Weekly weigh in 38
Add article to favourites
This has been a week of decluttering. I’ve sorted my study and Little Miss Green has done her bedroom. In addition, we’ve been through her toys that threaten to take over the dining room and found some irreparable stuff.
What has that done to our landfill waste? Let’s find out!
In the bin this week we have:
- remaining jiffy bag from this post
- plastic tissues bag; they just keep cropping up LOL!
- selection of pens and biros that have run out
- unmarked plastic bottle which had neem oil in it
- packaging from cheese bought in the supermarket during the snow
- broken plastic seal from some old bubble mix
- torn cellophane breadsticks bag
- half a pair of plastic scissors
- plastic seal off a pot of jam
- broken plastic whistle
- plastic foil laminated stuff from LMG’s hula hoop
- broken rubber band
- small piece broken lego
All in all it weighs a disgraceful 175 grams. Well it just goes to show that a declutter here and there can seriously swell the bin. Not quite under our weekly target of 100 gms now is it?
Anyway, there is a silver lining to the cloud. It’s Little Miss Green’s Birthday in a few short weeks and it neatly bought us onto a ‘grown up discussion’ about how we might create a zero waste party bag. More on that in another post……..
Readers who viewed this page, also viewed:
Don’t throw it away… That's rubbish, just throw it away ... How many times have you heard that or said…
You know you’re a true zero waster when……… There are moments in your life when you suddenly realise you are well and truly the…
That looks like a total clear out, Mrs G. I can’t wait until my 5 year binbag is over to do the same. Of course, things might be totally different then.
Over 40 posts for the rice-bag conversions. That must be a record for a normal day’s input. Is there any particular reason for the big number?
Not your normal target but something still to be very proud of especially after a declutter. Must say LMG is looking lovely as ever on her picture and hope she has a great birthday.
One of the best party bags we ever got (in my opinion and DD’s) was the one which was a re-used carrier bag which had some blank paper, a handful of crayons, two ex-library books (our local libraries sell off old stock for about 25p), some sweets in a cardboard wrapping, and a piece of cake. Hope LMG has a lovely birthday.
@John Costigane: I suspect the offer of a freebie has been listed somewhere which is bringing folk in – hope they are reading the site and taking lots of great ideas off with them!
love little Miss Green;s top, think I might recognise it xxx
I think my weekly total might make you feel rather better about yours…
As I think I said on one of the myriad of groovy threads here I was aiming for a not-going-out-of-my-way week, in which I neither gave in to mad consumerism nor denied us things in the cupboard or which DH asked to have. The total was 634g, which was about a quarter of a bin liner and somewhat swelled I think by last nights chip wrappings, plus a little of the food. (tbh it wasn’t a normal portion size we were given, I think she wanted to get the chips turned, so gave us more and more and more…) I did wonder if the greasy papers were compostable, but the quantity was pretty egregious.
I think I’m sanguine about this – the heft and the look of the bag made me feel I’d done not too badly, yet the figure in grammes ‘feels high’! Anyway, onwards and upwards 🙂
I haven’t weighed our rubbish for a couple of weeks now, but having had a few clumsy moments, I know it wouldn’t have been good. 2 mugs and 2 glasses gone 🙁 🙁
I still haven’t put the bin out for collection though and it’s no where near half full yet 🙂 🙁
I’ve also had the ‘pleasure’ of listening to neighbours complaining about the non-collection of bins and recycling last week! They pay their council tax you know!!!!!!!!!! Arrgghh!! Perhaps I should apply for a rebate for not putting my bin out 😉
@Poppy: When crockery is broken, Poppy, why not chip into small pieces and use in the base of plant pots. Glass can be broken into small grains, there might also be a use for that as well (Wear strong gloves to protect hands).
My nightmare is holding a Greek wedding type event where all the plates get smashed.
@John Costigane: How is your weight these days john 😀 You know what i mean. I would love an update on your rubbish
@Mrs Jackson: Thanks Mrs J. We have a couple of weeks to go before the big day; so enough time to plan, although she has asked for a picnic. For her second Birthday we had snow and for her first we were out in t-shirts, so maybe a picnic will happen!
@Michelle: Hi Michelle; good to see you and thanks for taking us down memory lane with you. Those sound like good choices for a party bag; things that will actually be used and don’t create any landfill waste.
@Kris: You’re far too quick for us Kris! Yep, word has got around the internet about our competition. 😉
I think your weekly total is very good – excellent compared to most households. For future reference; birds welcome chips 😉 and the paper IS compostable. Just shred it up first and wetting it can help too.
@Denise: Hi Denise! lovely to see you; you think you recognise the top then?! This, dear readers is the lovely lady who I referred to in another post who thought so carefully about the packaging she would use when sending us some of her daughter’s outgrown clothes. A true friend 🙂
@Poppy: Woohoo! You haven’t put your bin out yet – how fabby! I’m with John on the broken crocs thing; although I wouldn’t personally do it with glass with little ones around. DH has stored it before now and then shoved it into the bottle banks – the glass gets broken anyway in there, so I guess putting broken glass in is ok. Obviously we wouldn’t put it into the kerbside collection.
Funny you mention about the rebate. One of the comments on our thisisgloucestershire story reads:
“How splendid! What will the County Coucil reward them with to show such leadership..?”
😀 😀
@John Costigane: OMG John; could you imagine that! I’d be going around afterwards collecting it all up LOL!
Mrs Green, My weekly totals are really just based on purchases in the week, mostly plastic milk jugs, and incoming junk-mail. Empty toothpaste tubes every 10 weeks or so. Plastic scrap from posted items or unavoidable packs and elastoplasts are all occasional additions.
Some stuff is collected plastic caps from herb jars, aluminium combination (milk seals, blister wraps from medicine). These are for possible recycling in the future.
Quarterly miscellaneous waste is infrequent things like rubber gloves, plastic tools, sponges etc).
As I got dumped on with the Christmas turkey, the junk-mail envelope windows, and other labels, are all RTS for a while.
I go weeks with no weight because the labels are very light. Usually 5g/0.2 oz is the standard total. Individual efforts are easy if you can apply the conditions strictly.
1lb, more or less, will be my year’s total, in April.
The main idea is to send nothing to landfill. Food waste must be totally removed to attempt a long binbag collection. Your family effort is a better guide for others, especially with children. Others need such advice to join-in the trend,smoothly.
At Morrison’s, on Friday, 6 mackerel fillets were bought and containered. The staff were very obliging, one even saying it saved them work.
Hi John,
You are doing so well with this. 1lb by a year is phenomenal. It’s a real example of what we can achieve, should we choose to focus on it.