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.

Recycling Centre

I decided to write this as Mrs Green gave my new recycling centre a mention.

We had a major clearout last week which resulted in lots of "rubbish" but also lots of recycling. Two car journeys one with the recycling another with a combination of landfill and more recycling. David just had room each time to sit one one seat in the back with the other half dropped to make the boot bigger.

All items were taken to our HWRC, and then I made a dedicated area in one of our sheds as a recycling collection centre.

The items we can take to HWRC which is run by Lincolnshire County Council and are on their list are:

Books and CDs
Textiles
Shoes
Green Garden Waste ( although we do have a fortnightly doorstep collection of this)
Glass Bottles etc
Paper (doorstep collection)
Cardboard (doorstep collection)
Scrap Metals
Tins and Cans (doorstep collection)
Flourecent tubes including Eco bulbs for Mercury recycling
Fridges and Freezers
Tvs and Computer Monitors
Household Batteries
Small Electrical Appliances
Plastic Bottles ( doorstep collection)
Plastic Bags (type 4)
Hard plastics (types 5,6, & 7)
Tetrapak Cartons
Used Engine Oil
Lead Acid Batteries
Car tyres
Wood
Soil & Rubble
Gas Bottles
Household Chemicals

I also saw a collection point for used cooking oil.

The only thing on the list which my HWRC (Louth) doesn't accept is Printer Cartridges, but the school collects these and receives a payment for doing so. But alot of shops now collect these or you can get envelopes from Tesco etc to send them off.

Water Filter Cartridges can be taken to alot of shops or sent direct to Brita.

Brita Recycling
FREEPOST
NAT 17876
Bicester
OX26 4BR

Although our clearout day created 7 bags of landfill rubbish it was very theraputic in that I now know that all my recycling efforts can be acted upon alot easier with my recycling centre.

Weekly Weigh In 7

This week our bag weighs in at 292g.

This is under my 300g target.

Although during the week we have had a major clearout of 2 sheds resulting in 2 car loads to be taken to the "tip" HWRC.

One was all recyclable items which can only go to HWRC, including some old pots of paint that had set and congealed.

The other load was all RUBBISH, bagged up into 7 bin liners, it is totally surprising how much "stuff" can be accumulated and put out of sight until you need to use the space.

Now both sheds are fully functional with a dedicated area for me for the recyclable items which can't go in the doorstep collection but can be taken to HWRC.

This also means I don't now have a box of the above mentioned recycling permanently in the corner of the kitchen.

So although we have added the 7 bin bags to the landfill our own little space is more clean and alot less cluttered.

Weekly Weigh In 6

This weeks bag weighed in at a hefty 675g.

This is over double what my ideal is.

The main things I noticed in there were some type 6 yogurt pots which I bought for the boys whilst waiting for my Easiyo delivery.

Otherwise it consisted of plastic meat wrappers, butter wrappers, more cheese wrappers, plastic bags which couldn't be reused and were again the degradable type, I had been storing things in the freezer in them and a couple of light bulbs which have blown during the last week.

Not very good but the light bulbs were 77g each, so although I can in theory knock 144g off the total it is still way too much at 531g.

Back to the drawing board.

Weekly Weigh In 5

This weeks bag weighed in at 430g

it consisted of

waxed cheese wrapper ( need to source a better option for this)

5 crisp packets (David still hasn't eaten any since New Year)

a butter wrapper (foil backed paper - supporting the doorstep milkman)

a few non-recyclable plastic bags - all twisted and knotted

there was also a few bits and pieces of undescribable origin from sorting out a couple of drawers in the kitchen.

So still not too bad considering.

Postage Stamps

Whilst not a major issue in terms of rubbish and they can go into paper recycling; postage stamps can be donated to charity where they can then sell them on to raise funds.

I have always saved any postage stamps which came into the house and used to donate to a collection on the mobile library van, but that ceased.

I have just recently found the address for a RNLI collection point, and am happy to say received an email at the weekend confirming they are still collecting these and will accept any quantity.

For anyone interested in collecting as well the address is:

RNLI STAMPS
c/o 7 Speddwell
Brixham
Devon
TQ5 9MJ

Weekly Weigh In 4

This weeks bag weighed in at 290g

It consisted of :

1 pearl barley bag

4 crisp packets

2 waxed cheese wrappers

2 plastic wrappers which can't be recycled

4 carrier bags which had gone past reuse

a few bits which dave had put in which I couldn't be bothered to pick back out including the yogurt from his lunch box on Friday.

The recycling bin was also only half empty and that is after 2 weeks, so a big reduction there this time.