Food waste Friday and weekly weigh in; year 1, week 26
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Mrs Green clutching her tiny landfill package for the week
Good morning lovely people; after last week’s mammoth landfill pile we’ve redeemed ourselves again this week.
Also, thanks to Sandy and Lesley we haven’t created any food waste.
You might remember I made a rather lumpy and inedible ‘white sauce’ last week. It was suggested by Sandy and Lesley that I push the sauce through the sieve and blend it while adding more milk. I did this and the sauce was saved – yay!
The rest of the week has been pretty uneventful with kitchen mishaps. I think the colder weather has bought out larger appetites; so there is little left at the end of each meal. In fact there were only enough leftovers from Sunday lunch to make one small portion of soup!
Onto the landfill then. This week we have:
- packaging from posh cheese – Mr Green couldn’t resist one week.
- small crisp packet
- cellophane wrapping from some chocolates a friend bought for us
- pack of silica gel
Little Miss Green hasn’t bought any plastic swathed toys or magazines this week, so I’ve been a bit calmer about the whole ‘pocket money dilemma‘ that I shared with you. And our landfill waste is minimal, coming in at a bantam weight 14 gms. I’m extremely happy with that and if we can keep that result up to the end of the week, maybe we’ll make our bin stretch even further than one year!
How about you? Any dustbin demons for you in the run up to Christmas?
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Tags: food packaging, food waste
Hi Mrs Green,
14g for the family is equivalent to, if not even better than, my low figures for weekly waste. Of course, the family situation is more challenging and any success requires close cooperation. Looking beyond the year target shows you have almost achieved your goal. The question is how to proceed for future campaigns where you might be able to extend well beyond a year, if not in the current period.
Today’s commingled has separate glass collection boxes to add to dry recyclables. There have been less of these put out which you would expect, especially if people take bottles from neighbours. As before plastic bags have been sticking through open blue bin lids in a few cases but this could be people just back from holidays. The important thing is that numbers of blue bins are still very impressive compared to the old source separated boxes system, which had no better than 50% participation. For me commingled is the answer to quick waste reduction which all councils can use to similar effect, if not better.
No use for the packet of silica gel? I would have thought somebody would have a use for this.
I loved the ideas of dealing with pesto. This is something that I have asked for help with before.
Remains of basil bought from the supermarket in a pot are my latest problem. It isn’t offered for sale in recyclable plastic. And what to do with the earth with no garden? It isn’t allowed in the garden waste. I suppose I should have dealt with it when I just had the one instead of five! Yes I suppose I should be growing it or avoiding it.
I am not sure about commingled unless it is for a small amount of waste for properties with no space for containers eg flats. It worked well for our office commercial waste for cans, plastic bottles and tetrapaks. Our paper and cardboard (and glass because it can break and contaminate)) would have been better separate as there was more of it (even though we have been making an effort to reduce it).
@John Costigane: Hi john, fear not, we have HUGE plans for next year – making 1 bin for a year seem positively easy 😀
@Jane: hello jane; thanks for your comment. no, no use for the silica gel for us. Can you keep the soil from the five pots for growing seeds indoors for next year? The pots could do onto freecycle or to a gardening friend.
@Mrs Green:
Hey, I’ve found something. I knew I’d looked this one up before. http://www.ehow.com/how_4686357_recycle-silica-gel-packets.html
I once had problems with some seeds that I’d collected not staying as dry as they needed to be and I like the idea of keeping all the family photos nice and dry – some of the older ones from the days before central heating have mould spots.
Mrs. Green,
Partly with your inspiration and advice, we have reduced our food waste dramatically…. and that which we do get rid of is more often put into compost rather than garbage. While we used to put our garbage on the curb every week because it was full, it has now been over a month.
@Jane: Hi Jane, I’d heard of using silica packs for seeds, but not photos. I have some old photos of my grandparents, so that’s a good tip – thank you for sharing!
@Ben: Hi Ben, great to hear you are reducing food waste too and look how you are benefiting from less trips to the kerbside! That’s excellent AND you;ll be getting some great compost next year 😉