Rosie's Ecoblog

The Post Christmas Clean-up

2012-01-10T06:26:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

Here's my post Christmas tidy-up schedule.

Eat any leftover Christmas pudding for breakfast.
(That's my favourite bit of tidying up)

Collect up all the empty gift bags to use next year. This year I didn't have to buy a single gift bag but I have got pretty good at rounding up any abandoned bags left by my Christmas guests. Given that gift bags can be anything from about 80p to £2.50 and that I'm no good at wrapping up I think I must have saved about £20 by re-using gift bags and most of them seem to have found their way back to me ready for next year.

Extract all the ribbons and bows from the Christmas present unwrapping. So you don't need to buy any for next Christmas. More money saving.

Cut up Christmas cards to make labels for next year.
But don't do what I did and lose them. This year I've made sure to keep them next to my stock of gift bags so I'll know where to find them.

Recycle your Christmas Tree.
For a few years I had a pot-grown Christmas Tree which was great but it didn't survive more than about five years of neglect. Since then I've not been organised enough to find a pot-grown tree at a reasonable price. But most local councils offer a shredding service for Christmas Trees now. We used to have to take our tree to one of several local car parks for shredding. That was always a messy business that I felt a lot of people wouldn't bother with so it is great that many local councils now pick up Christmas Trees along with the normal waste and recycling collections this week or next week. Check out your local council's website for details.

Just in Time!

2011-11-24T06:26:00.000-08:00

Year six!

I confess to a smug smile on my face yesterday morning when I looked out of the window and saw we had our first real frost. Why? Because, yes... my Dad and I dug up (Dad) and potted (me!) all our Geraniums and put them in the conservatory for the winter. I think this is now about year 6 from the same half dozen Geraniums I was bought as a present - and now they total twenty seven plants and 14 cuttings (well the bits that fall off as we transplant them).

Every year we bring them in in the Autumn - usually by October half term rather than nearing the end of November, but they looked lovely in full bloom still and so we just kept our eye on the frost forecasts. But last weekend we decided we could hold out no longer and yesterday morning it looked as though it was a wise choice.

We use old plant pots and a bit of soil dug up from the garden combined with the fabulously rich compost made in my wormery (another Christmas present!) so it costs us nothing. Better than that though, Geraniums thrive whether the weather is wet or dry through the summer - in fact, they seem to thrive on neglect which can only be a good thing in my garden. And, last but not least of their characteristics is that they seem to be totally rabbit-proof.

My wormery

Gardening - It is all so much effort!

2011-11-10T05:01:00.000-08:00

Or is it?

Well it does require some effort, most definitely, but I can't help thinking that sometimes we don't do ourselves any favours by the way we garden.

I have long associated the growing of tomatoes with the 'Growbag' technique. Stick a couple of grow bags on your patio and plant them up with a couple of tomato plants in each and low and behold you will have tomatoes in abundant supply all through the summer. BUT probably only if you remember to water them every evening. Ughhh! Can you be bothered with that?

The thing we all know about Growbags is they dry out very quickly. So why do we insist on planting our tomatoes in them?

This year we decided to do things a bit differently. Instead of using grow bags we planted our tomato plants straight into the ground along a post and rail fence. If I remember rightly they got a couple of cans of water over them when they were first planted and I pulled up the weeds from round them early on but since then they've been entirely left to fend for themselves. If they want water then they have to send out their roots to look for water. If they want to survive among the weeds then they have to be strong and be the fittest.

It seems to be working!

You want water? Find your own!

So despite the money saving (no grow bags to buy or water to pay for) and the huge saving on time and effort we are still being rewarded with lots of tomatoes and they taste wonderful.

Free Fuel

2011-10-31T05:06:00.000-07:00

Last Christmas I was given a briquette maker - one of those metal contraptions you use to turn waste paper into 'logs' to burn on the fire.

I was mad keen to give it a go but a quick read of the instructions and a bit of common sense told me it was not a job for January. The main thing about making waste paper briquettes is that the paper needs to be soaked before you make them and then they need to be able to dry out. So... a job for the summer, it seemed.

But having sensibly put my briquette maker away until the weather was right, you may have guessed it, I never once thought about making myself some winter fuel this summer. However, on a gloriously sunny day in mid September I remembered my plan and went to survey the pile of newspapers that I'd been donated by my grandmother. It was a big pile. Better late than never, I thought, and set to work making my briquettes. By this time I had of course lost the instructions so a quick search on Google led me to this video from http://www.downthelane.net. What was bothering me slightly was that the newspapers I was shredding up could easily have been recycled so other than the benefit of hopefully gaining a little bit of free heat was I really being environmentally friendly turning newspapers into fuel? As we have two wood-burners and a Rayburn we get through a lot of wood in a year, most of which we manage ourselves from a small woodland. Chopping wood, where ever it comes from always generates wood chippings and there is lots of waste from the smaller brushwood, and other than a useful mulch for flower beds and around our new trees it pretty much seems like a waste product, so I decided to add a bit to my paper mix to see what happened.

Having set my mixture to soak for a few days I went to inspect and it seemed to be a suitably gooey mess. So I spent a pleasant afternoon in the sunshine making 36 paper and wood-chip briquettes. Are they going to dry I wondered?

I left the soggy creations on a palette in an open barn hoping that if the sunshine didn't last at least the wind might dry them out. Little did I know our Indian Summer would continue. This morning I went to inspect my briquettes and they were nicely dried out. Here they are stocked in my shed ready for use. I'll let you know how they burn!

TIP: I think one of these briquette makers makes a great present, but really, why buy one? - just borrow. Anyone who has one will only be using it for a few days a year!

Credit Crunch Carrots

2011-10-16T11:17:00.000-07:00

In a mad moment we decided to dig up all our carrots yesterday.

In true Rosie style - stable door and horse bolted style - I Googled 'How to Store Carrots' after having dug up the entire crop.

Yes, I know, we always get everything wrong. And digging up the entire crop wasn't the first gardening sin we'd committed. For a start we didn't bother with thinning except when we wanted a few carrots for dinner - when instead of weeding out the weediest ones we picked the biggest. Well, if you want to eat them, then why not pick the biggest?

First sin, don't thin.

So, for my second sin, what did Google tell me about how to store my carrots? That's right! The best way to store carrots is in the ground. Ah well! Too late for that.

I continued my Googing and was pleased to learn from the World Carrot Museum - did you even dream there'd be such a thing? - that carrots will actually increase their vitamin A content during the first five months of storage. Yay! A glimmer of hope.

I decided that since I couldn't exactly plant my carrots again I ought to try to find them the next best thing, so I found two old bread crates someone had kindly left behind after a party (you see it sometimes pays to never throw anything away!)and filled them with a layer of soil from my vegetable garden. Then I sorted through my carrots and picked only the perfect ones, laying them in neat rows on the layer of soil. I then covered them over and started a new layer. My crop from one packet of seeds, which has kept us going through the summer already, amounted to an entire wheelbarrow full which turned into three layers of perfect carrots in each crate and a large number of 'rejects'.

Hopefully this way we'll get to eat more than the mice and slugs will!

The rejects have now been scrubbed and cut up into chunks (taking out any bad bits) and I'm making them into soup - one batch for now and one for the freezer. The only slight problem is, I've eaten so many carrots while I chopped I'm worried I might be tinged with orange. Oh well, better than fake tan!

