I've just completed my weekly task of 'putting out the rubbish' for Camden Council to collect in the morning. It's always a depressing sight to see the mountains of black bags down the street, so I thought I'd analyse our household waste this week. There are three of us at home at the moment. I put out:

1 black bag
1 recycling bag of tins, paper, cardboard, plastic
1 recycling box of glass
1 green bin with grass and a chopped-down climber

I thought that was worth a pat on the back until I thought about what was in the black bag - food containers, envelopes, teabags, bones, some plastics and styrofoam that the collectors don't take, plus other stuff that was thrown out and we couldn't be bothered to separate.

Not brilliant



FB

You could buy a shredder about £25 in Argos which will shred into confetti then the shreddings and your tea bags could go on the garden, you could save them for later as mulch in the hot weather or put them on now to rot down naturally.

Foam can be broken into small pieces and used in the bottom of pots in the garden instead of stones for drainage.

A good recylcing centre will also take food containers - plastic bottles, tins etc, or you could get a milk man to deliver your milk - less plastic bottles.

Bet ya all didnt know i had it in me did ya

Oh good thread Fruity and very synchronistic, as I know we could do much better on this one.
My slight challenge is that Dh isn't quite as 'environmentally conscious' as I am and freely admits that he is lazy when it comes to recycling - I have been known to take stuff back out of the bin to wash and recycle it, but naturally there are times when a tin is covered in yogurt or porrage and I leave it there

I think one black bag, for three of you, compared to what I see outside the 'average household' around here is really good - you should feel proud of that. It seems you have good collections too - we don't have cardboard or plastic around here yet.....

I think you know what you could do to cut your waste futher, but we live in the 21st century, the message of which seems to be 'More, better, faster, Now! and *convenience*' - so it's easier to throw something in the bin than take it down the garden to the compost heap.

And why write your shopping list / telephone messages on the back of a used envelope when you can have a nice, new piece of paper to write on.

I think you were brave to 'bear all' I don't think I would have the courage yet! It has been my aim for us to get down to one black bag full; collection is on Wed, so we'll see I think you may have inspired me to try harder Fruity - thanks!

And Sulis; I am *very* impressed - so how much rubbish does your household generate in a week?

Rae x

I have to admit that despite re cycling, paper,card, tins, bottles etc. we still have a bin full each fortnight (our collections are only every two weeks for black bins) the council now collect all the re cycling stuff mentioned above every fortnight plus a brown bin of compost rubbish. Which i think is really good. My heart lept when i saw that every house is using the service (previously i used to take stuff to the recycle points but feared not everyone could be bothered.

I am going to keep a close eye on the rubbish and see what we do actually throw out as it seems weird. I too have to keep a close eye on hubby, he would stick everything in the bin if i did not nag.

Sal

They tried to enforce fortnightly collections around here and I wrote to the papers about it, but I was the *only* one who agreed with it (whilst pointing out that first the residents needed better education and better recycling facilities). Everyone else was completely up in arms about the idea and it was rejected. (the same old story - 'I pay my council tax so I should have a weekly collection' - doh!)

So what constitutes a bin Sal - one of those wheelie bins? We have the old style metal ones and do about 1 1/2 of those per week (hangs head in shame) Thinking of black bags, that's probably 1 1/2 - 2 perhaps?? Having said that, there are coal ashes in there too and they take up a lot of room; I need to rethink what we could do with those........

RAe x
(who is feeling very motivated to try harder next week)

Hummm, nice try to make my humiliation complete, Rae, but my black bag is less than the size of a standard metal dustbin... thank you!

Suddenly feeling happier



But can do better



Actually, a lot better... watch this space next week



J.

I love the fact that we seem to motivate each other to reassess stuff here, we had the big clear out, greener cleaning, giving stuff away and now rubbish reduction fab!

Rae we are talking wheely bin per fortnight i am afraid. The downfall of fortnightly collections in the summer can be the smell.

Sal (now watching and questioning everything going in the bin.)

Huhn?? Erm, Mr.Paranoid, I think I was pointing out that your one bag a week was *very* good. Far from humiliating you, I was aspiring to reach that target myself.
We, on the other hand use 1 1/2 - 2 bags a week which I think is shameful.

