Glorious Waste

Last night I lay awake. Even after 2 children who won't sleep through the night, this is a very rare occurrence. My head full of worries, worries for my children's future and if they'll have to bear the brunt of our and the past generations' mistakes.

Meanwhile the world just parties on as if nothing was at odds.

I don't think I've felt as alienated as I did last night ever before. The feeling that people, when sharing my worries, will label me as a nutcase, dismiss my concerns. Of course it didn't come out of the blue, even if it felt like it. I had a conversation by Skype with a very open dismissiveness about my resolve to avoid air travel at all costs. It must have stuck. And let the images of my girls having to deal with a world going to pieces keep me awake.

I know that my personal choice to avoid air travel is a drop in the ocean as long as businesses require their employees to travel. It's a drop as long as air travel doesn't carry its actual cost. It's the only thing I can do though.

Ever since I read this feature, my positive outlook as been tweaked to one of impatience at this world that won't change its way. The way we saw off the branch we are sitting on, like a slapstick joke courtesy of Laurel and Hardie (and they always come out alright at the end, don't they?).

Last night I had visions of the end of the world. I had them before, but this time they seem around the corner. There is a sense of urgency and not knowing how to deal with a wider world that is ignoring the signs and refusing to act on them. So the ice sheets keep melting, the rain keeps pouring, migrations and food shortages, and yes, the end of the world as we know it may descend upon my beautiful and innocent girls who had nothing to do with this situation we're in. The world is out of sync and we all pretend we'll come up with a solution in time.

Enters National Zero Waste Week and a bunch of inspirational folk. Just what the doctor ordered in times of doom and gloom.
I remember three years ago when I first heard of Zero Waste how I thought, surely that's a euphemism for something. Ahem, no it isn't. There are families out there who manage to produce just 100g of rubbish a week.

I don't pretend I'm one of them - far from it. But it has made me think that maybe, just maybe, half a bin of rubbish per fortnight isn't needed (and I know that's little compared to others, considering we're a family of 4). It has also made me think about the bigger picture. While consumer action is nice, political action is better. What use is it that I compost my banana skins when the compostable bin at Hampden Park is filled with plastic cups? Wouldn't it be easier if there were no plastic cups? How about the big supermarkets offering package free food and launching an advertising campaign to bring your own tub?

20 years ago I was introduced to the problem. The problem is bigger now than it was there. With all my efforts to live more sustainably, even I use up far too many resources of this planet. If everyone lived like me, we'd need 3 planets, and it's no consolation whatsoever that the UK average is something like 4.2. It's not good enough.

I may not have the answers or my answers may be wrong, yet considering that all anyone can do is change their own behaviour, this is my own plan of action for Zero Waste Week - one more thing:

1. revamp my food storage system so that bulk buying and package free buying becomes easier
2. buy at the only shop where you can fill your own tubs (Whole Foods Glasgow) or at market
3. take on to recycle all that can be recycled at work

You can be part of Zero Waste Week too. You don't have to go totally zero waste - it takes years to get there but the beauty is that once you start with one little thing, it leads to a chain reaction and before you know it, you'll have halved your waste and buy with more awareness. It's easy to start with taking your own bags or trying to avoid packaging whenever possible. You may even ditch that shampoo and shower gel (but worry not, you don't have to if that's just one step to far!) Zero Waste Week is for everyone. So why not sign up and do one more thing, just a little one, and together it will make a difference and go from drop in the ocean to a tidal wave. You'll make my day too!

WEB – Leave a comment on the My Zero Waste website pledge page


FACEBOOK – Join the zero waste facebook page and check out the events page where almot 300 people are already signed up and sharing their advice!

TWITTER – Use the twitter hashtags #onemorething and #nzww and follow My Zero Waste.
f you run your own website, feel free to grab the code to proudly display your own banner in support of the week.

Gimme less rubbish!

It's Zero Waste Week everyone!
And I'm awfully late getting around to blogging something for it, forgive me, life seriously took over.

