Zero Waste - Day 4

Breakfast this morning was cereal and juice for DS2 and Banana and yourt for DS1.

No waste from DS2, DS1 Banana skin into compost bin, yogurt lid onto foil ball and pot into collection point for trip to HRF.

DH has agreed to create me a mini recycling centre similar to that of Mrs Green at http://www.myzerowaste.com/ .

We have some old Safeway green boxes which will be ideal size for storing things in, and then once every month or 2 months I will take it all to the HRF, combining it with a trip to the Library and Farmers Market in the local town.

Lunch today for both DH and DS2 was ham salad wraps, the ham we bought on the deli, although I am looking at how cost effective it might be to buy a gammon joint and cook myself; the salad is again from the organic veg box; there were also apples, from the market (no packaging - but air miles), and hm Millies Cookies wrapped again in the mini cereal packets.
DH drinks tea using his own mug whilst at work and DS2 has a water bottle which is reused over a 2 week period and then totally recycled.
DS1 has a canteen lunch at school, but also takes a water bottle which is reused over a 2 week period and then totally recycled.

DS1 school runs quite a good waste initiative, if drinks are purchased then a premium of 10p is added to the cost but if the can/bottle is taken back to be recycled the student gets his "deposit" back.

Dinner tonight was hm meatballs served with spagetti and hm tomato sauce.
Waste wise this produced (mince) a polythene bag, (bread crumbs) no waste, (spagetti) no waste, ( tomato sauce) tin from chopped tomatoes, tin from tomato puree (recycled), onion skin (composted). I made a double batch of the meatballs so half have been frozen to use another day.

I also made some Blackberry Jam today using the fruit which DS2 and myself picked yesterday.
Produce made - 6 jars of lovely hm jam;
waste - 2 paper sugar bags

Zero Waste - Day 3

We have a result!!!

I went this morning to the local Household Recyling Facility as I had a broken stereo to dispose of.

I decided whilst there to talk to the men who were dealing with the plastics etc; they told me that they had been told yes margarine tubs and yogurt pots could be taken there, but maybe a phonecall to Lincs County Council who manage the site might help to just confirm this.

On returning home I gave the Council a call and spoke to a very helpful chap who said yes any hard type plastic such as margarine and yogurt pots etc could be taken there.
The only type of plastic which couldn't was Polythene which is type 4 and I already post this to Polyprint Ltd.

Breakfast today was again cereal and juice as DS1 is now back at school, so no waste there.

Lunch for DH was hm bread sandwich with boiled egg and salad cream filling, wrapped in a cloth napkin, along with a banana and some hm shortbread wrapped in one of the mini cereal packets.

Lunch for myself and DS2 was grabbed whilst in Tesco, as we had to get DS1 some school trousers, he has shot up over the holidays and I hadn't realised quite how much by until this morning. We went to the deli and I had a piece of quiche (cardboard box) and DS2 had a Scotch egg (doesn't like pastry). I said to put both in the same box, no plastic bags etc. NO couldn't do that as had to have different barcode tickets.

Dinner tonight was Roast chicken, with salad and fried new potatoes. The chicken tray will be able to be saved and taken to the (HRF), the salad and new potatoes came in the organic veg box delivery this morning, I will just have to see about the plastic/polythene wrapper from the chicken.

DS2 also had a packet of crisps when we got home, so that has had to go into the landfill bin.

Zero Waste - Day 2

Today breakfast has been cereal and juice.

These were the little ind boxes which were bought in an attempt to get my boys to try different cereals, and the pack of 8 only cost £1.21 but each box has a coupon worth 25p on the back which Tesco will accept even if you do not buy the product.

The coupons were removed the boxes were placed in the recycling bin and the inner wrappers will be used as bags for cookies (hm of course) in the lunch boxes in the weeks to come. Until a time when I need to find a place to recycle them.

Lunch was hm bread, with tuna and salad, followed by jelly and hm shortbread.
There was unfortunately the plastic wrapper from the jelly to contend with, which having no recycling info on it had to go into the bin. The tin from the una went into the recycling collection bin.

Dinner was hm fish pie served with carrots and frozen green beans.
No waste there as yet.

So on day 2 we have 1 very small piece of plastic, which has been duly twisted and knotted before placement in the landfill bin.

Zero Waste - Day 1

Well today we have managed to put nothing into the landfill bin.

All veggies and fruit peelings from making my Sweet Ratatouille Chutney went into the compost bin wrapped in newspaper.

The tray and film the mince for the lasagne came in will be put into the collection box for parcelling off to GHS .

The empty glass milk bottles were left on the doorstep this morning.

The tins from both the chopped tomatoes and tomato puree were rinsed and added to the recycling bin.

DS2 wanted a drink whilst we were in town today shopping, he chose a bottle that had number 2 on the bottle and when he opened it the lid was also number 2. These were both put intothe recycling bin when we got home.

Dave took a zero waste packed lunch to work with him; sandwiches were wrapped in a t/towel and cake was put in a small plastic tub, the banana skin went into the compost bin.

Week Ending Sunday 31 August

Well today starts the "zero waste" challenge.

The bins were emptied for collection this morning and we had a total of 743g going to landfill which is half the weight of last weeks.

This is a very good start as I had been tweaking the rubbish for the landfill bin all week in readiness for the upcoming challenge.

Obviously we want the figure over the next 2 weeks to be as close to zero as possible, with collection boxes for all the different types of recycling; be it:

a) directly into the recyclable collection bin
b) directly into the compostable collection bin
c) frozen for Dave to take to work for lunch or for "leftovers" night
d) sent to work with Dave for the dogs if not re-usable by us
e) collected to be posted to either of the 2 companies who recycle plastics which my council do not
f) saved to be sold at the next car boot sale we do.
g) saved to be taken to the recycling centre run by my local council
h) saved for a school collection "bag 2 school" for old clothes and shoes
i) placed on freecycle
j) directly given to charity

If any thing we no longer wish to keep does not fit into any of the categories above then it will have to be placed in the landfill bin.

I will be keeping a daily log as I have in the past to record exactly what makes up our rubbish.

Week Ending Sunday 24 August

This is the bag of "rubbish" which went into my landfill bin this week it weighed 1.3kg and was only a third of the size of my 45l swing bin.

There were a few yogurt pots in there as I had ran out of my own and had treated DS1, this was before I had heard about GHS the recycling company, which will take most plastics as long as there is sufficient quantity.

The rest of the "rubbish", seemed to be plastic wrap and crisp packs etc. and even though I twist and knot my plastics to make then smaller they will still weigh the same.

Zero Waste

I have been reading the following 2 blogs/websites recently

http://www.therubbishdiet.blogspot.com/ and http://www.myzerowaste.com/

and have decided to do a "Zero Waste Pledge".

This will mean that we will have to try to not throw anything into the landfill bin, things can still be recycled/composted but NOTHING if at all possible should go into the landfill bin.

I will be starting this on Monday 1 Sept as the landfill bin is emptied on that day so we will start the pledge with empty bins all round; this will continue for a 2 week period until Monday 15 Sept when the bin is due to be emptied again.