! And of course these recipes were written in the days before processed food (except for the odd tin of spam!)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Victory-Cookbook-Nostalgic-Facts-1940-1954/dp/0753706830/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251303563&sr=1-1
The copy I have belongs to my mum, but I don’t want to give it back!
I have this book also and we used it when DS2 class were studying WW2, I catered for the street party to finish the topic (17 kids plus 3 staff)
@Sharon: Hi Sharon, I love Marguerite Patten’s books too. I borrowed one from the library and wanted to keep it! It’s now on my Amazon wishlist.
You have an interesting site. I have a few recycle/salvage ideas on my blog, including:
What to do with old computer hard drives or drives that you want to destroy : http://mr-ives.blogspot.com/search/label/hard%20drive
@Jonathan: Hello Jonathan; welcome to the site and thanks for sharing your link! Mending things is a huge part of our zero waste lifestyle; so thanks for putting together such a great resource
Does anyone know a shop where i can take the empty containers containing their products such as moisturisers, shampoo, conditioners etc back to the shop for them to reuse?
I know Rush do, but it seems obvious that everyone else should follow suit.
I would like to say well done for the bit in the paper. If just one person takes extra notice it was worth it. Your site is now in my favourites for when I have some time to go through it.
Hi Mr. & Mrs. Green,
What a wonderful site! Congratulations! My wife and I have been re-cylers for years, but not to your extent.
On the subject of credit cards. I stopped using credit cards about 15 years ago. The inconvenience was quickly forgotten. The main advantage was a saving of valuable cash. I know this does not suit everybody’s lifestye but it is a great feeling to have real money in your pocket!
Good luck to all.
David, Thailand.
@sarah: Hi Sarah, you could read a little more about this on our ‘Cosmetics companies who refill’ article, which you’ll find here:
http://myzerowaste.com/articles/personal/cosmetics-companies-who-refill-and-recycle/
Unfortunately, there are few refill schemes available. Apparently the Body Shop, when they offered this service only appealed to 1% of their customers
@Pol: Hello Pol, thank you so much for your comment and I hope you enjoy the site. Feel free to jump in and comment whenever you get time!
@David Lee: Hi David; thank you for your comment and it’s lovely to hear about you and your wife recycling all you can. Interesting about the cash; I like that thought, but as I buy things online I guess that wouldn’t work for me… Keep up the great work in Thailand
Hi Mr and Mrs. Green, just found your site and am now working my way round it!
We do re-cycle as much as possible and have an allotment where we grow quite a bit and have a few compost bins which always seem to be overflowing. My husband uses the inner tubes of toilet rolls as containers to grow runner beans, broad beans etc. and then plant them straight into the ground. We have also found that large sheets (cardboard boxes) of cardboard placed over the ground keeps down the weeds and, eventually, becomes compost. (I expect I’m talking to the converted!) We have also collected free wooden pallets from our local Wood Store - it helps them and helps other people at the allotments to make compost heaps etc.
Will carry on working through your site, thanks a lot, Jo Brock
@Josie Brock: Hi Jo, glad to have you here and I hope you enjoy the site. Using toilet roll inners as biodegradable plant pots is great reuse. It sounds like you are doing so much in your allotment and reaping the rewards of a little sustainability in your life. You clearly find it hugely rewarding and I love that you are helping out your fellow allotment holders
Keep sharing your tips; they are excellent 
I am trying to reduce my waste. What I want to know is it better to burn rubbish which can not be reused or recycled on my woodburning stove rather than sending it to landfill?
I know some plastic will let off chemicals into the environment or is it better to leave it in the ground for hundreds of years?
I am confused… To burn or to landfil. At least burning will let off a warm feeling!
I am sure home incineration is the future for land fill, just need a way to catch all the bad chemicals from going into the environment.
@Richard hathway: Hi Richard, welcome to the site and what a great question. I don’t know the answer I’m afraid. We never burn things that cannot be recycled, because for us that means plastics or composite materials such as crisp bags. The fumes from these are vile and I don’t want to breathe them in or put them into the environment.
However, whether it’s better to burn or bury I really don’t know the answer to that in terms of long term impact on the environment. As you say, in homes we can’t do anything about the chemicals, so best not to go there I say!
Will be interested to hear if anyone else has a differing opinion.
Hi there
I wrote a piece in the Times using lots from this great site - thanks for the help.
Some of you will disagree with some of what I wrote - do please comment on the Times site: I’d love to know what you think.
Keep up the excellent work
Thanks
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article6986627.ece
@Alex Renton: Great to see you Alex and thanks for the great piece on the Times. I’ll feature it next week on the site
@Alex Renton: Alex, I found this site through your article which was very inspirational. The Times was worth £1 for once!
@Caroline: Welcome Caroline; great to see you and I’m glad you enjoyed Alex’s article; I too thought it was really inspirational.
