Mrs Green, the ‘radical recycler’ on BBC CountryFile
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Mrs Green being fondled by the BBC Sound Man
The other week we received a call from the BBC.
The CountryFile team were planning a special report on Waste Packaging and wondered if we’d like to take part.
Would we?!
The report followed plastic packaging from supermarket to household to landfill and I was called in to don my rubber gloves and see what I could divert from the average family’s weekly landfill rubbish.
The report was presented by Tom Heap who has researched several environmental issues such as sustainable fishing, animals in danger from extinction and specialises in Rural affairs, Science and the Environment.
The point of the report was to get viewers rethinking their rubbish as a resource – exactly the message we share on my zero waste.
As Tom noticed it’s easier to buy new than make do and mend. For decades we’ve been throwing our waste into huge holes in the ground or burning it, but much of it could have had a future life.
According to Tom, I’m a ‘radical recycler‘! It’s funny how these terms really stand out. I don’t think of myself as ‘radical’ until someone mentions it. For me, what I do on a day to day basis with separating my various waste streams, seems normal, natural and the responsible way to live. Oh for the day when it’s not a fringe activity…
Anyway, what I’m most delighted about is that for a week after the show was aired, our biggest search string was ‘crisp packet recycling‘. The Philippine Community Fund nearly had to draught in new staff to deal with all the calls they were receiving! The show producer even rang me up the other day to say she was now recycling her crisp packets; so the message is really getting out there and proves that our ‘rubbish’ really can be a valuable resource.
(Spot the ‘product placement’ too – the bracelets I’m wearing are all beautifully made products from the Philippine Community Fund 😉 )
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3clxhin8JQ
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Hi Mrs Green,
Great to see you feature on the excellent BBC CountryFile programme and giving some good advice for newcomers to the trend’s activities. Hopefully, there will be deeper insights into Zero Waste for householders in future weeks. Coverage of the various viewpoints on waste disposal was good with Friends of the Earth making a thoughtful contribution.
This time of year also sees the CountryFile 2011 calender,for Children In Need, launched. This provided a Zero Waste outcome for me last year ( 2010 calendar), making it a fine purchase for enthusiasts, and others.
When was it on? I missed it as I only watch the programme for the weather. Well done you for highlighting this on TV.
Thanks for the tip on stretching plastic to see if it’s polythene – something I didn’t know. I normally reuse these bags anyway in the freezer but after they are beyond reuse, I will recycle them now, in the bins at the supermarket that I walk past because I always use re-useable bags anyway!
very encouraging progress on your side of the planet, but there will have to be some cash incentives before anyone takes steps toward zero waste here, in the birth place of walmart..
.Veolia visits us in big green trucks, we feed their bins on occasion, as we have no outlets for anything but metal.
we reuse all possible material, except for plastic–we buy so little that rubbish is not a large problem.
curbside offerings minimize the need for purchase of appliances and furnishings. at least, for the brave and the poor. still working on the principles of our “radical recycler” the stylish lady green.
Aren’t they replacing recyclable plastic with non-recyclable by just taking the extra lid off? And none of it marked up – how does that help? There is more to the problem of plastic than the enormous volume of the stuff of all shapes and sizes which for many didn’t squash into an enormous wheelie bin let alone an ordinary dustbin!
@John Costigane: Great news on the calender John – thanks for the heads up on this one!
@Julie Day: Thanks Julie – I think it was 24th October.
@Attila: Great news Attila; glad the programme helped you recycle more!
@nadine sellers: I hear so many stories about the US – in some areas you seem to be light years ahead with recycling and reuse, but in others, well, you’ve told the story….
@Jane: I must admit Jane, I find the removal of these hard plastic lids a little hard to comprehend. If you buy dips and they have film rather than a proper lid then this can lead to more food waste because the dips dry out before being eaten.