A return

 Dear sadly neglected ecoblog... 

I'm returning for a few days. I've always used writing to get through my stresses. I've written a whole (almost secret) novel to get over bereavement - losing my mother only a few years into adulthood. You, my dear friend, Rosie's Ecoblog, have helped me get through many years of feeling bit of a loner in the big bad world of trash. When I started writing on this platform, not many people gave a thought to what happened to our waste, and nobody cared that we were wrapping up our whole lives in plastic, disposing of it willy, nilly and trashing this far earth in the process. 13 years on and things are different. 

I'm not sure I can quite use that important phrase, known as normative language, "most people", but certainly many people are now listening. My message, that I've persevered with and now turned into a business, is now being listened to, and people are wanting to join in, in droves, with the Zero Waste Lifestyle, I've be living and writing about for so more than a decade.

Most of my blogging now goes onto the Zero Waste Week blog, and most of the time, I leave the blogging to my Partner in Grime, Rachelle Strauss. I do the talking, she does the social media. We work well that way. 

Over the next few days, I'm returning to this blog, because a) the whole world doesn't read it - unlike Zero Waste Week and b) it might veer off topic slightly. I'm going to blog my experiences of a Zero Waster doing 10 days in quarantine. What we eat, and what we waste will be the biggest part, no doubt, but I'm also going to be mindful about the mental health aspects of quarantine and the word claustrophobia might feature occasionally too.

Almost two years ago, I moved from Oxfordshire in the UK, to Rheinland Pfalz in Germany. Last November I travelled back to the UK, to visit my family, and ended up staying for Lockdown 2. Then it transpired that things weren't getting any better and the Christmas booking in my house in Oxfordshire, that's now a holiday home, got cancelled so I snapped it up for myself. We normally have lots of family to visit over the Christmas period, but we were only allowed very limited guests and only for Christmas Day, but it was lovely being there with Dad and both daughters - home from uni for a while. Then,  a few days before we planned to travel back to Germany, Boris told us firmly that we weren't going anywhere. Essential travel only. Swapping one home office in one country for a home office in another country didn't feel essential, so we had a couple of months more camping out in our holiday home. But then the summons came, and we were informed that we have to turn up for a meeting in person in Germany to arrange, anew - post Brexit, our residency. Hence, yesterday we travelled back to Germany, armed with this document and that document and our negative copied test results and today is Day One of Quarantine. Okay, let's not go into the logic of a negative test - then quarantine. I handed my passport to a border force officer and he handed it back to me. I sanitised my hands straight after. I picked up some packaged food at the Eurotunnel  - could have been covered in cover virus! Anyway, we all have to do this. We are all in it together - one world, one big problem. Maybe it will teach us some powerful tools, so we can realise we can take action together for big issues. Then we can take action together for the climate crisis.

So here I go,  quarantine day one - dear Rosie. I'll keep you posted on how I get on.

The image shows the view from the window next to my desk. Can you just see that tower on top of that beautiful hill? In ten days time when I can next set foot outside my flat, this is the first place I want to go. 

Zero Waste Week 2019

We are already on Day 2 of Zero Waste Week and I just realised I forgot to post here.

For several years now I have had a behind the scenes role for Zero Waste Week, whether editing emails, contributing ideas or just amplifying the campaign at my talks and workshops or on this blog.

I now have a full-on role as Rachelle Strauss' "Partner-in-grime" offering consultancy as well as talks and workshops to help businesses and organisations embed the #ZeroWasteWeek ethos themselves.

So my usually musings as I take part in Zero Waste Week myself have moved to the Zerowasteweek.co.uk website. Please do join the conversation there.

Here is the link!

Do you want to be a Waste Warrior?

I was at the opening of an exhibition in our local village history archive, and someone said to me:

"How does it feel now that the rest of the world is catching up with you?"

He had interviewed me for a Food and Drink programme on local television. That's how he knew about my "one bin a year" waste habit and like many people, he always takes the opportunity to tell me what he's managed to change to reduce his waste.

It does really feel like we are nearing the tipping point, thanks probably to the brilliant effect of the BBC's Blue Planet 2, but perhaps also the growing number of Waste Warriors like me who are talking, blogging and chatting to people about how they've reduced their waste. I really do feel that soon my one bin a year lifestyle could become  the "new Normal"!

While I was busy making some films about how to reduce food waste over Christmas, and writing a new Zero Waste campaign guide for schools, my partner in grime Rachelle Strauss was downloading her own zero waste expertise into a fantastic new Waste Warriors course - a series of podcasts that help you take action to gradually get from where you are to where we are in a month (well, that's if you do the 5 minutes a day, every day). Of course, the FOMO kicked in and I had to do the course myself to experience it and to check that I was doing everything I could to be the best waste warrior I can be.