Already the proud owner of a garden compost bin which gives us several bags of high quality compost every year I thought I’d invest in a second one. Our local council doesn’t supply them but they gave me the website for Greencore where I secured a small discount (£19 instead of £24).
It duly arrived a few days later but I couldn’t believe the packaging! YES - packaging for a 4′ high plastic compost bin - it was wrapped in about 5 layers of cling-film head to toe. Why? What were they trying to protect it from - the weather? Isn’t this a prime example of a conflict of interests? Sure lunacy. Should I complain to Greencore?
I have a pic by the way if you would like me to send it to you. It looks so silly!
Hi, I have a company called Wikaniko (it’s pronounced we can eco
) - our aim is to show consumers how easy it is to adopt a greener, healthier way of living through making painless, small changes. Our website provides links to local recycling services, our very own recycling auction site which is FREE to use - called Wicycle-It (www.wicycle-it.org.uk) and an online shop containing over 800 eco-friendly products for personal use and use around the home. We are also launching an initiative with primary schools this year to promote various ways in which we can help them achieve eco schools awards.
If you’d like to view our products or find out more about us and ways in which you can help (and help us in our ‘Plant 10,000 trees’ campaign this year), please visit our website http://www.wikaniko.com/1003204 or http://www.go-eco-friendly.co.uk for my contact details. Thanks x
Congratulations and thank you for some very inspirational ideas.
I’ve just found your site and in the mist of trawling through all the articles and posts for recycling and money saving ideas. There are so many great idea’s i’ve seen so far, i will now be saving milk bottle tops and sending them off, saving crisp packets and send them to you ( call you soon) and the fab idea of re.using plastic bottles to help prevent against slugs is brilliant.
The plastic bottle will be re.cycled now into 3 parts, bottle tops will be up turned into plant pots in the garden to help with watering, the middles will be your fab slug guards and the the end i’ll put over seedling to help them along. fantastic
Right better go, feel the need to re.arrange my kitchen cupboards to re.house containers for recycling
then i’ll be back later for more ideas
thanks so very much xxxx
Hi Mrs Green
Like you I’m trying to reduce my landfill waste to an absolute minimum although I have to admit I’m still quite a long way short of achieving zero. I’m currently involved in a de-cluttering exercise but have a problem. Over the years I’ve accumulated a small pile of old hot water bottles which can no longer be used. In fact they now probably leak! Unfortunately no one seems to want old rubber.
I don’t want to throw them in the bin and I don’t want to incinerate them. Help! What can I do with my old hotties? What do you do with your?
Elaine
@Mrs Green:
I recorded your TV interview this week for my Husband to see. I think this might have got him thinking . I am sending him the link to MYZEROWASTE .Watch this space.
Hi there
There are some things that are very small but just annoying - Assuming I don’t burn them (which I would rather not) how do people deal with things like:
* the plastic/foil wrappers pills come in
* the little sticky labels on fruit
* the card and foil tops on milk bottles
Anyone got an idea?
Nigel
@Paul Watts: Hi Paul, brilliant story. I’ve come across this too with a filing cabinet I bought - the thing was practically bomb proof but it arrived swathed in cling film. Yes, complain, send the photo, along with your letter and their response and we’ll post it up. Contact me initially though the ‘contact us’ form and we’ll see what we can do to change their policy
http://myzerowaste.com/contact-us/
@Naomi: Hi Naomi, welcome and thanks for telling us about your site. I’ve come across you before and it looks great
@Kim: Hi Kim, welcome and what a brilliant start you’ve made. I’m so pleased you can now put your milk bottle components and crisp bags to good use! stay in touch and keep joining in the conversations
@Elaine: Hi Elaine, great question and one which I haven’t yet had to deal with. My hot water bottles are years old and thankfully still going strong! I’m thinking about those grip mats that people use to grip jar lids which are hard to open. Maybe you could get crafty and repurpose your hot water bottles as gifts for those who could use them - they might be useful for the elderly? I think I might post this up as a ‘readers question’ if you don’t mind and we can find some inspirational ideas from our readers!
@Karen:
Great Karen - what did he make of us?
@Nigel Shepheard: Hello Nigel, welcome to the site. Medication packaging is a good one that lots of people talk about. I’m not sure how to deal with it to be honest. I might post that up as a readers question too and see what other people have to say.
Sticky labels on fruit is something I am going to investigate next week as I’ve been thinking that exact thing. So far I’ve managed to avoid them, but I’ve only done one shopping trip this year. I’m sure they will catch me out eventually, so I’m looking in to it. I’m hoping they are compostable.
For the plastic / foil seals on milk bottles, I’m talking about it tomorrow - our only answer was to switch brands and we may even start using a milkman. I’m now buying milk that has the plastic seal around the lid. Probably not the answers you were looking for, but there we are - let’s see if anyone else picks up on your comment; if not. I’ll post them all up to get reader input.
