Weekly weigh in, Year 1, week 21

Filed in Blog by on October 24, 2009 5 Comments
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Mr Green holding our landfill waste for this week

Mr Green holding our landfill waste for this week

Another week has spun around the calender and our goal of having our bin emptied only once this year is getting more difficult by the day.

Some of you have suggested we simply go for as long as we can before lugging our bin to the kerbside, but now we have a couple of national newspapers watching us, we’re determined to present them with a story by the end of the year!

We’ve been much more conscious this week of where we are creating waste, because we need to get some changes in place, fast, if we are going to suceed.
In the landfill bin this week we have:

  • 1 large crisp bag
  • cellophane wrap from bag of chocolates
  • wrap from takeaway sandwich
  • cellophane wrap from crafting feathers (thank you Grandma Green)
  • bag from licorice
  • mini chocolate bar wrapper from party bag
  • 1 broken plastic dolls shoe – sigh

All in all it weighs 30 grams well under our target, despite dolly being careless when pulling on her shoes!

How are you doing with your waste this week?

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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 (5)

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  1. John Costigane says:

    Hi Mrs Green,

    30g is impressive for one week and shows a massive reduction compared to previous practice. With the bin nearly full, you may have to decrease the volume of waste to give more room. Before starting on Zero Waste, I melted plastic in boiling water, and compressed it, using a masher, to reduce its volume. This was a sizeable reduction of 50% for mostly meat/ready meal packs. You could do that and stay within the rules for bin volume, but extra weight.

    Another approach might be to check your earliest waste bags, you may find these are less densely packed than the latest ones which are super-filled.

    Of course, you could decide to be ‘lazy’ and fill the kitchen bin, but empty much later, say Jan 1st.

    Failing that, you could accept the reality of the situation and end the year challenge early. This is not a defeat since it is your first attempt, and a jump into the dark. You could calculate your percentage reduction, from 40:1 (40 weeks approx),

  2. Well done on the small amount going into the landfill this week.

    Like John said i would check back through your bin to see if the volume can be reduced, or put something flat in the top and let LMG jump up and doun in there to compress the rubbish. My boys love doing that with the green waste bin.

  3. Mrs Green says:

    @John Costigane: Loads of ideas there John; thanks. I’m sure you are right; at the bottom of the dustbin are probably lots of air filled packages. Mr G is becoming more adept at compacting things as the weeks roll by!

    @maisie dalziel: Thanks Maisie; I’m sure LMG would love that challenge!

  4. LJayne says:

    I think it would be most unfair of anyone to say anything negative if you didn’t get to the end of the year or decided to officially end the challenge early. The amount of stuff you have kept out of landfill since Jan 1st is fantastic and I think if we are going to encourage people to join in then we have to accentuate the positive, not dwell on the negative.

    Hope you do find some space though coz I know how satisfying it is when you achieve something you have worked so hard for.

    lesley

  5. Mrs Green says:

    @LJayne: Thanks for your lovely message, Lesley; we appreciate it. If we can keep up with a result like this week we’ll be well on our way!

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