Right, that's it you miserable ol' blokey person; the competition is ON!!!!

Love and a bin bag
Rae x (wondering what on earth to do with those coal clinkers.......)

Me too It makes it so much more fun when I now picture you and Fruity hiding behind my cupboard doors waiting to see what I throw away. Keeps me motivated!

Love Rae x

Rae, this was my (not very) subtle attempt at humour a la Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets

You have brought all these ecological issues to the the forefront on NLH and good on you for doing it :notworthy:

Love and hugs
J xxx xxx

Well you guys have got into my head now!!!!

I was out shopping with my Mum and she took one of the shops free magazines and the lady offered me one and i thought for a second and declined. Why? well i can read mums after her and save resources to.(less to go in the recycle bin)

Also whilst out shopping i just stopped wanting to buy things, after de cluttering the house so beautifully i am not buying anything new unless i absolutely love it/ really need it.

This really is quite a refreshing feeling.

Sal

Oooops, sorry 'bout that - I have to confess it is like that for me too. You know, I put *nothing* in the bin yesterday; which felt great.

Had a good chat with dh about my intentions and how we could reach a compromise i.e. my desire for reducing rubbish combined with his self-confessed 'laziness' and need for convenience. So far so good - he's even talking about building me an area outside the house to store different types of recycling containers which would be *fabulous*

Amazing how something so 'trivial' can feel so good when the timing is right isn't it.....

Love Rae x

Well day two is going very well (apart from the fact I smashed Richard's cafetiere on the floor, so now have some broken glass and the metal holder to get rid of )

Still nothing much in the bin and lots of containers of 'recyclable stuff' - today I am making it my goal to get some decent sized containers and find a home for them all that is i) accessible and ii) out of the way which seems a contradiction in terms

My goal now is one CARRIER BAG on bin day - wouldn't that be something: reckon I'll do it?

Rae (feeling *very* good about this).

Well our rubbish went off with the bin men on tuesday and i have to say there was a vast improvement. No where near as good as some of you guys but for us a wheely bin not full for the fortnight is pretty cool.

I will be trying even harder this next fortnight. The way around hubby dumping everything has been found: 1 shout very loudly every time he goes near the bin and 2 just get him to put empty containers in the sink and i sort them out (he can manage that).

I can not get over how much cello wrap there is on things.

I have started using a couple of giant shopping bags at the supermarket and a reusable bag to take bits and pieces around. I am also refusing carrier bags as much as possible when in town shopping.

Hope everything is going well for everyone else.

Sal

hmmmm, well I manage 1 bin bag approx every three weeks so there's hope for you Rae , on the other hand I have different boxes for anything metal/glass/plastic bottles/paper/cardboard/other plastics to take to my local recycle centre

SPof52

oh, and by the way I've just finished wallpapering so if anyone needs about a gallon of paste let me know lol

Wow! I'm *very* impressed - how many of you are in your household Steve?
We managed to halve ours last week; which I felt good about. Still a long way to go though I'm in the midst of building storage for all the various plastic / card / foil containers, so that should make things even better in the long run......

I think hubbie is the main culprit- he seems to buy things that are in plastic wrap - Hmmm, maybe if I put him out for the binmen next week, my challenge will be solved

Rae x

oooooh

There's myself and the lodger + 2 cats

Well my hubby is a bit big to put out for the bin men so i have been working hard at reducing rubbish further still and am proud to say the bin this fortnight was about two thirds full (i nearly cheated and squashed it down to half but figured that was kind of cheating.

Sal

Excellent Sal - well done!

We've had quite a change too. Dh has had a kind of 'spritual awakeneing' on many levels and has completely changed his diet - from tins of meat with very few veggies, chocolate cake, beer, white bread etc to salad and fruit, water and herbal teas!!

Soooooo- much less packaging to dispose of, less toilet roll , less washing up for me (actually, it is an absolute joy preparing meals for him; it appeals to my creative side to make a meal out of something people ususally see as a garnish) - all in all a much more environmentally friendly way of life.

Thing is, this has heightened his awareness to other things - he is being much more careful about putting stuff in the bin and more aware of what he is doing to the environment generally. It's been great. I think we put out 3/4 of a regular sized bin this week - onward and upward as a good friend of mine frequently says!!

Rae x