Going Bananas

2011-09-09T14:42:00.000-07:00

Bananas - lots of them - going cheap - or going to waste. Couldn't bear it! They've been transported all this way. Bought lots, eaten lots but still I have five of them left getting blacker and blacker.

Time for banana bread! My favourite banana bread recipe is from The River Cottage Family Cookbook which has chopped up apricots and sultanas in too. That's three of my five-a-day, I reckon! This recipe calls for three large ripe bananas - but I declared mine 'medium' so opened up all five ate the least blacked one while I mashed the other four and it turned out just fine!

Ethical Tourism

2011-03-20T09:36:00.000-07:00

What is ethical tourism?

People have differing ideas about what makes ethical tourism and for me the definition given by the travel website responsibletravel.com is a good summary:

They say:

"Responsible tourism can apply to any type of holiday, from a luxury beach villa to a volunteering project. Responsible tourism simply means holidays that care about local communities & culture as well as wildlife conservation & the environment."

What I'm looking for is a holiday that will enable me to benefit the local community. Much as I'd like to say I'd volunteer in an orphanage or build a school in a remote village, that's not what I mean. I just simply want the money I spend to go directly into the pockets of local people.

As I started to plan this year's 'holiday with a difference' to Turkey for my family of four what I mostly had in mind was that I wanted an 'activity holiday' and that I wanted to avoid the larger hotel complexes that to me could have been anywhere in the world, and particularly the all -inclusive type holidays that are quite prevalent these days.

I have family and friends who are fans of all-inclusive and I don't deny that the water park hotels with their amazing slides and kids clubs look like paradise for young children, but my children are in their teens and were prepared to humour me in return for some adrenalin kicks at some point during the holiday.

I admit that at first I was looking for a package tour - I knew nothing about our chosen destination, spoke none of the language and didn't know where to start, and that's how I came across responsibletravel.com who are an advertising site that can provide a wide variety of holidays and explain how each is in some way benefiting the local community.

However, in the end I took the brave (or mad) leap and booked everything myself. The advantage of having looked at package tours is that I had a guide budget and that helped me when Googling for rental property and now I have flights, transfers, car hire, activities, villa for a week with a private pool, family-run boutique hotel for a couple of nights and a two day boat trip all for less than the cheapest package holiday I can find. I plan to eat in local restaurants a few times and other than that we will buy from markets and local shops. But ethical?

Are there down sides to being green?

2011-02-18T01:32:00.000-08:00

Well... this morning I have 44 chocolatey candles to wash. I'd say that's a down side, but I'll just reward myself for being good with a slice of the (slightly waxy) but extremely yummy chocolate cake.

I Hate Waste!

2011-02-03T04:05:00.000-08:00

Those readers who know me, will know just how much I hate wasting anything. But sometimes despite our efforts it happens. I still can't believe this just happened though!

Yesterday I gave a presentation at a conference in Paris. I travelled out the night before on the Eurostar and stayed overnight near the Gare du Nord. Rather than eating alone in a restaurant which I hate, I decided to buy something at Marks and Spencer in St Pancras station to eat on the train. I like Marks and Spencer because their sandwich packaging is compostable. I have a weakness for their egg sandwiches and so along with some salad that's what I bought. BUT to my horror just as I was about to open it my sixth sense kicked in and my eye was drawn to the words 'single cream' in the ingredients. I'm horribly allergic to cream.

The fact that I was travelling to Paris to be a guest speaker at a conference pushed away my initial thoughts of 'oh well, it is probably only a little bit.' So then I wondered what I would be able to do with my uneaten sandwich. I decided I would offer it to someone sleeping rough.

This in mind as I walked the half a kilometre to my hotel, the offer was on the tip of my tongue when the first two people I passed who appeared to be sleeping rough suddenly jumped up from their sleeping bag beds spread on a low wall outside the post office and started assembling a tripod with some fairly nifty looking camera equipment.

So, I arrived at my hotel sandwich still in my possession.

Next morning I kept the sandwich to hand hoping to provide someone with a nice breakfast as I set off back to the metro to cross Paris for my conference. Just as I approached the platform there was a man sitting on a stretched out sleeping bag but I felt a little embarrassed surrounded by people and the train was just arriving. However, determined to execute my plan I stayed on the platform when the train pulled out. With no one else around to judge my behaviour as weird, I went back to the man and asked him if he would like a sandwich.

"No thank you just now, but maybe next time" he replied politely nodding his head.

'Hmm,' I thought. Maybe third time lucky?

Presentation done and on my way home I did see a few more suspects, but on the opposite platform while I was still on the metro. I retraced my journey back to the Gare du Nord and boarded the Eurostar back to St Pancras. Maybe in London I could find a grateful recipient for my M&S Sandwich? Alas no! Between St. Pancras and Paddington and then onto my local station no hungry mouths were spotted. So this morning the sandwich sits in my fridge having been to Paris and back and awaits the moment when I cut it up and feed it to the birds. I hope they are hungry!

How do you dispose of those Cool Packs for sports injuries?

2010-11-18T06:29:00.000-08:00

Does anyone know whether there is an environmentally friendly way to dispose of the cool packs such as the HypaCool Instant Cold Pack by SFA Group Ltd.?

I have two and I don't know what to do with them. I have no idea what is in them so I don't know if I can pour the contents away and recycle the plastic. I'm fed up with seeing them in my little pile of things I don't know what to do with that accumulates on my kitchen windowsill so today I've emailed the company that supplies them. In the meantime please do let me know if you can tell me what is in these packs and how to dispose of them safely.

Thanks!

Green Electricity

2010-11-10T09:49:00.000-08:00

It is many years ago now that I changed to the Power2 renewable energy plan provided by my existing electricity company, Southern Electric.

I have always made an effort to reduce the amount of electricity I use, choosing low energy light bulbs, turning off lights when we leave a room, drying my washing on a washing line rather than using the tumble dryer - you know the kind of thing.

So, a couple of years ago when my electricity provider wrote to me promoting the 'Better Plan' - a plan that rewards customers for reducing their electricity consumption year on year, I thought yes, why not?

Take a look at their website and see what you think..... Click on the tab 'Being Green', click on the tab 'Go One Step Further'. I don't think I realised that by 'going one step further' I was actually coming off my renewable electricity plan.

So I switched plan, my electricity monitor arrived and I set about consistently trying to look in to making sure I was saving electricity wherever I could. And even though I thought I was already careful about saving electricity, I managed to reduce my energy consumption by 20% in a year.

Now, I'm not knocking this altogether, because I did make those savings and it was in part down to the awareness raising that the 'Better Plan' information provided, though, I'll also point out that some of it happened by accident -

1. My kettle (a hand me down I acquired when I went to college, dare I say it, 20 years ago) blew up and we had to get a new one. Electrical items are manufactured to be more economical these days.

2. My computer was so old and slow that I decided to switch to a laptop - second hand but only a couple of years old and much whizzier than what I was making do with. Laptops use less energy than desktops.

But other little things that probably helped were trying to be more organised with the washing so that I didn't leave it languishing in the washing machine when it was finished. That way less of it needed ironing. Oh, and trying not to boil the kettle three times before I actually remembered to pour the hot water on to my tea.