Some time ago I was flabbergasted by the story of the family behind My Zero Waste. They managed to get through a full year with just one tiny bag of rubbish. I was in awe. I mean really, how many bags of rubbish do you put out each week? Well, in my case it's definitely a bit more than one bag a year...

Anyway, I got pushed into thinking a bit about the waste we produce and how to reduce it. After all, each piece of packaging that goes into the bin doesn't just add to the mountains of landfill that will take years, many years to decompose, but it's also a waste. Not just of that wrapper but of resources to produce it. And once you get your head around just how much unneeded stuff is produced to wrap, package and display, and that the resources used that way are effectively taking away resources from our own children in the future, something has to happen. At least in my head.

With the help of the Rubbish Diet blog I looked at ways to reduce my rubbish. Don't get me wrong, I'm not in it for a competition and producing even less rubbish in a year. I know I'm not the My Zero Waste superwoman. But I know I can reduce my rubbish. Everyone can. And then I try to reduce some more. Bit by bit. Little by litte. One step at a time. Until the day comes when your neighbour's bin is overflowing (because we have changed to fortnightly "normal" rubbish collections) while ours, with a larger family, is still not even half full.

My top tips are:
1. buy in bulk.
With everything, consider the larger quantity. It's mostly cheaper, but it means less packaging. So we have 5 kg sacks of rice and pasta, the largest shower cream possible (though soap is even better on the packaging side of things) etc
2. buy loose veg and fruit. We get a net of fruit and veg from an organic box scheme which is recycled, any additional fruit and veg is bought loose if available, and I try to buy any other fruit and veg with packaging in mind (weighing it against food miles though).
3. Consider packaging with every item you buy. So for biscuits I will only buy those in just one item of packaging, rather than triplicate packaging of something like pralines.
4. Focus on one behaviour change at a time. So, one week/month, change over to only using reusable bags for your shopping until it's second nature. Only then do the next. I'm currently focusing on zero waste lunches for the kids and myself though I'm not quite there yet. When I worked with a primary school the other day, I saw 33 children take out a packet of crisps each at their morning break time. Imagine, one class, 33 foil wrappers, every single day. times every single class. Mind boggling. Surely this isn't necessary?

5. One biggie: cloth nappies or EC (elimination communication). I do use disposables occasionally and at night time and even with that occasional use, it makes for one shopping bag full of rubbish. So I tried going all cloth. It worked for a while, but since my return to work, well, something has to give. All I can say though is that a good cloth nappy leaks less than a disposable! EC is not for me I have to admit, as with everything, you have to weigh up if it's doable for you or not.

6. Look at what you can do outside the house. For instance, at work we recycle paper but we don't recycle milk bottles. So I'll be taking them home now for recycling in my recycling bin.

7. Find out if you can get your milk delivered in reusable glass bottles. It will be more expensive but a) you get them conveniently to your door and b) no more bit ugly plastic bottles!

8. Use tap water rather than bottles. Whenever I can't stomach tap water (in some parts it has quite a chlorine taste) I use diluting juice just enough to cover that taste. That way the diluting juice lasts for months and yet I don't get quite such a sweet tooth for drinks.

9. Get a compost bin. Even if you live in flats, there may be a way that you could get together with neighbours and get one for the block of flats? Community composting is doable, there's lots of support out there for it so you don't need a garden to have a composting bin.

10. Grow your own - on windowsills, in community raised beds, in your own garden. Every pea you eat that you grew yourself has no packaging at all, tastes so much better, gives great satisfaction and makes for better health in so many ways. And it's fun too!

11. Opt out of junk mail. You will have to contact various organisations for that and you may still receive some junk, but less than before at least!

12. Reuse: Look at stuff and consider if you can reuse it. Maybe for a craft activity with the kids? Maybe as a plant pot? Maybe you can use that old garment for sewing something else? Kindle that creativity spark!

And last but not least: Embark on the Rubbish Diet Challenge.

That's the stuff I've managed to do. I still have half a bin of rubbish every fortnight, but that's only half of what we used to have. Which is more than a good start in my eyes. Now I only have to drop some hints to the neighbours how they can prevent their bin from overflowing ...

