Zero Waste - Day 11

Today saw a new dilema, what to do with the chicken drumstick bones??

We had chicken drumsticks with salad and new potatoes for dinner, but of course now how to dispose of the bones.

During the winter when we have the coal/wood fire burning I would put them on there, and although the fire creates "clinker" the food waste is disposed of.
I have toyed with the idea of a green cone but at the moment costs are prohibitive.

So I think they are going to have to go into the landfill bin, I will wrap them carefully in newspaper and keep seperate until the last minute just incase I find any other ideas.

Whilst shopping today in Sainsburys I had to make a descision do I buy fairtrade sugar in a plastic non-recyclable pack or non fairtrade sugar in a recyclable paper bag.

I have always gone for fairtrade over organic when it has been staple goods, but now I have the packaging to consider as well.

Zero Waste - Day 10

Last night saw me making a big pot of Ratatouille mix to use up some veggies from the organic box which wouldn't have been used otherwise.
I prepared everything and then turned the slowcooker on as I went to bed, so that it was all cooked and ready to package into tubs for the freezer this morning.

So not only a waste saving exercise but also fuel saving.

Dinner tonight was hm shepherds pie using a portion of the ratatouille mix for extra veggies and mince, carrots, onions, oats and topped with mashed potato and cheese. I use the oats to bulk the mince oput which is cost saving.

Waste wise this created 1 freezer bag from the mince as I normally bulk purchase and freeze in meal size portions. All veggie peelings were put into the compost bin wrapped in newspaper
I will look at this again when I buy the next lot of mince as I may be able to still bulk purchase but freeze in tubs rather than bags.

Lunch today for both Dh and DS2 was egg buns, with bananas, hm cake, DS2 had a drinking yogurt and crisps, so the waste was:
banana skins - compost
drinking yog - totally recyclable
eggs shells - compost
hm cake - no waste
hm buns - no waste
crisps - landfill (twisted & knotted)

the buns were wrapped in a washable napkin and the cake in a small tub, DS2 drink was in the reused water bottle which will be totally recycled once he has used it for 2 weeks.

Zero Waste - Day 9

I went to Tesco this morning to buy the ingrdients for the school Cookery Club which I run; I noticed that they had reduced certain items of school uniform so in true forward planning mode I snapped up some shirts in bigger sizes for both boys and also some trousers for DS2 made from recycled plastic bottles.

There was a programme on ITV1 on Tonight (www.itv.com/tonight) which was highlighting the problems with mixed recycling and all recycling.

Having watched this back this morning I have written to my council asking what exactly happens to the "mixed" recycling which I diligently put into my wheelie bin each fortnight.

We will wait to see what the response is.

Lunches for both Dave and DS2 have been zero waste again both yesterday and today.

Both had ham(gammon joint cooked and very thinly sliced) salad sandwiches wrapped in a cloth napkin, banana, cake in a small tub, and cookies in the mini cereal packet, DS2 also had a drinking yogurt but it was in type 2 plastic bottle with a foil lid so both recyclable.

Zero Waste - Day 8

Today has been a quiet day, following on from last weeks adventure.

Although over on myzerowaste they have done a weeks challenge I signed up for a 2 week challenge, and will now be continuing with this during this week.

However I do know that The Greens will be continuing with their commitment to recycling.

My washing machine broke down a few weeks ago and it was not worth spending money we didn't have to repair it; however instead of buying a new one we have opted to rent as all repairs bills are covered with the rental, I can upgrade to a newer model once a year if I wanted to, and as the company I rent from ae a big electrical company they will have to conform to the WEEE code for dealing with any older/broken models etc.

So today I took delivery of my "new" washing machine. The delivery drivers took away all packagng with them, so I just have to worry!! about the old machine; we do however have a registered "scrappy" come round once every 3 months or so, so it will be placed outside until his next flyer comes through the door.

Zero Waste - Day 7

I have not particularly looked for items when shopping which could be recycled, my grocery shop this week has been a normal shop; it has been more when the time has come to deal with the waste.

Total rubbish collected in the landfill bin for the week Mon 1 Sept - Sun 7 Sept.

Crisp Packets - 12 (all twisted and knotted)

Plastic packaging which can't be recycled :-

2 deli wrappers (twisted and knotted)
1 butter wrapper foil backed pastic (folded so small though you coudn't see what it was)
1 chicken wrapper (twisted and knotted)
1 Dove Farm Yeast wrapper ( contacted Dove Farm - all they could tell me was it was foil backed) looks like foil backed plastic.
1 gammon joint wrapper
2 multipack crisp wrappers (twisted and knotted)
1 bag which I had frozen mince in from a bulk purchase (twisted and knotted)
2 carrier bags which had been reused so many times they were disintegrating (twisted and knotted)


Some things I could have left out until another time but that is not the point of this exercise, it is to see just how much is actually going into the landfill bin and how much we can reduce it by.


So.........the total waste going into our landfill bin for this week weighs in at....... 325g

Certain things now I will look at whilst shopping, to try and find an alternative with better recyclable packaging.

This is the bag of rubbish from Mon 1 Sept - Sun 7 Sept

Zero Waste - Day 6

I can report that today despite having a big baking session all items used were in either recyclable or compostable packaging.

It did help that I put my dried fruit when I buy it into a big storage jar rather than leaving it in the bag, otherwise that would have been one bag which I'm not sure on the type of plastic (will investigate next time I go shopping).

The boys have today treated themselves to a new Wii game which I thought Oh no !!packaging but surprisingly, it came in a cardboard box with a cardboard inner and the bag which held the wheel was clearly labelled type 4, so all can be recycled.

Having found that I can take all my margarine tubs/yog pots/meat trays to the HRF has made a big difference to what has gone into our landfill bin; (see tomorrows report for the final outcome.

Another thing I have been forced to look at is teabags; they either seem to come in a recycled recyclable cardboard box with mini plasticised foil inners or a celophane wrapped cardboard box with no mini inners; either way one or the other part of it is non-recyclable.

I hope that with Sainsburys looking at all their own label products they might just do something about the celophane outer.

Zero Waste - Day 5

I telephoned Sainsburys yesterday and asked them when/if they were going to package their own label fair trade sugar in recyclable bags not the type 7 non recycable it is in now; the chap on the other end said it was "in process" and that also hopefully within the next 2 years or so all own label products will be in recyclable packaging if at all possible.

Anyway scroll forward to this morning, I had to nip into Sainsburys for something whilst at that end of town, and lo and behold their own label fair trade granulated sugar was now in paper bags; the other varieties of own label sugar were very scarce which often means a packaging revamp when it is a staple product.

So I will give a big thumbs up to Sainsburys today for doing the right thing!!

I don't always shop there but have been buying their teabags and sugar as it is fair trade even better now the packaging is also recyclable.

Whilst there I also noticed that they have a few more own label organic products than they had last time.

Breakfast today for both boys was cereal and juice (no waste)

Lunch for DH was a chippy lunch which he alsways has but the shop uses all papers which can be recycled; for DS2 it was ham salad wraps, hm choc cake, juice and a banana (no waste - banana skin into compost bin)