This Weeks Landfill Rubbish - Mon 23 - Sun 29 March

Monday 23 Mar :
Cereal packet inner, Yogurt pot lid, yogurt mix packet

Tuesday 24 Mar:
Yogurt pot lid, crisp packet, outer bag from some multipak mini biscuits, mini biscuits bag.
Chicken wrapper

Wednesday 25 Mar:
yogurt pot lid, cheese wrapper, crisp packet , spagetti wrapper,

Thursday 26 Mar:
yogurt mix packet, clingfilm from a cake bought at cakestall, rice bag

Friday 27 Mar:
bag from some sausages

Saturday 28 Mar:
cereal box inner(saved for next week), 2 choc bar wrappers,

Sunday 29 Mar:
Bread roll wrapper, Meat wrapper.



All other waste is either doorstep recycled, composted or taken to the HWRC to be recycled.

Weekly Weigh In 12

This weeks bag weighs in at .........164g.

Again this is lower than last weeks and is again I think down to buying in bulk and freezing in reusable containers rather than individual bags etc.

The recycling bin was approx 2/3 full this time when collected.

Weekly Weigh In 11

This weeks bag for the landfill bin weighed in at a massive 183g!!!

This is graudually getting smaller and smaller.

By the time the council do "zero waste" I shall have nothing to reduce.

This again fitted inside a cereal box inner which I had kept for the purpose.

The Rubbish Diet Awards

I would just like to say a huge thankyou to Almost Mrs Average for presenting myself and my blog with "The Keeping It Positive Award" at Saturday nights The Rubbish Diet Awards Ceremony.

Although I couldn't be there to collect it in person, I am very honoured to have met this lady "virtually".
Along with others including The Greens, Tracey Smith, John Costigane, Almost Mrs Average has been an inspiration to many who are trying to do their "bit" for the environment and greener living.

So I will say please raise your glasses to Almost Mrs Average.

Dilema

Today I have a dilema.

I try to support the British famers as much as possible buying British produced goods. If not my next tick box is Fairtrade.

I had been getting my granulated sugar from the Co-op when near there as they sell Silver Spoon which is made from British sugar beet.

I however also try and support my doorstep milkman as the convenience and not having to use my car usually outweighs the price difference.

Now to my dilema.

The milkman sells sugar which is the same price as Co-op , but it is I am told (after ringing Whitworths) only half British sugar beet, and half imported sugar cane. The sugar cane is not Fairtrade. Both come in recyclable paper bags.

Should I stick with buying British and bulk buy to equal out the petrol usage? or

Should I buy from the milkman knowing it doesn't tick all the boxes, but helps keep his delivery round going?

Dave and the boys have said it is up to me as I do the shopping, big help there!!

Clothes Pegs

Yesterday I bought some clothes pegs from Tesco, they are made by acompany called Ecoforce .

They are
100% recycled pre and post consumer waste plastic.
100% recyclable
100% metal free

The only blip I can see at the moment is the packaging is type 5 (PP) which we all know is not very easily recyclable.

I emailed them asking if they would consider a more eco-friendly style of packaging.

Their response to my email was:

"The pegs are also PP. Unfortunatly there is no cost effective alternative to PP film at this time that suits oiur process."

So although these pegs tick a few of the boxes they are still not completely eco-friendly. But in the bigger scheme of things they are definitely a step in th right direction.

Weekly Weigh In 10

The waste going into landfill this week weighs in at 243g.

It has all fitted inside a cereal box liner, which would have otherwise gone in anyway.

The recycling bin was emptied as well today and it was only half full for this fortnight.

Zero Waste Campaign

Yesterday I emailed my district council asking them to consider doing a Zero Waste Campaign, similar to those that have been done in both Gloucestershire and Essex.

I got a reply late yesterday afternoon, saying
Quote "Thank you for your email regarding the Zero Waste week promotion, It is not something I have been involved in before, however after looking it up, it does seem like something that could be very interesting and also very educational.
Thank you very much for bringing it to our attention, and I shall hopefully be in touch in the near future to give you details on the campaign."Unquote.

This is to me a positive reply and I am hopeful that my local district council will follow this through.

Weekly Weigh In 9

The landfill bag this week weighed in at ........235g. The juice bottle is for size demonstration purposes.

This is even better than last week.

The only thing I have really noticed lately is that now I have my recycling centre set up more of the type 4,5,6 & 7 plastic is going there rather than into the landfill bin.

Obviously we still have a way to go to be anywhere close to the likes of Mrs Green and Almost Mrs Average, but we are getting there.

Mobile Phones

I have just heard of a great website which sells recycled Pay As You Go mobile phones. They do not include SIM cards.

It is www.purplegossip.com .

Thousands of perfectly good mobile phones are put into landfill each year just because they are not the latest.

These recycled ones would be very good for a child to have as a first phone when starting secondary school.

The other main positive about this system is that new phones don't have to be made to meet demand. Which in turn helps save all the precious resources which are used in the making of just one mobile phone.

I have no affiliation to this company but think it is a great idea and will be looking at it when I have to replace my phone.

Clothing

I was sorting the bag of old clean clothes which can't be passed on to someone or donated to the charity shop, or used as rags.

We have a collection a couple of times ayear in David's school through a company called www.bag2school.com , this company pays by weight and the items are then sold on to either Eastern European or Asian countires or at worst flocked to make filler for beds and the like.

Our school only has 49 families and we regularly raise £200 per year doing this.

It is a good way of keeping otherwise useless articles of clothing etc from the landfill.

This company also takes shoes, blankets, bedding, even soft toys.

The flyer which comes with the collection bags state they collect for REUSE.

If your school doesn't do this it might be good idea to put to the Parents Body.

Weekly Weigh In 8

Todays bag of landfill waste weighs in at 260g.

This is a big whoohoo! as it is a bit below my 300g target.

The main things in the bag are again the non-recyclable plastic wrappers which we sometimes have to have if we need the product inside.