So, I'm not suggesting that Better Plan isn't a good idea - rewarding people for using less electricity has to be a good idea. But, two years in to being a 'Betterplan' customer I enquired about companies that gave cash-back for the energy generated by my solar hot water system and contacted Good Energy. They did a price comparison for me and although the daily rate was lower, the unit price was just slightly higher.

Readers of this blog will probably already know that my main focus is to write about greener living that doesn't cost more than the non-green option, so at that point I decided not to change, as I thought I was on a green energy plan with my current provider. However, the nice lady I was talking to at Good Energy said, "You might like to subscribe to our news letter where we publish our prices because we constantly strive to compete and we hate it when we can't." As a parting question, she asked me if I was already on a green tariff.

"Yes," I said, and that's when I starting asking questions.

I checked the website to see if it said that Better Plan was renewable energy. It didn't. But, it did say 'Go one step further'. The person I spoke to at Southern Electric explained to me that although Better Plan wasn't renewable energy, it was green because the focus was on helping people cut down on their usage. I don't dispute that, but, I felt a little cheated.

The cynic in me thought perhaps there had been so much demand for the Power2 renewable energy tariff with the price promise of not being more expensive than conventional tariffs that they needed a ruse to get people off their renewables given that their energy mix is only 10% renewables, but surely not?

For me, one step further has to be 100% renewables, so I switched.

Making the most of that Halloween pumpkin

2010-11-01T05:57:00.000-07:00

Did you buy a pumpkin this year?

I love making Halloween lanterns with my pumpkins. But I also love eating pumpkin too. So last year when we missed out on buying a pumpkin I was disappointed not to get my annual fix. This year though, we decided to convert a tatty corner of garden that used to be a compost heap into an extra vegetable patch and we grew our own pumpkins. Not going to miss out this year!

My favourite is pumpkin soup, especially if it is a little spiced up with some chillies and ginger - it makes a lovely winter warmer. I've just had some for lunch.

Having scooped out the flesh we washed the seeds and dried them ready to plant next year. One pumpkin gives quite a lot of seeds, so I'll probably have plenty to give away. They will be ready to store by the weekend. If friends and family don't want them I'll give them to my local community shop.

Having grown our own this year we have five to use, so I'm looking up other things I can do with them. Pumpkin gratin is great and I plan to toast the seeds from the rest of the pumpkins - you don't wash them if you are toasting them as it all adds flavour

We roasted some pumpkin with Sunday lunch, but although it has a lovely sweet flavour it was a little watery. Does anyone know of any good tips for roasting? I'm sure there's a way to get a better texture.

Abundance

2010-10-21T08:48:00.000-07:00

Looking for something to do in half term? How about fruit picking?

I recently heard about a group called Abundance which arranges fruit picking for people who either can't or don't want to pick their own fruit.

You can read more about this on greenjottings.

If you know people who don't pick their fruit it is worth putting them in touch with one of these groups. They can choose to keep the fruit that has been picked for them. Unwanted fruit is then given to charity. Windfalls and damaged fruit is made into pies, crumbles, chutneys, jams and all in a good cause.

I will try to find out whether there is a nationwide list or website where people can find details of their nearest group. When I do I'll be sure to post it here but in the meantime a few groups are listed in this article in Time Out.

Wind Power for Free?

2010-10-20T04:00:00.000-07:00

I've been looking into ways of generating my own energy. The depressing thing about this is that it costs such a lot of money.

Every now and then I research the latest on micro-generation, and love the idea of wind power. I live in a windy spot on top of a hill - the only hill for several miles around. So wind power would seem to make sense. But, I know it is going to take me a long time to find the necessary information, save up the necessary money and work out whether the new 'feed-in tariff' will make this a worthwhile investment.

However, we can all be using wind power at no cost to all. How?

Just by hanging out our washing. Yes, it is October, yes it is freezing cold but I hung out some sheets and pillow cases and tea towels and dishcloths about an hour ago and they are nearly dry now.

It is not going to save mega-bucks, and by the way, you can find out how much it does save here but to me the best saving of all is that line dried clothes need far less ironing and that makes it even better.

More Packaging? Is it really necessary?

2010-09-28T04:45:00.000-07:00

I took my grandmother on a shopping trip yesterday and was tasked with looking for her face cream by Oil of Olay. She was bothered by the fact the packaging seemed different as she likes to stick to what she knows.

I was bothered by the 'new' packaging too. To my horror, in addition to the cardboard box that surrounds the pot that contains the cream, was yet another layer of packaging, a clear plastic box.

Why?

Please, someone tell me what possible reason there can be for adding yet another layer of packaging to a product. I had considered looking at their range, BUT, I've changed my mind. I refuse to buy anything that is so much more package than product.

One Man's Junk....

2010-09-15T05:29:00.001-07:00

.... is another man's treasure.

Well my local community shop certainly proves that to be true. Each year they are able to give away in excess of £10,ooo to local charities and organisations.

When I decorated my children's bedrooms several years ago, one wanted a sea theme and the other wanted a jungle theme. The community shop was just the place to make these themes come alive. I found cushions, soft toys, stick-on insects, a fish mobile, and all sorts.

My children have grown up, and the rooms have been decorated, and now look tastefully teenage. So, today, I'm taking all these things back there to the community shop, in the hope that another child will be able to have their dream jungle theme, or seascape all for the sake of a few pounds which might end up funding their Guide Camp or the next bit of park that needs a revamp.

Soap Opera

2010-08-26T05:11:00.000-07:00

If you stay in a hotel / motel kind of thing, where they have those little guest soaps, do you take with you the one that you have used?

If not, why ever not? I just wrap it back up and pop it in my wash bag. Otherwise, it is just going to get thrown away. Seems such a waste!

Composting Teabags

2010-07-15T02:09:00.000-07:00

My hubby told me, the other day, that green guru Lucy Siegle reported an alarming find that 'tea bags (the stalwarts of compost bins and wormeries) are only 70-80% compostable thanks to the polypropylene webbing on today's bags. '

My first thought was Oh shit! That's probably going to mean that 70-80% of people stop composting their tea bags. Not a good thing.

I checked out her article and her links online and dug around a little further. I found various articles suggesting you should tear open the tea bags and just compost the tea, I found several mentions that people had stopped composting their tea and equally I read that various organisations such as WRAP that are supposed to know about these things say we should carry on composting our tea bags.

My plan is to firstly use up the tea bags I have AND I will certainly be composting them, and secondly to look into what tea bags don't use plastic in their bags.

Probably the words I read that most annoyed me were these:

"Teadirect’s Whitney Kakos said: “Most consumers don't notice (the polypropylene) and probably don't care.” (reported in Beverage daily.com)

I do understand that this plastic is there for a purpose as it is to do with the heat sealing of the teabags. I do understand that people don't want to have bits floating in their tea, but I do think that there are likely some perfectly viable biodegradable options.

Manufacturers do have to respond to market pressures and it is up to consumers to speak up and speak out about what they do and don't care about.

I want my teabags to be 100% biodegradable. Do you?

Take a look at this link for a new lease of life for an old (tea) bag:)

http://www.ehow.com/facts_5243911_uses-tea-bags.html

So many bags?

2010-05-10T04:34:00.000-07:00

I am tidying out a messy cupboard today and wondering how I have so many plastic bags. It was a long time ago - several years - that I joined the growing number of people who choose to use reusable carrier bags everywhere for whatever kind of shopping they do.

