Weekly weigh in, year 1, week 9

Filed in Blog by on August 3, 2009 10 Comments
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Weigh in for this week; a measly 23 grams!

Weigh in for this week; a measly 23 grams!

I’m running late with our weigh in. So here are the results from last week.

You might remember that we’re getting a bit close with the challenge we set ourselves at the beginning of the year.

Last week, we created a huge 117 grams; over our 100gms per week target.

Our goal was to only put our bin out once, at the end of the year.

Here we are in August and it’s 3/4 full.

Mr Green, compactor extrordinaire, might have to see what he can do to reduce our waste. The thing is, on his green diet he is losing weight, so perhaps we will all have to jump in the bin and try and help him.

That’s the beauty of only having plastic waste I guess – it’s all clean so none of mind getting too close or even sticking our feet in there. It’s a far cry from how things were a couple of summers ago when we had wasps around the bin every week from food waste and old dirty packaging in there.

This is why I’ve never quite understood the arguments about people’s concerns over rats and vermin from fortnightly collections. If you manage your waste properly, there isn’t anything icky going into the bin. So much so, one of the first things you can stop buying is plastic bin liners!

Anyway, that rant is probably for another day. Let’s take a peek at our landfill waste for this week:

  • 1 large crisp bag
  • 1 cheese pack
  • 1 lentils bag
  • 1 plastic seal from jam lid

Wahee! It only weighs 23 grams.

Well I’m very happy with that! Since decluttering my kitchen and finding I have enough food to feed the village we’ve been using up far more things and needing to buy less new items. It looks like this is having a positive impact on our landfill waste too.

What a great beginning to my week!

How are you getting on? Is the holiday season having an impact on the amount of household waste you are producing?

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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 (10)

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  1. Apart from the extra from the weekend, then we are still within my target weight for this week again.

    I have included the extra in my total but I’m not going to worry about it as it isn’t excessive and the enjoyment had outwieghs that small increase.

  2. John Costigane says:

    Hi Mrs Green,

    23g is a fine effort, a lot closer to my minimalist total of 10g, due to plastic caps and gardening labels. Such low totals give a sense of the sustainable future of waste. The compressibility of plastic waste should allow you some volume reduction for the landfill bin Another thing I found out is that plastic caps can be fitted tightly together, size permitting A small point but waste volume lowers.

    You are absolutely correct about the inert nature of plastic waste, sealed in bags for convenience. It definitely eliminates the many pest vectors associated with food waste. Dealing with home food waste is a big target for the waste reduction effort. Zero should the aim for everyone.

  3. We may or may not be moving to an apartment in a town that requires you to buy super expensive garbage bags. It’s supposed to encourage people to recycle more and generate less trash. Every time I picture myself moving there, I think of you! Weekly weigh-ins like this give me hope that I can generate very little waste too. Thanks!

  4. Sheila says:

    I was very interested to hear that Mr Green is losing weight on his green diet. Any tips for the rest of us?

  5. Greenlady says:

    23 grams hurrah ! Looks like Mr Green is not the only one losing weight ^_^

    Diet tips Sheila, I hate to say it, but increase your fruit and veg intake greatly especially green and salad veg, decrease your processed/fatty/sugary food intake ( although don’t cut out fat, we do actually need some of it, its just choosing the better stuff, and that doesn’t always mean ” low fat ” ) and get more active – jumping up and down in bins included :p ( if someone doesn’t start on about it being a Health and Safety risk ! )

    I have put my wallet on a diet this month, not that I can’t afford food but I want to save for a holiday at the end of September, so I am restricting myself to £100 food spend this month and make a big effort to use up stuff in cupboards/freezer – hopefully this will have a good effect on waste/waist as well 🙂

  6. Mrs Green says:

    @maisie dalziel: Loving your attitude Maisie; I love how you are relaxed about these things; I tend to get a bit stressed, so I can learn alot from you 🙂
    G
    @John Costigane: Hi John, your weekly target is great. For us it is all about volume now; compacting things as much as we can – a nice sponsor from a manufacturer would go down well now!

