Weekly Weigh In 44

This weeks landfill bag weighed in at 170g, and that included a couple of styrofoam cartons from a takeaway myself and Tom had on Saturday.

It would seem that changing yogurt brands for David has definitely made a difference, as without the styrofoam it weighed only 106g.

I will now monitor this more cloesly again and may be able to reduce my target weight down for the start of the new year.

Weekly Weigh In 43

Well even after having had the whole family at home all week the landfill rubbish weighs in at 157g.

One thing I have changed this week is David's yogurts, he doesn't like the homemade and as he still doesn't eat crisps (hasn't since New Year) I don't mind buying him some yogurts that he likes.

He had been having the little fromage frais pots or the yogurts tubes but these end up in landfill, however we have now switched to either the new Yeo Valley"Little Yeos" or drinking yogurts, both of which have nearly total recyclable packaging (especially as my council now accepts yogurt pots in the recycling bin).

The majority of the rest of the rubbish seems to be crisp packets, choc bar wrappers, and plastic packaging from things which don't come in an alternative that I know of; this is where my investigating will come in.

Weekly Weigh In 42

This weeks weigh in is just under target at 197g.

It will be interesting to see what happens next week as the boys are both on school holidays and Dave is also on holiday for the week.

I just don't seem to be able to get the landfill waste any lower than this, and still be able to satisfy everyone in the families wishes for certain food items.

I may have to a have a radical look at exactly what we are eating over the next couple of months and see what if anything can be eliminated which has excess packaging which is non-recyclable.

And also look to see if I can find any more alternatives in recyclable packaging.

National Baking Week

I can't believe it is National Baking Week again.

It doesn't seem five minutes since I was asking you all to go have a look last year.

Anyway if you can be bothered go have a peek again at all the lovely ideas on the website.

Weekly Weigh In 41

This weeks landfill bag weighed in at 204g, so only just over my target.

The main culprits were again non-recyclable plastics.

6 crisp packets
1 paracetamol blister pack
2 sore throat lozenge blister packs
pasta shapes bag
2 bags which fish and flour had been in
2 cheese wrappers
chicken wrapper

and although a couple of these can be found in less weighty wrappers (cheese in clingfilm), sore throat lozenges (plasticised paper); these were what were available when I made the purchases.

I am not too concerned that I'm over my target, but will again look at what I'm purchasing and consider other options.

When in Tesco last night I noticed that their value 2 pack kitchen roll was the same price as their own label recycled kitchen roll.

Weekly Weigh In 40

This weeks household landfill bag weighed in at 186g, so under my target zone again.

There were this week however some of those monthly plastic items:
razor blade refill and packaging
toothpaste tube
spagetti wrapper
macaroni wrapper
brown sugar bag

There was also extra to this weighed amount some puppy poo bags. Dave's work have got a new puppy, but it is too small to be left overnight as yet, and as all the other workers have dogs we were asked if we would look after it, so there will be some extra from this but I'm not going to include it as this isn't part of our normal day to day rubbish.

If we were to have a dog ourselves I would get one of those dog poo composters that go in the garden.

Weekly Weigh In 39

This weeks landfill bag weighed in at 193g, so under my comfort zone total, however there were quite a few silly bits of plastic in that.

The boys decided to spend their pocket money and biked to the shop to get sweets etc, all the plastic wrapped variety of course.

I could in theory not include those as these were not something I would purchase but it is household landfill waste so it is being included.

Apart from those sweet wrappers the rest was packaging that is unavoidable for things that we like/use and there isn't a suitable alternative for or that we already had in the house.

3 x yogurt mix packets (foil backed plastic sachets)
2 x cheese wrappers
2 x sausage wrappers
2 x pizza wrappers
1 x toothpaste tube
3 x blister packets (paracetamol and strepsils)
plastic bag meat wrappings

Guest Post

For anyone who may be interested I have made a guest post on www.myzerowaste.com today to help out Mrs Green and the family due to the loss of their beloved pet.

Please take a look.

Weekly Weigh In 38

We have again kept below our target weight of 200g per week.

This weeks landfill waste came in at 182g.

I will be for the next few weeks monitoring again to see just what exactly is going into the landfill bin.
I'm hoping that now I've swapped the boys choc bars for totally recyclable packaging that this will eliminate some more.

Watch this space.

Weekly Weigh In 37

This weeks landfill bag weighed in at 198g.

As this is just under my target weight of 200g I am happy.

I'm quite surprised though as the boys have been on an eating frenzy.

We have however come to a compromise on chocolate bars (penguins etc); I will not be buying these any more but instead will buy some poppets or smarties which both come in cardboard boxes/tubes only, if bought individually, only just not as many due to the price increase.

I am still baking up a storm and to that end have not purchased any biscuits for at least 3 weeks, which also means hardly any waste, only baking ingredients wrappers, most of which are recyclable.