In the last 6 months (because I can't remember much past that) I have accepted one new carrier bag with a big sigh as I couldn't be bothered to repeat myself having told the lady serving me that I DIDN'T NEED a bag, thank you.

So, I really don't understand how I have a cupboard that seems to be full of them. How do they all get here? Do they breed?

I have heard people say that they continue to go shopping without taking their own reusable shopping bags because they find plastic bags so useful for other things. If I am out shopping with them this is the point at which I usually try to thrust one of my spare plastic bags into their unsuspecting arms. As I pull out bag after bag from my bulging cupboard I find I just have to say that IT IS A VERY LAME EXCUSE.

I am pretty confident based on today's haul that anyone would be able safely STOP using 'single use' carrier bags now and they will still have a lifetime's supply of plastic bags. If not, they can always have some of mine!

Secret Santa

2009-12-08T02:01:00.000-08:00

Looking for ideas for your secret santa this year? A few years ago someone bought me one of those wind-up torches. It is fantastic! Finding a torch in my house used to be a nightmare. I don't need a torch very frequently and so when I did need one it would invariably have flat batteries. I have found my wind-up torch to be a great Christmas present. It is in its third year now and still going strong.

I'm sure they are widely available on the High Street, but here's a link to one from Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Proteam-EN1217-Energy-Saving-Dynamo/dp/B0015V57Z6/ref=pd_sim_lp_2. They cost just less than a fiver.

Done that already and need another idea? What about an eco-stapler? That's another thing that's really annoying. Do you ever remember when you are out and about what size staples your stapler takes? I never do, so I frequently run out. An eco stapler clips up to three pages together with a cut and fold action. Again they cost less than £5 from here: http://www.myecostore.co.uk/magic-stapleless-stapler-p-413.html but probably available on the High Street. I like these woven juice carton purses - £5 , the Elephant Dung Notecubes -£7.95 and the colouring pencils made from recycled newspaper from 'myecostore'.

Oxfam is a great place for eco-gifts for your secret santa. Take a look when you are passing or have a look at their stocking fillers page online: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/content/ethicalcollection/giftguide/stocking_fillers.html

Making money from green living

2009-12-07T11:18:00.000-08:00

I came across this great post today on saving and even making money from green living.

There are many ways that you can save money, just by spending a little, but this blog is all about the small things that cost nothing but collectively could make a big difference. On BBC Radio 5 in the UK today, this very thing was being discussed and it was suggested that governments are likely to put more effort into the bigger picture when they can see how people are making an effort with the small stuff.

Christmas Shopping

2009-12-03T00:50:00.000-08:00

I don't even like to think about Christmas shopping until December. But December is here whether I'm ready or not.

This year I want to make a more conscious effort to ensure that the presents I give don't contribute to the ever increasing landfill problem, so I've been having a good look at the packaging of everything I buy.

Yesterday, I raided the cupboard under the stairs and retrieved all the Christmas gift bags from last year ( or the year before, or the year before that maybe!). I found 15 bags. I have now bought two rolls of wrapping paper from Oxfam, made of 100% recycled paper and which can, of course, be recycled after use.

I've bought a few bottles of wine. I know that won't go to waste and most people that I know these days recycle their glass. Every ton of recycled glass used saves 1.2 tons of raw material.

I also bought some big tins of Quality Street. It tells you on the box that the outer coloured wrapper can be composted, the inner aluminium recycles just like a drinks can and of course the tin can be used again and again until it gets so battered it too needs to be recycled.

Books will certainly be featuring in my Christmas purchases - no packaging and they can be passed on to friends or charity shops when people have finished with them. If you feel bad about writers missing out on royalties when you pass on books to friends, have a look to see if they have websites where you can donate the equivalent sum of money they would have received in royalties if the book had been bought new.

Toys are always the things I'm most wary of, packaging wise and so I've decided to try and get the shopping done this week so I'm not making last minute decisions that tend to stop me from even considering what packaging surrounds the gift. Hopefully that way, too, I won't be responsible for frustrated children and parents spending hours trying to find their way into the toys through the hundred completely useless layers of plastic and cardboard wired and glued together, supposedly to make something look better than it is.

Happy shopping and Merry Christmas!

A use for broken crockery

2009-10-19T03:37:00.000-07:00

I save up broken bits of crockery in a tub in my garage and use them to put in the bottom of plant pots over the drainage holes. As we had a nice weekend I decided to get my pots ready for bringing in my geraniums. They are my favourite plant, not least because they need very little watering even in dry weather and if you bring them in to a shed or a conservatory or a cool windowsill in your house, then they will go on getting better and better, year after year.

A word of advice when you put your crock into you pots: wear a think pair of gloves so you don't cut yourself!

The kitchen compost caddy

2009-10-08T08:23:00.000-07:00

Do you hate emptying the kitchen compost caddy?

I don't like the idea of using bags in my compost. It can surely only add to the time it takes for everything to decompose and besides, you have to buy them. But I did recently try out a new trick for my compost caddy. I have found that when I empty my compost bin and rinse it out it helps if I then tear up some egg box cartons to line the bottom. I've found that whatever gloopy mess I put on top comes out more easily when I have a cardboard layer on the bottom, making the emptying job much easier and the caddy needs less rinsing.

Bags of Life!

2009-09-29T11:21:00.000-07:00

I stumbled upon a fantastic local campaign today when I was out shopping. I bought a few things for my daughter’s birthday party and as I was paying I came out with my usual, ‘It’s okay thanks, I’ve got my own bag,’ at which point I was handed a little voucher.

‘Don’t bring my life to an end. Re-use me!’ was the slogan and a cheeky little picture of a polythene bag, bright eyed was pleading to be saved from the dreaded landfill.

It turns out that several of the shops on the high street have joined in a campaign with local schools to give out these vouchers to people whenever they refuse a bag. The vouchers can then be handed in to local participating schools and there’s a competition to see which schools collect the most with environmentally friendly prizes for the most successful.

A visit to the OTCN website shows this is just one of a number of schemes being run across the county aiming to reduce the number of plastic bags produced and thrown away. It is all too easy to forget that plastic bags are made from natural gas or oil, precious resources we can’t just keep throwing away.

Bottle tops

2009-09-16T05:01:00.001-07:00

I checked out with my local recycling people today and found out that, yes, we can put metal and plastic bottle tops in our curb-side recycling boxes*. I delved a little further and found out that the best thing to do is to collect them up into a can – for steel caps use a steel food can such as a baked bean tin - then squash the can with the tops inside it so they can't fall out. This apparently helps to make sure they are efficiently recycled and don't get in amongst other materials such as paper and plastics. I'm told it helps not to have small bits of materials (of any kind) on their own as they fall through the holes in the separation process and end up being dealt with as mixed "fines" which are either land-filled or incinerated.

I also enquired at a local craft supplies place – they turn scrap into art and craft materials – and they take metal beer bottle tops there. So, if your local council don't collect them maybe you could find a place like this near you.

* Your local authority may have a different policy so, if in doubt just email them and ask.

Plastic Bag Recycling

2009-09-14T05:26:00.001-07:00

Did you know that......?