Did I learn anything? Have I made any changes as a result? Given that the course is based on the many discussions that Rachelle and I have had over the 5 years we've worked together, I knew that I'd be doing most of the things she would be suggesting. And of course I was. You can't live on one bin a year without doing most of them.

But yes, I did make some changes.

Firstly, the course raised the issue of plastic in tea bags.  In 2015, when my family did our year without single use plastic packaging, we swapped the tea bags for loose leaf tea that we bought straight into our own containers. The shop I bought from at the time has sadly closed down, but I can now buy loose-leaf tea in Whittards. Back then my reason for changing to loose-leaf tea was because so many tea brands wrapped their cardboard boxes in film plastic - or even more annoying to me, put their tea bags inside a non recyclable silver bag (made of mixed materials - hence too hard to recycle). But I had no idea back then that tea bags themselves were sealed using plastic.  In fact it was only last year that Garden Organics changed their advice from saying that you can compost tea bags, to suggesting that you don't compost them at home, because of this plastic content.

Anyway, thanks to the waste warriors course I've gone back to drinking loose leaf tea - and, do you know what? It is soooo much nicer!

Another thing that the course pushed me to do is to tackle my growing mountain of things that could be given away and therefore put back into use instead of lurking in "Harry Potter's Bedroom" (everyone has one of those, right?).  My Dad had two discarded fleeces that he gave me to dispose of as I saw fit. I washed them, but they still came out covered in those sticky things from the garden and the silky strands that cobwebs turn into when you wash them.

I got out the ironing board and clothes brush and while I was listening to an audio book, I painstakingly went over every inch of the fleece to remove these sticky bits and now it is ready for the charity shop. I still have the other one to do, but I'm starting tonight.

Change number 3, is the decision to pick up more litter. I go running. Never as often I would like, but I do manage to get out there occasionally. My new habit is to run past my house for a certain distance and then walk back picking up the litter I see on the way.

This is today's haul. I'll wash and recycle all of this in the various schemes I use. Better than it staying in the hedge and finding its way to the ocean one day.


So, if you feel like you're ready to be a waste warrior, or you're already one like me but just want to take it to the next level, I do recommend the course. Here's the link.

What a waste!

I was out jogging just now and picked up this from the verge!

I couldn't believe that someone is not willing to share their teabags, yet they are prepared to let them rot on the roadside. A sad waste.

There seems to be more and more rubbish on our roadsides these days and the problem is getting worse not better, I feel.  It is not just packaging that has gone crazy, but our whole attitude that we can just throw something away and not worry about it any more. More than ever this year, I want to do my bit to minimise waste, encourage others to do the same and to be really strict with supporting companies who are making the change to a circular economy.

That's my wish for 2019.

To help me maximise this target I've signed up to Rachelle Strauss' Waste Warriors course as although much of the content is what I cover in my books, I know there are steps further into the course that even I've not dabbled with yet.

Without wanting to give away too much of what's in the course the first two days are all about motivation and what makes you want to reduce your waste. What's your big why and what will keep you sticking to your new principles when you get short on time and tempted to waver.  I've been on a zero waste journey for such a long time now, I realised as I was listening to the course (it is a daily 5 minute audio accompanying a simple call to action), that I have forgotten my own 'big why'! What made me start to radically reduce my waste in the first place?

I really, honestly can't remember any single incident that made me decide to reduce my rubbish. For me it is just that I don't like waste! So I had a little look back at the pictures on my phone and found this one.

For now this is my big why! This really shouldn't be necessary these days. We have the technology and the understanding to be able to preserve resources. Manufacturers and suppliers just need that little push in the right direction, to use that technology and understanding. We, the consumers can give them that push.  Let's make 2019 the year we do things differently - the year we make that shift to valuing our resources rather than throwing rubbish away.

Time for a cup of tea?

Zero Waste Week - 2018 - Day Five

So on to the final day of Zero Waste Week 2018.

I always enjoy taking part, and I always learn something.

