weekly weigh in 47

Filed in Blog by on April 15, 2009 5 Comments
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weigh in 47Goodness me – it’s seven weeks since I did a weigh in!

Mr Green grumbled “Why are there two crisp packets on the side?” to which I replied they should be in the landfill container.

When I approached it, I realised it was overflowing, figured out what had happened and checking back through the site, saw that the last weigh in was number 40.

This will be interesting! I wonder what is waiting for us in the bin from the past seven weeks!

8 crisp packets
1 cheese wrapper
1 poppadums pack
3 dried fruit bags
1 rubber gloves bag
1 frozen peas bag
1 bread bag
2 cereal bar wrappers
1 pack chocolate digestive wrapper
2 lentils bags
2 bags that seed potatoes came in
Plastic packaging that a whiteboard came in
Cellophane wrapping from chocolate
some kind of bailing – don’t know where it is from
Assorted trucklements from Little Miss Green’s cupboard clearout – tinsel, broken pens, broken plastic tiara, broken hanger, broken plastic toys – see the theme??!!
3 honey pot seals
cellophane rope packaging

All in all it weighs just 149 grams.
Over seven weeks that’s an average of around 20 grams per week.

Now either we’re getting very good at this or maybe a few things have ended up on the fire by mistake. I’m going to put the landfill box next to the fireplace just in case things are sneaking in there and we’ll see what we get next week.

If it’s not much heavier next week then I think it’s celebrations all around – don’t you?!

About the Author ()

I am a long time supporter of the Green and Sustainable lifestyle. After being caught in the Boscastle floods in 2004, our family begun a journey to respect and promote the importance of Earth's fragile ecosystem, that focussed on reducing waste. Inspired by the beauty and resourcefulness of this wonderful planet, I have published numerous magazine articles on green issues and the author of four books.

Comments (5)

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  1. John Costigane says:

    Mrs Green,

    20g per week is a great achievement for the family. The lifestyle change is dramatic. When you remember cramming all the waste into a binbag and the squeezing of more rubbish into an ever-tighter fit, why live with the hassle? I even melted the plastic packs to flatten them. Crazy stuff!

    Nowadays squeezing the small amounts of plastic into small packets, if I can find one, is the nearest to the old way. Life is so much better with Zero Waste. The trend is far from complete but things are improving with time.

  2. Don’t know if its any use but my Tesco has a bin to collect broken plastic coat hangers for recycling, its next to the one for carrier bags.

  3. Poppy says:

    I try not to bring them home with me, but that’s useful to know Maisie. Better than breaking them up, which is what I’ve done in the past, to recycle the metal and ditch the plastic.

  4. Kirsty says:

    Well Done the Greens, 20g per week is mightily impressive.
    My second posting is about the amount of rubbish that has gone into my black bin over the last week; a mere 1 bag. However, I have a sneeky suspicion it weighed a bit more than yours.

    The only thing barring plastic rapping/packinging that normally goes in my rubbish is left over food stuff. But again I believe there is now a reycling bin that can even help with that. You dig it in the ground and you can put protein, bread and cooked foods into it. Maybe something to consider in the future.

  5. Mrs Green says:

    Thanks everyone – Maisie; great tip about the recycling bin at Tesco; thank you!

    @Kirsty: You’re doing really well., Kirsty. I have heard of these types of food digesters – there is the green Joanna and the green cone. Both have different requirements and are worth considering.

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