'Flat plastic bags are hard to remove from paper and are easily contaminated by the leftover liquids in beverage containers. If plastic bags are to be collected in a program, residents should be required to place the bags within other bags and only set out full bags,not loose individual ones.' Source:
http://www.conservatree.com/learn/SolidWaste/BestPracticesManual021407.pdf

You may have noticed that larger branches of Sainsbury have plastic bag recycling facilities. In my local branch it is situated just inside the main door, rather than at the recycling point. Have you also noticed that on a lot of plastic bags that form the packaging e.g. of fruit and vegetables Sainsbury now print 'Recyclable at larger branches of Sainsbury'?

I try to buy fruit and vegetables without packaging, but I find this is not always practical. When I do have plastic bags from such packaging I check they are clean and store them for reuse. I use them for wrapping sandwiches and storing garden produce in the fridge or freezer. I haven't had to buy food bags for over a year as even though I try to minimise the packaging I acquire from shopping it provides me with enough bags for whatever I need.

I did wonder if my children would complain at having their sandwiches packed in an apple bag or the film from bread rolls – children are always so conscious these days of how things look – but they don't. I conclude that it must fit with the new eco-chic.

As these bags are only intended for single use, I only re-use them once or twice. I then rinse them and collect them into a largish plastic wrapper which has fulfilled its reuse already, then take them with me a couple of times a month to put in the recycling container at Sainsbury.

Does anyone know of other supermarkets that have similar recycling materials? My intention is to promote waste reduction, not Sainsbury, but I just happen to live near one. I'll be on the look-out if I am out and about elsewhere but please let me know of similar facilities in your area.

Thanks.

Rosie

Charity Shop Chic(k)

2009-09-09T10:10:00.001-07:00

I have two children, and children are constantly growing out of clothes, toys, books, games. I take all the grown-out-of goodies to my local community shop. This community shop gives out grants to various organisations. In the two full years that it has been running as a community shop it has given out £14,000 each year to local organisations such as the pre-school, the school, the Brownies, the cricket club, the playground, and many more. It is a fantastic resource for our village.

I have been making environmentally conscious decisions about what I purchase for a while now. Like most people, though, I feel I have been taking it a step at a time. I decided that over the coming year I'm going to change the way I shop for clothes. I felt that I hadn't really, up to now, checked out the ethics and sustainability of the clothes I buy. Time to change all that. From now on, I will make a point of thinking about where clothes have travelled from, what the lives of the people who make those clothes are like, who benefits from my purchase and who and what suffers from it.

I was out for the day with a friend in a nearby town last week and strolling down the quaint high street we spotted a shop called 'Resource'. The name caught my eye and we had a look. The shop was a 'fifty/fifty' style second hand shop where you can take along your quality second hand clothing and if the shop can sell the item they give you fifty percent of the sales price. I parted with twenty pounds for a lovely designer skirt. I'll admit I have no idea who benefitted or who suffered from the original purchase, but I did feel that as I was reusing resources it was a move in the right direction.

A skirt needs something to wear with it and a rummage through my wardrobe came up with nothing, so the next time I was out on an errand I checked out the nearest charity shop. For the grand sum of £3.75 I bought two designer label tops to go with my new skirt.

As my attention had been turned to charity shop clothing I decided it was time I checked something out that had been at the back of my mind for some time. I remember seeing an advert in the window of Oxfam advertising that they'd give you a £5 Marks & Spencer voucher if you brought in a bag of clothing or soft furnishings (towels, sheets, curtains, etc) containing a Marks and Spencer item. Sounds great, doesn't it. So what's the catch, I thought? I had several bags of children's clothes to take to my local community shop. However, there is an Oxfam in my nearest town, so I kept one bag back which contained a Marks and Spencer children's dressing gown amongst other bits and pieces and I took it along to Oxfam today. It was gratefully accepted and I was given my £5 voucher. The voucher can be used on clothing, home and beauty products when you spend £35 pounds or more. Fair enough, I thought. However, it is only valid between 1^st and 30^th of September 2009. Well, a fiver won't even cover the bus fare to my nearest Marks and Spencer and as I don't have a trip planned before the end of the month it is most unlikely I'll get to use my £5 voucher. Ah well! There had to be a catch.

But of course, forewarned, you'll know to hang on to your charity shop bag until you know what you're going to redeem your voucher on and when (or you could just enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that your unwanted items are being given a new lease of life and helping relieve poverty – there's no catch to that bit).

Where do you recycle your printer cartridges?

2009-07-30T10:49:00.001-07:00

According to the Centre for Alternative Technology's July bulletin, printer cartridges account for about 15,000 tonnes of waste plastic and metal in the UK. Many could be recycled and reused, reducing landfill, saving raw materials and minimising CO2 emissions

They say that if you would like to help, you can send your used ink cartridges and mobile phones to "Centre for Alternative Technology, Empty Printer Cartridge & Mobile Phone Appeal, Freepost Nat 16879, Po Box 575, Ipswich, IP8 4WR" or call them on 0845 330 4593 to receive some Freepost envelopes.

You can also recycle your printer cartridges with the RSPB here or with Traidcraft here or with the RNIB here to name but a few. Why not check out your favourite charity to see if they do a recycling scheme and then set up a recycling box at your school or workplace.

Of course the other side of the equation is buying recycled printer cartridges. So, where can you do that?

Lasertech, a UK printer cartridge manufacturer, reuse the outer shell of their printer cartridges saving on landfill and saving on raw materials. They have a returns facility for empty cartridges.

Choice Stationery send a recycling envelope with all their cartridges and ask customers to return their empties to them.
They also supply 'Think' Inkjet cartridges which are recycled. These are available for Epson, Canon, HP, Lexmark, Brother, Dell and Xerox. I've used these myself and they are 100% guaranteed. inkcycle also offer a 100% guarantee and take back the cartridges.

So next time think before you order your ink and let's try to reduce the estimated 30 million empty inkjet cartridges that get thrown away into landfill every year in the UK alone.

Does excessive packaging affect your purchasing decisions?

2009-06-12T10:26:00.001-07:00

Yeo Valley Organic
claims to have saved 109 tonnes of unnecessary packaging from its products in the 12months from January 2008. They have reduced the amount of plastic used in their pots, increased the amount of packaging which is made from recycled material and removed all avoidable cardboard sleeves. Read more.

I have recently bought the Waitrose organic natural live bio yoghurt which does have a removable cardboard sleeve which is recyclable and the pot and lid are stated as recyclable too. This is certainly a move in the right direction, for people like me who are obsessed with reducing waste, particularly waste that gets sent to land-fill. According to online industry magazine DairyReporter.Com a spokesperson for the group suggests that the future of its ongoing green commitments may lie beyond pack reductions, particularly in development of compostable alternatives.

Do excessive packaging, recyclability or compostability affect your purchasing decisions?

At last an eco tip that saves effort too!

2009-06-06T06:11:00.001-07:00

Here's the kind of handy hint I like. Reading the Homeserve customer magazine I came across this:

"Don't spend ages washing paint brushes if you're going to be using them again tomorrow. Just wrap them tightly in clingfilm so they don't dry out and carry on with the job the next day."