One month on: my living As Sustainable As Possible Pledge

Taking the ASAP pledge was a welcome start at just about the right time. The thing about making a pledge is that you take something seriously, make a commitment, and it's a start on a journey that may take you further than you initially thought. Not always, but if it comes at the point where it fits in with stuff that you've been trying to get your head around, it can be the start of quite a lot of things.

Of course I'm not pretending that I've turned my life around in a month. Far from it. It's just that it's a welcome start which could possibly lead to a bit more than just fulfilling my pledge.

So, what have I been up to in my quest to live more sustainably (or even finding out what living as sustainably as possible might mean in my humble world):
I've not bought any veg/fruit in plastic containers. It's quite easy to do that. It's sometimes the more expensive option, but on the whole I'm actually saving money, and this is how:

I've also tried to buy as locally as possible. We already get a vegetable bag delivery from an organic Scottish producer. There's so much in it that we'll have to reduce our order because I'm running out of freezer space for soup. I'm amazed how much of a difference having this weekly bag makes to my cooking and shopping habits. I've saved money on the weekly shopping, I almost never shop at any of the big supermarkets now although we used to do all our shopping there, and I've expanded my cooking skills. It's an all win situation. I've also effectively eliminated the weekly car trip to the supermarket, a sore thumb in our family time as I can't do it on my own with two kids, it was usually a family outing - time that could have been spent in a much nicer way.

How does it all work? Well, I try to use up all the delivery and because it's so much I cook from scratch and use much less of ready made items. I never thought this would actually save money, but it does. It also translates to less packaging, less plastic, less landfill.

Next, we got this leaflet from our local dairy through the door and found out that they do milk deliveries in plastic bottles. Perfect, milk delivered to our door at 5am and no more plastic milk bottles (which up to now were collected for the nursery's project to build a milk bottle green house, but they now have collected enough).

In the supermarket (that'll be the co-op rather than Tesco/Asda now because I can do my weekly shopping in the window between nursery drop off and rhyme time start, half an hour is all it takes) I've tried to stick to products with less packaging, fair trade, UK produce and, to reduce waste, in large packages. 240 teabags instead of 80. It's tricky because we haven't got much space, but with more fresh food we don't need as many tins anymore. Magically, there's now space in the cupboard. Space that can be used for large bags of rice and pasta, tea, etc.

Going shopping on a weekly basis also makes me realise the type of packaging that accumulates. Once again, the cartons are sore in my eye because our local council doesn't recycle cardboard and there are a lot of cardboard boxes in my shopping. Cardboard is better than plastic, but still. They could be avoided and I might consider this (different cereals, no more snack bars - that alone would at least reduce my cardboard waste by two thirds).

I'm considering taking up the rubbish diet challenge to learn a bit more about types of packaging and how to reduce my rubbish, although I'm not ambitious enough to manage a zero waste week (as much as I admire people who manage this!).

One other biggie for me is the ever present child's lunch bag in cafes. Cubling insist on it. Big cardboard box with a half sandwich (white bread), crisps (more packaging and not exactly healthy), an apple (which Cubling won't eat) and a juice in a carton (more packaging) - value about £1, cost between £3 and £4. I try to take a picnic lunch but sometimes I don't, and we end up with these lunch bags more often than not. Of course I'm in control of what my daughter can have, and maybe there will be a lunch bag ban (difficult if you're with other kids who are having them). There will be protest but maybe eventually she will understand why they are not a good idea.

So a few changes that seem realistic. And as with everything, once you've changed your habits, it'll become natural. And then I can tackle another few things on the list. And bit by bit, small steps make an increasingly bigger difference.

Time and time again I've read about how it's not about totally turning your lifestyle around, but about making those little changes, one step at a time, and before you know it you're on a journey that leads you to new and exciting places. Reducing your consumption and your waste by 1% is infinitely better than not doing anything. Because even starting the thinking process turns your habits around, and you sure won't stay at the 1% level. It's like running really. When I started running, I couldn't even run for a minute. 2 years later I ran a marathon. Once you start something, it can take you further into realms that you thought were more than beyond your reach.