Weekly Weigh In 52

The final weigh in from 2009 amounted to 178g.

Weekly Weigh In 51

Our landfill bag this week weighed in at 134g.

But there was also an extra bag of wrappings etc from presents which weighed in at 135g.

This I think is fairly good really considering what used to be put into the landfill each Christmas.

Weekly Weigh In 50

Weigh in in the landfill bag this week was 133g.

Not sure how this happened, thought we were eating similar foods to usual, but heyho; at least it is in the right direction.

Although the bin was nowhere near full I put it out for collection, because I just know some stuff will appear over the next 2 weeks that will have to go into it. I will put it out again on Mon 4 Jan, so we can start our new year with an empty bin.

Weekly Weigh In 49

Am running behind this week; but the landfill bag still weighed in just under the 200g at 193g.

I have continued with my using stuff up from the freezer trend, but have also put some other leftovers back in but these will do for lunches for myself or Dave whilst the weather is cold.

Weekly Weigh In 48

Todays landfill bag weighed in at 198g.

Under target, so good.

It was amusing to see the amount of recycling bins put out for collection (myself included), even though we were notified by the council that we would have to go an extra week before collection of this; due to the removal of the green waste collection until March.

It would have been better if we had had a collection as normal of both landfill and recycling this week then just one of them next week so that nothing went 3 weeks, but hey ho the council know best.

Weekly Weigh In 47

Todays landfill bag weighed in at 230g, so not such a good week.

Although it did include a toothpaste tube and some chicken bones.

The rest was just plastic wrap etc that is not recyclable, including crisp packets.

Today also marked the last collection of my green waste until March 2010. I had however benn monitoring how full it has become over the last few weeks and think I may be able to keep putting my veg & fruit waste into the bin as normal as all is well wrapped in newspaper, then it will be a bin full for collection come March.

Weekly Weigh In 46

This weeks landfill bag weighed in at 238g.

It did include the bone from the lamb shoulder we had last week, which was also boiled to death for stock before being put into the bin.

If I took the bone away it only weighed 146g.

I have been using a few more bits from the freezer so there is no packaging as these are portions of things made previously and then frozen.

Weekly Weigh In 45

The landfill bag this week weighs in at 178g.

This did include:

crisp packets
spagetti wrapper
lentils bag
chicken wrapper
biscuit wrapper (just didn't have time to bake shortbread this week)

but all in all not a bad week at all.

Still under my 200g target, I am still looking at tweaking a few things to then be able to maybe try for a lower target come New Year.

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.

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

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.

Weekly Weigh In 36

This weeks bag weighed in at 193g which just under my 200g target.

Most of this again was non-descript plastic packaging in particular, spagetti, and pasta bags.

You know the time when you have used the last in the storage jar so have to open the new packet. This happened with both this week.

Weekly Weigh In 35

Well the boys are back at school now. Has this had an impact on the amount of landfill waste?

You bet the landfill bag weighed in this morning at 153g.

That is a good reduction on the amounts we had been putting into landfill during the holidays, and more in keeping with the amounts I'm fairly happy with..

Weekly Weigh In 34

I'm a day late with this but the landfill bag was still weighed on Monday morning.

The bag this week weighs in at 197g.

So considering Dave has been off work as well as the boys on holiday this is really good.

Over the last few weeks by doing the No Spend Challenge I have used some things out of the freezer, and from the tins cupboard.

I do though like to have a store cupboard/pantry so it will be refilled this next week; but I have taken note of things which were not regular items we eat and will not be getting those again unless needed for a specific recipe.

Weekly Weigh In 33

Todays landfill bag weighed in at 327g (oh no!!).

It did have chicken bones in though which will account for some of the excess. So all in all this isn't too bad.

There haven't been as many crisp packets this week as I have been popping corn a plenty, add in a little salt and there is a big bowl full for sharing which costs pennies.

Dave is on holiday this week so we will see if that generates any extra waste as he likes to graze during the day whilst at home, and then just have his evening meal.

We have only got approx 6 cotton buds left with the plastic sticks then we will be using the paper sticks which are then compostable. This is only a small thing but "every little helps" as the advert says.