Well, I wouldn't use clingfilm personally, as I feel that is using new resources needlessly. But a bit of plastic film packaging that, hard as I try, I don't seem to be able to avoid, did the trick perfectly well, even though it was quite the next day that I went back to the painting. As I paint today with my unwashed brushes I think of all that water and energy (I mean my own) that I've saved. So what am I doing writing this, when I should be getting on with the decorating? Well, you know what they say about watching paint dry....

Be Nice to Nettles

2009-05-21T06:59:00.001-07:00

Hey folks! It's 'Be Nice to Nettles Week'. Well, in a way, I'm being nice to nettles this week as I'm decorating. That means I haven't got time to go out into the garden and wage war on all those nettles that are taller than I am. I'm always relieved to hear people say how important it is to keep a patch of nettles in a garden as nettles are so vital for a range of wildlife, but in my garden most of the time the word patch would better describe the nettle free zone. I do have the odd patch of garden that nettles have not yet taken over.

It was only recently, however, that I found out about 'Be Nice to Nettles Week'. There is a wealth of information about these useful plants at http://www.nettles.org.uk/. I'm going to celebrate 'Be Nice to Nettles' week by trying out nettle quiche.

After the feast

2009-04-30T07:01:00.001-07:00

My blog has been sadly neglected of late, due mostly for the need to meet the deadline for my latest university assignment. But that done, I have no excuse for not getting down to the other neglected task of late... the housework. Uhh!

Task number one was to take two bulging bags of too small clothes (not mine – I haven't had time to eat Easter Eggs) to my local community shop. Task two, to take another two bulging bags – this time Tetrapaks – to the Tetrapak collection point in the car park near the centre of town.

Task three is to tackle the pile of packaging produced from this year's Easter Eggs. Before Easter I was pleasantly surprised to read about the efforts some companies are making to reduce packaging. But after the feast I find that this is by no means universal. I noticed that Nestlé's Smarties egg (211g) proudly announces the 'Same size egg, 25% Less packaging, No plastic' which gets my vote, but then why couldn't they do the same for their After Eight egg?

I popped a Cadbury 'Creme Egg' 197g on my kitchen scales to find it weighs in at 264g. Of the 264 grams, 24 grams is the moulded plastic insert, 40 grams is the cardboard box. I'm guessing that makes 3 grams of foil. When it is all packed up, you can barely see what you are actually buying – the Easter egg inside. I estimate that of the 26 cms in height of the cardboard box at least 6 cms of that is just air.

But really, the worst thing about the abundance of packaging was, for me, summed up when I asked my children why their Easter egg chocolate hangs around for so long.

"It's not that nice. It tastes of plastic."

I'm sure quality control is of high importance to chocolate manufacturers, and taste must surely be top of the list. But do they ever bother to taste their products after they've been in their packaging for a few weeks? I guess not.

Put your drains on a diet

2009-03-13T05:42:00.001-07:00

I went to meet a friend at a café today. She asked me why I always took my napkin with me. Well...

Some time last Autumn I remember reading about the millions of pounds water companies are spending clearing sewers blocked by fat, oil and grease from cooking. In the article it suggested wiping grease and fat from pans before washing them. So, thinking that I'd rather have those millions redeployed for flood defences, river de-silting, ditch clearance and general improvements to the infrastructure I decided to do my bit to make sure I wasn't adding to the fat problem.

It is good for the compost to add paper products regularly, so after spooning out any hard fat to put out for the birds, I would wipe round the pan with kitchen roll. I also started saving paper napkins that we sometimes use - rather than throwing them in the compost, I put them into a basket at the side of the compost and so I generally had one available when I needed to wipe the grease off something. This saved on kitchen roll, but we don't use napkins very often at home.

When out and about I started to take napkins home with me if they were barely used – or even there just to look pretty! What's going to happen to it when they clear your cup / plate away? It will probably be thrown in a bin. So I think it is good to make your napkin work a little harder.

Okay I will admit to a few blushing moments when going to retrieve something from my handbag and finding the last lot of napkins still in there!

Beat the Credit Crunch

2009-02-27T06:18:00.001-08:00

Are you trying to cut food bills? These credit crunch tips will help you cut down on food waste as well as helping you to save money.

Plan meals before you shop and only buy what you need, not forgetting to plan for when you might use leftovers, eat out or with friends.
Take shopping bags with you. Some supermarkets are starting to charge for bags, others give you loyalty card points for re-using your own bags.
Don't forget to take bags you can use for fruit and vegetables. Loose fruit and vegetables are often cheaper and you can buy the quantity you really need.
Use up leftovers.
Put out peelings, apple cores, bread crumbs, bacon rind, and fat for the birds.
Make your own compost from kitchen and garden waste.
Grow your own herbs.
Go shopping with a friend and share those buy one get one free offers.

Fairtrade Fortnight 2009

2009-02-23T10:24:00.001-08:00

The Fairtrade Foundation has announced Fairtrade Fortnight 2009, launched on London's South Bank on 22 February.

The theme this year is "Make it Happen – Choose Fairtrade".

Ethical Superstore have put together an A-Z of all things Fairtrade: See it here.

Lucy Siegle asks whether buying fair trade is a waste of money. It is always tempting to ask what difference do my actions actually make in the grand scheme of things? Last week Nicky Campbell was asking if we are all too grumpy to be green.

It is a worry that people are going to use the 'credit crunch' as an excuse to give up on any attempt to be green. I have already heard many people talk about recycling being stockpiled because prices have dropped. Some are talking about that being reason in itself to just bin their rubbish rather than recycling. I disagree.

Fair-trade products are often more expensive than other products, but I plan to keep buying. In my view there shouldn't be unfair trade, but there is. Maybe, my actions make very little difference in the global scheme of things, but I plan to keep trying.

Eco Valentines

2009-02-10T12:49:00.000-08:00

The Energy Saving Trust have some great ideas for going green this Valentine's Day. And once again, these ideas show that going green is often a way to beat the Credit Crunch.

Water

2009-01-22T02:38:00.001-08:00

Water is something that in many parts of the world is seen as the most precious commodity. Yet in the UK, often we take it for granted. Be honest, how many times have you poured away water that you've taken out with you on a trip or taken up to bed with you and not drunk?

A while ago it occurred to me that I could be using this water rather than pouring it down the sink.

I found an old plastic watering can – the kind that was used for watering houseplants – and I keep this on the windowsill by the sink. So now when I take bottles of water out school bags and sports bags or glasses of water from around the house I tip the water into the watering can rather than down the sink.

I use this water to rinse the sink and to rinse out glass bottles and other packaging for the recycling. Best of all, when the watering can is full I use this as my cue to water my houseplants. They are looking a lot healthier since I introduced this new system, which probably goes to show just how much water we used to waste.

A Hole New Font

2009-01-12T01:27:00.001-08:00

A friend sent me this link today. http://www.ecofont.eu/ecofont_en.html

This got me thinking about printing in general.

I try to print as little as possible – to save paper and ink, but I hadn't really thought about my printer settings. I often print things for proof reading in best quality, whereas I could use draft.

Testing out the ecofont!

New Year’s Resolution

2009-01-03T11:48:00.001-08:00

This time last year we decided to get rid of our rubbish bin. It was feeling a little sad and underused already so we gave it flash label "Plastic Recycling" and bought it a friend "Metal Recycling". In addition to this we had a basket for burnable rubbish, a compost bin, various containers to collect bits to put out for the birds, and the bottles collect in a cupboard until someone can be bothered to carry them out to the kerbside collection bin.

