I have to confess to feeling a little disheartened and feeling like we would have achieved very little in terms of ‘Slimming our Bin’ by the end of the Waste Watchers diet.
But I think that we are now really starting to make some in-roads.
We have done some little things:
- stopped buying individual pots of yoghurt, and replaced them with large pots. Hubby decants some into a small pot to take to work, and the rest of us scoop some into a bowl
- stopped buying individual packets of crisps. We get big bags, and Hubby puts a handful in a plastic bag to take to work , which he then re-uses until it starts to fall apart
We have done some big things (well, they feel pretty big to me..!):
- stopped buying and using baby wipes and replaced them with some homemade flannels made from old towels
- kitchen roll is next on my hit list…
We have made some great recycling discoveries:
- we can recycle stretchy plastic and plastic pots at our local recycling centre. Look how much we’ve amassed since making this discovery 2 or 3 weeks ago!
‘Stretchy plastic’ that we can recycle
Plastic yoghurt pots and fruit punnets etc (and the odd broken toy!) This can all now go to the recycling centre-yay!
Quite scary to think that all this would have gone to landfill before.
We have a Green Johanna!
- This clever ‘hot composter’ takes ALL of our food waste, so nothing is being wasted. AND it can take snotty tissues, and used bits of cotton wool. This makes me very happy 🙂
So, drum roll please….
This is our black bin, 6 weeks into our rubbish diet…
Not the greatest picture. It would have looked much more impressive if I hadn’t tried to tip out the rubbish from one of the bags in an attempt to save it and re-use it. Basically it is just 2 small bin’s worth! Our kitchen bin has a label saying 10-12 litres, and our utility bin says 12 litres, and all the rubbish from the other bins dotted around the house fitted into these. Plus we had the ashes from a fire-althoughI think this can now go in our Green Johanna.
So in a fortnight, we have generated about 24 litres of rubbish! Down from 8o litres!
I am chuffed to bits 🙂
My Make Do and Mend Year 
Wow, thats a brilliant achievement, well done you! :o)
Thanks Jo. I thought we were already pretty good before we started, but it just goes to show how we can all slim our bins!
Well done you!
I have bought big pots of yoghurt this week to trial, am also going to go back to big bags of crisps…it is a hassle, but if the kids want them bad enough they’ll find something to put them in for school! If they don’t…well….they’ve eaten less junk – so I’m still happy!!! 😉
we put out about 1 30litre bag and a carrier bag each week for 5 of us, not too bad.
I’ve also taken to taking my own tubs to the butchers for him to put our food directly into…no packaging and waste there! Also get an Abel & Cole delivery and they reuse their boxes…so that’s good – and I have to say you can taste the difference between organic and not!
Finally I have just bought from Abel & Cole a huge box of clothes washing detergent, like a winebox!…Better to recycle the cardboard than the plastic bottles I think…oh! we use proper soap and not shower gel!
We are with you and reading your changes with interest…keep at it!
xx
Some great tips-thankyou!
Absolutely- well done! I’m stuck at about the same amount. There always seems to be some un-recyclable (plastic) stuff, no matter how careful I am. Stopping other people bringing things I can’t recycle in is an ongoing issue…
Not sure how we will reduce much further. We seem to be left with crisp packets, non recyclable film type plastic, and butter wrappers etc. And maybe the odd sweet/chocolate wrapper 😉
Yes, I’ve just noticed the grandparents brought sweets over, and something in polystyrene….
But there are always meat trays or something. (I do take tubs to my local butcher, but sometimes we buy food from Farmer’s Markets or other shops). Every time I shop I seem to have to make a trade-off between packaging/organic/local/cost/something. I don’t buy Nestle products, for instance, but their sweet packaging is more recyclable than other brands…
Butter wrappers I either compost if they’re paper or separate the paper layer from the foil and recycle separately. This can be a right faff, though I soak them in the washing up water first, and is when hubby starts worrying for my sanity, but I have a tendency to stubbornness… I have discovered that Anchor (I think) has a plasticised inner layer that I can’t recycle and that the others separate better if the butter has been frozen first (I buy in bulk and defrost as necessary).
You are very good Hazel-I started trying to separate the butter wrappers but very quickly lost the will to live! I will try soaking them first.
I just tried soaking the butter packets first, and much less frustrating! Thanks Hazel 🙂
Tip courtesy of Karen Cannard! 🙂
Oh that’s brilliant! Well done! Very impressed.
A wormery is another great user for waste (including some paper and card etc) and you get “worn tea” out of it too – a very potent fertiliser! Makes our veg whoosh!
Thankyou! We tried a wormery a few years ago, but managed to kill the worms.. Would quite like to try again at some point though!
I am impressed! and inspired to have a look at our waste levels again…..
Let me know how you get on!
Well done on your bin slimming, you’re doing well. I get disheartened with what I’m left throwing away. It’s lids from yoghurt pots, crisp packets, wrappers from cereal bars, film lids from plastic tubs, or the plastic packaging for things like porridge oats and some frozen items that are not recyclable.
I’ve also moved over onto 2 -3 large tubs of yoghurt per week rather than lots of little ones. I’ve not thought of the crisp packets though – that sounds like a good idea.
I’m trying so hard to think packaging but there always seems to be something to throw away!
We put our black wheelie bin out once a fortnight (by choice as it’s weekly collection here) and it’s about half full. So we are doing well but I need to reduce that! I did have an aim to halve it again but I’m just not sure how to.
Sounds like you are doing great Heather. I think we may have reached a point where we will struggle to go much lower. I guess the only thing we could do is really focus on what we are buying with respect to packaging, and try to find products with recyclable packaging/no packaging. But it is getting harder..!
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