    @SavvyChristine: How exciting; Christine – we would LOVE a scheme like that to take place here. I feel it would be so positive. Do keep us updated if you move there…

    @Sheila: Hi Shelia. Well, his diet has undergone a radical change – from meat and two veg (and curry and beer!) to 80% raw. His breakfast might be 3 different types of fruit with a little yogurt, snacks would be a mix of pumpkin, sesame, sunflower and linseed, lunch would be a huge salad of mixed leaves from the garden, fresh herbs, olives and maybe avocado or cheese and a similar meal for dinner. Drinks would be herbal tea, water and fruit juices (although he hasn’t managed to give up his 1 morning coffee!)

    Greenlady is absolutely right and no, it isn’t easy and you have to practise self discipline and it’s terribly hard in cold, grey weather. Also, that satiated feeling is not there with raw food. Good oils to include are avocados, seeds, nuts, olives and Mr G will eat a couple of portions of non-raw fish per week, such as tinned salmon.

    Also, he keeps active. Hope this helps! The weight loss is pretty dramatic for the first month – I think he lost about 12 lbs with ‘no effort’ at all. Of course, a lot of that is toxins and fluid; as it would be for anyone eating a ‘regular’ diet.

    @Greenlady: Great advice for Shelia – thank you for sharing! You might love the challenge I have coming up for next week; considering what you shared about your wallet 😉 How many people are you cooking for with that budget?

  7. Greenlady says:

    Hiya Mrs Green

    I am very intrigued as to what this upcoming challenge of yours may be 😛 The £100 will be mostly for me and purely on food, it doesn’t include things like loo roll, soap etc. It will include feeding other people sometimes, mainly work lunches at weekend where we sometimes share meals, and the occasional meal for friends. To be honest I would like if possible to stretch the £100 beyond the end of August and as far into September as possible. I’ve only been doing it since Friday but since then have spent just £2.36 on milk and fruit. I have been eating much more healthily too.

    I had a bit of a dilemma today due to having to go out for lunch and dinner and not knowing whether excluding those meals from the budget was cheating or not. In the end I decided I couldn’t count them in, as I hardly ever eat out and both meals were arranged for me. My mum paid for our lunches and I most unashamedly took a ” doggy box ” ( my own, that I brought with me ! ) of leftovers home which will make another meal for me for free ! and although I will have to pay my share at tonight’s dinner the doggy box will come too.

    I agree with everything you’ve said about the mostly raw diet. For the grey cold days I would recommend hm veg soup – can be made from veggies inc many green ones lightly cooked decent stock and whizzed up – almost raw :p and very comforting. Or a big raw salad with cheese/avacado/nuts as suggested and a nice baked spud ! not raw I know but comforting and healthy.

  8. Mrs Green says:

    @Greenlady: I think it’s a great challenge you have set yourself and I feel you WILL go into September with it.
    I think your eating out and doggy box was great – it’s innovative!
    Yep, I make him soup, he’s not keen on jacket potatoes and unfortunately is a feast or famine kinda guy, so compromising on this is really tough for him. It seems to be either salad or curry and beer LOL!
    Personally I would eat soups, stir fries and jacket potatoes or a small portion of rice, as you said, but he finds that hard.
    each to their own…

  9. greenlady42 says:

    Curry can be really good for ya though, even when accompanied by beer ! I think using the odd bit of ghee or oil in curries is offset by all the other healthy things you can throw in there. Does Mr G like homemade curry or does it have to be takeaway ? Perhaps the compromise could be a weekly or fortnightly curry night ( with enough for leftovers the next day of course 😉 )

  10. Mrs Green says:

    Mr G LOVES homemade curry and once up a pre-kids day I used to spend half a day making batches of ‘real’ curry sauce.
    Now we buy it ready made because, erm, it’s easier.
    Maybe I should dust off a couple of kilos of onions and get back into curry making.
    Watch this space (but not for a while… 😉 )

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