Please can you let other readers know about this petition. I am trying to make a difference bydoing something about the amount of plastic waste that is going to landfill.
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/reuse-plastics/
HELP!
The young man and his friend went trotting off this morning with fishing rods and flasks of soup and chocolate. I was patting myself on the back at this zero waste entertainment and then they came home …. with a broken flask!!
I’ve done a brief hunt around on the internet and it appears that you can’t get refills anymore!!! The newer flasks all say unbreakable.
Has their zerowaste entertainment turned into a big quack quack oops? Or are there refills still hiding out there somewhere?
@Pip: Thanks Pip - good luck with the petition and well done for setting it up., How many signatures would you like to collect?
@Poppy: Oh poppy, I’ve not seen anything at all. I would ask around in a camping shop. I hope you find something!
I thought this might be of interest to people. Apparently from today retailers who stock batteries must of recycling facilities for you old batteries. Of course people should be using rechargables.
Quoting from the article:
“New rules mean that from today, any retailer who sells over 32kg of batteries per year (about 1 pack of 4 AAs a day) is required to provide a free recycling point for consumers to return their used / flat batteries. In practice, this means that most retailers who sell batteries will now have a collection point; making it easier for everyone to recycle,” the body says, adding that the average household uses some 21 batteries a year.
For the full article see:
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1589808/battery-recycling-compulsory
Poppy don’t know if this helps but there is a thermos refil on ebay currently £1.99 item #110489014927
Now this looks interesting. Spray on glass. I like the sound of:
“In the home, spray-on glass would eliminate the need for scrubbing and make most cleaning products obsolete.”
See: http://www.physorg.com/news184310039.html
Hi, All
One way to deal with unwanted plastic cards (like credit and store cards) is to re-use them as scrapers in the kitchen e.g. scraping the gubbins out of saucepans and casseroles or stubborn burnt on spills on halogen hobs. OK shouldn’t have burnt them in the first place but they are very efficient in getting the hard bits off following a bit of a soak, of course. Plus scraping cake mixture out of the bowl; ice off the windscreen, smoothing polyfilla (and icing on cakes), yes a very useful thing to keep and easy to keep clean.
Jean B
@Greg: Hello Greg; I saw the article on the BBC; it’s good news as so few batteries are recycled at the moment. Rechargeable batteries are great and create much less waste. I’ve written about them here: http://myzerowaste.com/2009/12/use-rechargable-batteries/
Not so sure about the use of spray on glass; why would I want that??
@Jean Blanchard: Hello Jean, I like the idea of using an old card for scraping out the bowl or icing a cake - kind of like a palette knife. Excellent idea - thank you!
Mrs Green,
If it works, you would want spray on glass because you could coat surfaces in your home and be able to clean them just using water and not have to use bleaches and chemicals.
@Greg: Oh, I Seeeee - yes, I’m up to speed now! So, using spray on glass with a microfiber cloth would mean an end to chemical cleaning. Fabulous! At the moment, my most used product is a plant mister with essential oils and water in it. I use that with a microfiber cloth on virtually everything except greasy surfaces.
Lawnmowers!!! For years now we have hovered, kicked and struggled with technology and the lastest answer to the summer woes of grass cutting …. but no more …. I have just ordered a push mower. No wires to worry about, no panic if the weather turns mid cut, free exercise and Master P can use it in relative safety. And there is something strangely therapeutic about the (much quieter) noise of a manual mower.
Okay, so we’re not totally weened off electricity …. it’ll still be there on standby if this doesn’t work for us … but we’re going to give it a go
@Poppy:
brilliant Poppy; enjoy your new mower! We once found our gate open and about 50 sheep in the garden; they did a pretty good job, but my roses suffered LOL!
@Mrs Green:
That’s a price you pay for living where you do ….. the sheep is king! lol
Have you had any Wild Boar?
A well used but trusty saucepan was recently damaged in my house. The sole issue is the plastic handle snapped when it was dropped. I am unable to remove the stub of the handle from the saucepan, so am curious to know if it’s possible to attach replacement handles to a saucepan where the stub of the old one is still there.
Any ideas, even unusual ones?
Thanks.
Replacement handles for saucepans and knives were made out of wood by my father. Exactly how he atached them I do not know - but they have been working for years.
@Poppy: The boar don’t visit us; they tend to be more in the heavily forested area.
@hubris: Hi Hubris, welcome to the site. I can think of 3 options:
1- if you really can’t remove the stub then make another handle (from wood as Jane suggested) and attach it on the opposite side of the stub.
2- if the saucepan is ovenproof, give it up as a saucepan and use as a casserole instead
3- drill holes in the bottom and repurpose it as a plant pot.