Okay, we do get some funny looks when someone asks "where's your bin?" but we are all getting used to saying that we don't have one.

Feeling smug that we had no rubbish, I felt tempted to ask for an extra recycling bin. However, I realised that was probably not the answer. Just as rubbish has a cost, so does recycling, and the thing that is going to drive manufacturers to reduce packaging is consumer demand. So, as a consumer, I decided that I was going to demand less packaging. Most shop assistants no longer give me strange looks when I insist on using my own bag, or plonk my fruit and veg bagless at the till (though I draw the line at sprouts!). I have managed to cut down the amount of packaging I produce for recycling.

However, the sin I plan to attack in 2009 is the food waste.

I have a compost, a wormery and I feed the birds with my food waste, which is better than it going in the bin. I already plan for leftovers to be used as much as I can but I think there is still room for improvement. So among my New Year's Resolutions this year is to focus on food waste.

Want to join me? Have a look at Love Food Hate Waste for some ideas.

How do you charge your mobile phone?

2008-12-23T11:36:00.001-08:00

Ofcom report some interesting findings in their UK Communications Market Review 2008.

The report tells us that :

"Although nearly three-quarters of consumers (72%) say that they care about the environment and take it into account in their personal lives, only 39% say that they compare environmentally-friendly aspects when purchasing communications devices."

The report suggest this may be because less than a third of consumers think it is easy to compare energy use of different devices. Ofcom say that Energy Saving Labels are an important way of trying to improve customer knowledge about efficiency, but 50% of consumers say they are not aware of energy labels.

The report says that " only 30% are aware of the obligation for retailers to take back and recycle old equipment free of charge when purchasing a new device under the Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment Directive, and only 7% appear to have taken advantage of this."

Source: Ofcom (2008), UK Communications Market Review 2008: Interactive Key Points available at: http://comment.ofcom.org.uk/cmr08/

Their findings also show that many consumers use unnecessary power by charging their mobile phones up overnight, not switching off broadband wireless routers when they are not in use, and not switching off Television set-top boxes.

I try to charge my mobile phone in the car using energy produced as a by-product. My children tell me they no longer charge up their phones overnight since they realised how much energy this wastes. However, my first New Year's Resolution for 2009 must be to turn off my router. Next on my hit list will be the Sky Box. Problem is I don't understand how it works – how many of us say that though, and it is no excuse. So 2009 will be the year in which I find out exactly when the Sky Box needs to be on and when it doesn't. It is not going to rule my life anymore – I will pull that plug.

Have a look at this:

Ofcom UK CMR 2008 Charts

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: ofcom uk)

Stocking Fillers

2008-12-12T03:41:00.001-08:00

I was thinking about Stocking Fillers this Christmas.

It is fun to open lots of little Christmas presents in our Christmas Stockings. Like me, you are probably being bombarded with emails about cheap stuff you can buy your loved ones this Christmas.

I am going to think about one thing when I buy my stocking fillers this year: where will the stocking fillers end up?

If it is something that will provide 5 minutes of fun and can then be passed on and on and on, then I guess that's ok. But is anyone going to want it? Is it really just going to end up in landfill by the end of March? Perhaps it will go via the Charity Shop in an attempt to appease your conscience – but landfill is landfill, rubbish is rubbish.

Have a look at The Story of Stuff!

I think these would make good stocking fillers though: http://www.recycline.com/toothbrush.html

All Wrapped Up

2008-12-05T09:16:00.001-08:00

I'm sure lots of people have been out buying Christmas cards and wrapping paper this week.

I like the range at Oxfam.

What I like about it most is that it is made from recycled materials and can be recycled again after use. The clear label tells me the wrapping paper I chose was made from 100% recycled paper. It also asks "When you have finished with this wrap please recycle it."

The Christmas cards told me they were printed on 50% recycled paper and FSC sourced wood pulp. What is more, the packaging is scant but robust with no plastic wrap.

Perfect!

Litter

2008-11-17T15:06:00.001-08:00

It costs nothing to take your litter home.

Freecycle It

2008-10-31T06:12:00.001-07:00

Freecycle is a great way to turn your rubbish into someone else's treasure. Found at www.Freecycle.co.uk this Internet based group has local branches so that people can give away unwanted items in their local area. In the past year I have parted with off-cuts of lead flashing, a big box of outgrown art materials, some large plant pots, a spare kettle, some black paint, a rickety pasting table and an old Dyson that I had stopped using because it was too heavy for me.

I have also parted with a television which although it worked some of the time, it didn't always turn on straight away. No-one in my household had the skills to fix it but someone locally who didn't have a television, gratefully picked it up from me. He thought he might be able to fix it, but even if he didn't he felt it would be better than nothing. We had been using it for over a year in the same state. Why would someone want to take on something that doesn't work?

Well, firstly, some people have the skills to fix things. Some people love trying to fix things even if they don't succeed. Some people just don't like the "I can't afford it at the moment, so I'll buy it on credit" culture.

The first television I owned was given to me by a work colleague who was getting a better one. This television also cut out at odd times. We used to joke that it would wait until the most dramatic moments to switch off, but we still used it for three years and then gave it away to someone else.

So before you bin anything at all, it is worth considering whether someone else may be able to make use of it. I have seen requests for old carpet for allotments, broken electrical items for spare parts, and amazing array of weird wants for fancy dress parties or theatre groups. There really doesn't seem to be anything that can't be re-homed this way. (Oh, except naughty children!)

Last night’s curry

2008-10-20T09:58:00.001-07:00

I used to be one of many who felt the need to plan every meal for my family. I thought that in doing this I would make sure I only bought the food I needed, so saving money and saving waste. But I have come to realise that I can take an extra step.

Even though I planned meals, tried to only buy what I felt we needed in the quantities we needed it, I still found that I would end up wasting a shameful amount of what I bought. It is all very well carefully storing your leftovers in the fridge or freezer, but what is the point if we are just going to throw it away a few days, a few months, a year later?

I now plan into my week at least two 'unplanned' days. These unplanned days are the times when we will eat up leftovers, use up something from the freezer or get creative with anything that needs using up before it goes out of date.

The Lovefoodhatewaste website tells us that if we all stop wasting food that could have been eaten, the CO2 impact would be the equivalent of taking 1 in 5 cars off the road. I like the sound of that. I also like the fact that in times like these, when everyone is saying their food bills have rocketed, it is a great way to save money too.

The humble sandwich

2008-10-16T12:42:00.001-07:00

I was on a course today and arrived early in order to help someone with a computer problem. In return for my help he offered to buy me lunch. It felt rude to refuse and besides, even I will admit , it is not very hip to eat last night's leftover tea served out of an old ice cream tub in public. So I accepted the invitation and we went to Marks and Spencer for sandwiches (this was a working lunch).

I noticed that all the sandwiches were packaged in cardboard with a cellulose window made from 100% natural plant material.

Having eaten our sandwiches I folded my sandwich packet flat put it in my bag and suppressed the blush when my colleague commented on my 'strange' behaviour. I explained that I would take the packaging home to compost it.

Composts need a combination of green material, such as kitchen waste and brown material such as paper and cardboard so the sandwich package makes a good contribution to my compost heap or my wormery.

