Time to confess! What secret desire do you have that flies in the face of your zero waste lifestyle?
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One of the things many of us are eager to do after the festive season is have a good declutter.
I must admit that “Create an organised and minimalist home” has been one of my resolutions for Ooo, about eight years now…
But one of the things that stops me isn’t motivation, energy or the desire, it’s what to do with all the STUFF!
Remember, I live with a hoarder who’s ‘one day’ stash actually seems to come in handy from time to time.
We have a wood shed, a chicken coop and even a conservatory on the back of the house all built from this ‘one day’ stash.
So who am I to complain about what lurks in the garage?
But what about the rest of the house? Boxes that haven’t been unpacked since a certain resident moved in? Things in the attic that we don’t even recognise? Or stuff hanging around in the annexe that, as far as I’m concerned, is just gathering dust?
Many things can be sold on eBay (in fact I made a nice wad of spending money just before Christmas by selling my old clothes), offered on Streetbank or donated to a charity shop. But there are other things outside the remit of ‘one man’s trash is one man’s treasure.’ Ya know, some things really do appear to be just trash…
I’ll be honest with you. For all my desire to ‘do the right thing’ on the old environmental front, I have a secret yearning.
Something on my wishlist.
A magic-wand desire that is hard for me to admit.
Are you ready?
<whispers> I’d love to have a skip on the drive.
Oh yes! Just for a month – I’d love to truffle through our stuff, hold it up triumphant and, with a satisfying clunk, throw it out of sight, out of mind into a big black metal hole for ever.
But how could I do that and keep my conscience intact?
Well I’ve come across one company who might just provide me with the answer.
Skip Hire Network is a nationwide waste management service established by Recycling Lives – a truly unique social business who put ethics before profit. Whilst operated by the commercial arm of Recycling Lives, Skip Hire Network helps to sustain the Recycling Lives social welfare charity. The charity tackles homelessness and unemployment by providing accommodation, education, training and work experience to vulnerable members of the community.
Skip Hire Network uses a network of approved partners across the UK, so your skip won’t need to travel far.
All of their collection partners operate authorised treatment facilities with a recycling rate of up to 100%, so as much waste as possible is kept out of landfill. Many smaller, cheaper skip hire firms simply send waste to landfill, or even worse fly-tip it. And we don’t want THAT on our conscience!
How on earth I’ll get one on the drive without Mr Green noticing I have no idea, but I’m working on it…
And in the meantime I’m joining the others with their #DumpYourJunk January challenge; the idea of which is to declutter without landfill!
What about you – what secret desire do you have that flies in the face of your zero waste lifestyle?
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That’s great. It was good reading this. We have a conflict over throwing stuff away and making good use of it but I’m determined to do a better job of re homing things this year.
Good luck with your mission this year!
Funnily enough we had the roofing replaced on the line of bungalows here and there were skips to take away the debris from the work.
It’s an odd thing but one garden lost a derelict plastic chair, a derelict bench, a knackered wheelbarrow and an old wooden bed frame. His kids are buying him a new garden seat for his birthday. None of those items could be reused or we would have done.
I lost an office chair that was too filthy to even be offered on freecycle and which couldn’t be recovered or scrubbed up as well as a small wooden cupboard which was beyond repair. There comes a time when something can’t be refurbished or recycled – the chair was secondhand ten years ago and the cupboard third hand. We looked at refurb and failed in both cases. The skips also gained an old bed. You sometimes have to admit that things come to the end of their useful lives.
You’re absolutely right, Christine and if we can all admit that to ourselves, it makes things less challenging. The danger is we can end up living with piles of rubbish – literally – if we don’t acknowledge that things can come to the end of their useful life. Thanks for being the voice of reason!
Of course we have to question whether we should buy things or collect things in the first place – sometimes something should never have been there in the first place which would solve a recycling problem. But that’s not an easy thing to do is it?