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Yesterday, the lovely Alex Renton shared his tale of reducing his families waste to the tune of creating just one shoebox of landfill waste for a week.
Ten months ago Alex and his family were producing two and a half bin liners of rubbish a week. Now their weekly average is one bin liner which is an amazing achievment.
Alex kindly mentioned us and our website as part of his research in his article which appeared in the Daily Mail.
Do allow me to correct Mr Renton on one thing, however. He wrote “One of her [that’d be me] tricks involved sewing used crisp packets into a colourful shopping bag. That was too much for me”
Well Alex, that would be far too much for me as well. Passionate, yes. Creative, yes. Inspired, yes! But sewing used crisp packets into a colourful shopping bag? Nay, nay and thrice nay!
Instead I have supported a charity in the Philippines that views our waste crisp packets as a resource and can’t wait to get their mitts on them.
Creative women over in the Philippines weave crisp packets into wonderful bags, pencil cases and purses. These goods are sold in the Philippines and the UK and the profits mean the worker’s children can get an education instead of scavenging on rubbish dumps. They also get clothes, medication and food while the women themselves learn empowering skills and are paid a living wage.
Now we have that sorted, if you’re wondering about some of the other ideas Alex mentioned in the article, you’ll find information on recycling toothpaste tubes along with 11 different uses for coffee grounds.
If that’s not enough for you, you’ll also find seven ways to recycle your bra no less, how to recycle audio cassette tapes and my amazing idea for reusing plastic bottles (even though I say so myself).
Discover our top tips for reducing food waste and 11 tips for reducing plastic. You can also view one of our most popular videos about recycling for beginners.
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I look forward to hearing from you!
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Mrs G
The article was so poorly written that I had to laugh. They had so many errors lets look at them
1) Three-quarters of this ends up in landfill, and the rest is burnt, releasing toxic gases into the environment. It’s a huge blight, expensive for the country and each of us. It’s said that by the end of this decade, Britain will have run out of landfill sites.
False around 50% of household waste is landfilled, 38% is recycled and 10-11% is incinerated, 1-2% other methods. it is estimated that in 8 years Uk will run out of landfill and that household waste account around 1% of the total waste produced in the UK. The recycling rates in the UK has increased from 8% in 1997 to 39.3% at the last count, whilst the landfill rates has drop from 80% to less than 50% now.
2) Then came the reports, that while Britons were adopting the recycling habit, the market for such materials was collapsing, meaning councils couldn’t get rid of the stuff. Is this out of date or what The market for recycables has recovered to the levels pre 2009, so no councils are stockpiling or losing money because of no market to sell.
3) Plastics are the biggest problem. According to the experts, most can be recycled only once, unlike glass or paper. Various technical and economic problems mean less than 5 per cent of Britain’s domestic plastic waste is actually recycled. Much of what you put in the recycling bin may end up in landfill anyway.
This is out of date rubbish according to recoup in their 2009 survey the total amount of plastic recycled is 238768 tonnes of which 22701 tonnes of non-bottle packaging fraction. This equates to a plastic bottle recycling rate of 39% and a total plastic recycling rate of 18%. Plastic can be divided into two different types Thermoset and Thermoplastics. Thermoset is define as a polymer that irreversibly cures (once set cannot be reshaped) and therefore useless for recycling. Examples include vulcanized rubber, bakelite, duroplast, Urea-formaldehyde, Melamine resin, Epoxy resin, Polyimides and others, Thermoplastics is a polymer that turns to a liquid when heated and freezes to a very glassy state when cooled sufficiently. Thermoplastic polymers differ from thermosetting polymers (Bakelite) in that they can be remelted and remoulded. Many thermoplastic materials are addition polymers. In other words thermoplastics can be remoulded time after time. Examples include Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), Acrylic (PMMA), Celluloid, Cellulose acetate, Cellulose acetate, Ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH), Fluoroplastics including PTFE, Liquid Crystal Polymer, Polyacetal (POM or Acetal), Polyacrylates (Acrylic), Polyacrylonitrile (PAN or Acrylonitrile), Polyamide (PA or Nylon), Polyamide-imide (PAI), Polyaryletherketone (PAEK or Ketone), Polybutadiene (PBD), Polybutylene (PB), Polybutylene (PB), Polycaprolactone (PCL), Polychlorotrifluoroethylene (PCTFE), Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), Polycarbonate (PC), Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), Polyester, Polyethylene (PE), Polyetheretherketone (PEEK), Polyetherimide (PEI), Polylactic acid (PLA), Polymethylpentene (PMP), Polyphenylene oxide (PPO), Polyphenylene sulfide (PPS), Polyphthalamide (PPA), Polypropylene (PP), Polystyrene (PS), Polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT), Polyurethane (PU), Polyvinyl acetate (PVA), Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), Polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC), You see an extensive list.
5) We’re using nearly a billion fewer carrier bags annually than we did five years ago, thanks, in part, to the Daily Mail’s own campaign against them — but supermarkets still give away or sell more than 16 billion.
This is misleading as in 2006 supermarket were giving 10.4 billion bags which has reduced to 6.1 billion in May 2010, so where does he get the figures from.
You see the article is so misleading from a man who cannot do his research.
I was amazed at your statistics and am getting on with my new children’s book about helping the environment at school, which I really want to get published so the message gets out there. Although I am inclined to think it’s the adults more than the children these days that are the ones that don’t think much of recycling (you are an exception as well as Karen).
You’ve got some really great ideas! I’m going to really enjoy poking around your site to see what I can learn.
Stopping by from the Sits girls Tortoise group!
@Metro DC Mom: Hi 😀 Great to see you ; thanks for stopping by to say hello 🙂
We can recycle Plastics 1-6 at work – only the marking up of plastics leaves a lot to be desired. I’ve seen some lovely big mobius loops with a number inside but not enough.
It is disappointing to read that plastics recycling companies in this country are calling out for plastic bottles to recycle so that they can increase their output…but sadly an awful lot of mixed plastic is being shipped off to China where there are concerns about human rights. Maybe some of our Councils have different contracts within the borough which just deal with plastic bottles so that we can choose to close the loop more on this.
We need to reassess what we are buying.