Before putting the packing in my compost caddy I read the recycling information and noticed the website link www.recyle-PlanA.com which gives lots of useful tips about recycling and composting, including how to set up your own office recycling scheme.

Eggcetera

2008-10-13T14:38:00.001-07:00

Did you know that you can use the water from boiling eggs for watering your plants? The water will contain valuable nutrients from the eggs that the plants will appreciate.

Recession Buster

2008-10-08T03:21:00.001-07:00

In an attempt to reduce the number of miles we travel taxiing our children to and from their afterschool activities we decided to eat out in the hour and a half we had between dropping off one child and picking up another. So we picked a nearby hotel / restaurant which we knew did good, reasonably priced food.

When we checked with the landlord if he was serving food the reply was 'sort of'. He went on to explain that he really wasn't busy enough on a Monday and Tuesday evening to employ a chef so there was just him on his own to do everything. So he had set up a new initiative. On Monday and Tuesday nights he was serving what he called a "builders' supper" for the overnight guests. His guests would 'get fed' but they would 'get what they were given' so on the Monday night he had served cold beef, cold pork, bubble and squeak and salad to use up the meat and veg left over from Sunday's carvery. Last night's offering was spaghetti bolognaise served with garlic bread and it was going to be ready in fifteen minutes. Perfect! The upside for his guests was that it was just £5 a head. "And that," he said. "... is my recession buster."

Out came two large bowls – one of spaghetti, one of bolognaise - a smaller bowl with freshly grated parmesan and a bread basket piled high with garlic bread. The plates were in a pile by the side and everyone helped themselves to what they wanted and went back for more when they wanted. Delicious!

With the price of fuel these days and the hike in food prices I thought we probably couldn't have driven home and back and cooked spaghetti bolognaise for much less than £10. With the spotlight we've had earlier in the year on the 4 million tonnes of food wasted in the UK every year initiatives like these should be praised. Next week I will probably be eating pasta salad served out of an old ice-cream tub in the car reading my book, but I think before long I'll be back for a builder's supper.

Bags more

2008-10-02T12:56:00.001-07:00

When I went for a swim today I thought about how many people take a new plastic bag for their wet swimwear each time they visit.

I used to find that I was forever forgetting to put the plastic bag back with my gym bag. I had to make a conscious effort to think about putting the bag back each time, but I'm getting there!

Bag that news spot

2008-10-01T00:48:00.001-07:00

From today Sainsbury's are removing their free plastic bags from the checkouts in the hope of encouraging bag re-use. Read more

Back in February this year Marks and Spencer introduced a 5p charge for plastic bags for their food shoppers.

Most supermarkets offer the 'Bag for Life' plastic bags which generally cost 10p the first time you buy one but can then be replaced for free when they wear-out.

I guess the problem is the spur of the moment purchases when you are out and about and just think of something. I always carry a couple of the old style carrier bags (because they fold up so small) and a 'bag for life' in my handbag. Each time I unpack the bag it goes straight back in my handbag. It has probably taken me about six months to get properly in the habit of doing this but I feel all these little changes in habit add up.

Supermarkets are now also giving customers loyalty card points for bag re-use. It pays to remember your bags.

Go Bananas

2008-09-30T08:57:00.001-07:00

Did you know? All bananas sold in Sainsbury's are now Fairtrade.

It is hardly surprising that they are announcing a 5% increase in banana sales (35 million bananas) since the switch to Fairtrade. Read More

A few times recently I've found myself in other supermarkets and of course they sell Fairtrade bananas too, but more often than not they are in a plastic bag.

I'm not for one minute suggesting that bananas are particularly green, although most seem to be these days especially when you're hungry and you want to buy one to eat now, but they are nice – when they're not green – and so I do buy them. I just like the fact that when I'm in Sainsbury's I don't have to think about whether they are Fairtrade or not as I know they only sell Fairtrade bananas now.

The main thing is though, why do they have to be in a plastic bag? We are going to peel them anyway so it isn't a hygiene thing.

Talking of which, how do you dispose of your banana peel?

I use my banana peel to fertilise my roses. A tip my mother-in-law gave me, when I noticed how perfect her roses looked. Just lay the banana peel on top of the soil around the base of your rose. I guess it is the potassium the bananas like. Takes seconds, costs nothing.

500 Trees

2008-09-27T10:41:00.001-07:00

I read recently that it takes 500 trees to absorb the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide that is emitted when a PC is left on all day over the period of a year, so switch it off when not in use.

So many people leave their computers on when they are not using them because of the amount of time it takes to load them up when they do want to use them.

You can cut down the amount of time your pc takes to load by having a good look at what you are loading automatically at startup. Many computers load more than one virus checker, when just one is sufficient - even if you want to have another one available it doesn't have to load every time you switch on. Do you really need to load MSN or iTunes for example every time you turn your computer on?

New EU laws for Recycling Batteries

2008-09-26T01:42:00.001-07:00

BBC News reported this morning that Britons will be expected to recycle far more batteries under a new European law which is coming into effect. The EU batteries directive requires that an eighth of all portable domestic batteries sold are recycled by 2012, rising to a fifth by 2016. At the moment only 3% of batteries in the UK are recycled and the government will now be expected to ensure the necessary facilities are in place. Read full article

Our local council run kerbside collection takes batteries for recycling. They ask that batteries are kept separate from other recyclables within your recycling box.

This whole issue, though, made me wonder why we don't always use rechargeable batteries and this led to thoughts about the environmental impact of disposable versus recyclable batteries. Think I might do some research.

Last year I bought one of these Freeloader gizmos. It was quite expensive and I have hardly used it. Most of the time I can't seem to find the right attachment to charge what I need and annoyingly neither of my children's mobile phones would connect to it despite the multitude of adapters. But perhaps it is time to give it another try. Are there any success stories about these things?

Night Visitor

2008-09-25T13:06:00.001-07:00

Well I certainly never dreamt I'd be posting this!

My turn to do the lift share to football training. Rounding the last corner, we could see there was something looming in the middle of the road. As we approached we saw it was two badgers scrapping. As we edged forward gradually, they both looked up at us and ran up the lane. We followed slowly, expecting them to dart off into the hedge. They headed on up the lane, not seeming too worried that we were following them. Every now and then they stopped to resume the scrap.

One then swung a left and disappeared through the hedge but the other carried on running down the middle of the road looking like it had a firm idea of where it was going. On and on it went, until it too eventually turned off the lane - into our driveway!

101 ways to reduce your carbon footprint for free

2008-09-25T02:02:00.001-07:00

As I was being 'dissed' yet again for my recycling habits, I came up with the idea of putting together a list of 101 ways to reduce your carbon footprint for free. Free? Yes, absolutely free.

I thought I'd have no trouble coming up with hundreds of little things that we could all do that would be more environmentally friendly but didn't cost a penny. Surely it would be a doddle!

Well, it wasn't.

The ridiculous thing about « going green » is that it so often costs more than not being green. It costs more in terms of time and effort, and all too often, it costs more in terms of hard cash.

There may well be lots of things with long-term savings, but realistically, for many of us on this planet cash-flow comes first. It is the initial spend that we think about, rather than the long-term cost saving.

This, to me, is an important issue governments face that they could do something about but don't. Would it really be that hard to structure all taxation, vat and so on, to always favour the green option?

That said, the list is growing …..