Today's challenge is to have a completely "Plastic Fee Day".  Well, I would love to say I managed it, but I won't.  Here's why:

• This morning I used up one of those mini shampoo bottles I'd brought home from a hotel. I'll recycle the bottle - and it is easily recycled in the kerbside collection.
• This afternoon I am going shopping for tomorrow's cricket tea and for a cricket fundraising event, where we will be cooking up around 100 burgers and 100 hotdogs.  This morning I thought about buying rolls for the cricket tea in my reusable veg bags, but I have a feeling they might be significantly more expensive than the packs of 6 or 8 rolls, but I don't have any way of bringing home 200 rolls for the event without them being in plastic.  However, I'm going to do my best to find big bags of rolls, so that at least the bag might be reusable in some way and the rolls will probably be cheaper.

If you've taken part yourself and had an email about a survey, please do fill it in as will be really helpful for future Zero Waste Weeks (hoping that they will long continue, of course).

What I've learnt:
My attitude to plastic is actually the same as all packaging. I don't want unnecessary packaging so where I can refuse and reuse then I do, mostly, though I've identified some improvements ... those mini toiletries. I am going to take my own.

I have found a few products that I have been looking for, such as bamboo toilet brushes.

I have learnt that I am not the only one who has had trouble with my washing machine growing mould so I feel better now that it is not just me. I shared my solution (see yesterday's post) and again feel better that other people found that too.

I learnt about some great companies who are helping make life a bit easier for people like me who want to minimise package and use sustainable products that last.

It has been a great Zero Waste Week (again).

Zero Waste Week- 2018 - Day Four

Day four of Zero Waste Week  is all about cleaning materials.

This was a topic that came up at Future Planet's Sustainable Living 'Adventures in Zero Waste' event yesterday evening.

It was interesting to hear Kate Arnell, Presenter and Founder of ecoboost, talking about her experience of Zero Waste living. I know that some people think my obsession with minimal waste is extreme so it was nice to hear someone talking about all those things you do, all those decisions you've taken, no matter how big or how small.
One question that arose, was that personal thing about whether she had children. I am just guessing that the person asking, did have children, and felt it was a whole lot harder. I think it probably is but in small steps it is doable. Ours was a gradual process of slimming our bins and changing our habits and probably only really started to get extreme by any sense when my children were in Primary School. But there is no point in worrying about the things we didn't do. It is all about  what we feel we can achieve. I was really pleased all those years ago when my younger daughter came home from school so proud that she was the only person in the school that had a completely zero waste packed lunch. Today I like seeing that my (adult) children have cut open their moisturiser and toothpaste tubes to get every last bit out. I don't mind the collection of toiletries dregs they bring home when they vacate their various student residences.
I like the phone calls about how to rescue food, like the fish and chips about to be binned at an event (the resulting fish cakes were great - and free!).

I feel that there is a theme building with this year's Zero Waste Week. Aspiring Zero Waste or Zero-ish Waste all helps. No need to carry your trash around in a mason jar... just do what you realistically can do.

Will I stop using the miniature shampoos in hotels?


I  think I will mostly start taking my own. If I can carry them home I can carry them there.

I mean, just look at what I am prepared to bring home!

Will I write to the hotels I stay in asking them to consider refills, probably not. Fortunately, when I go to events like Future Planet's inspiring event last night, I feel reassured that some people actually will.
Which brings me onto the subject of consumer power. Businesses will give us what they think we want. How do they decide what they think we want? Through their sales figures of course. If we keep buying cheap rubbish, they will keep producing it. I am a firm advocate of voting with your pound in your pocket. So I was delighted to hear about Buy Me Once, the innovation by Tara Button who is aiming to show case and promote products that last. That's just the kind of thing I want so that I don't have to spend the hours researching products that are made the old fashioned way, i.e. built to last not built in obsolescence. I want to see 'built in obsolescence' become obsolete, don't you? I think Tara Button does too. Although I am mostly a charity shop chick, next time I need to buy something I can't get second hand I will be checking out that Buy Me Once website.

Onto the topic of day four of Zero Waste Week, cleaning.  The question was raised last night about eco cleaning products. Do they work? Someone mentioned the smell and mould problems if using eco friendly laundry products. Kate Arnell said her solution was to wash at higher temperature which, as she said, tends to fill green living lovers with horror. So I shared the advice I was given by the person who repaired my ailing washing machine. He said you need a really hot wash once in a while to kill the bacteria that will otherwise build up. He meant really hot. So every now and then when the sun is out I will wash some sheets at 90 degrees, feeling glad that I am getting most of that energy needed from my solar panels.  Thank you sun! It is definitely less carbon intensive than washing things multiple times and buying a new washing machine every couple of years. The other thing that helps is essential oil. I use a few drops of lavender.

Zero Waste Week - 2018 - Day Three

Well yesterday was a great Zero Waste Week day for me, but it left me grappling with a decision:

Should I stop using hotel toiletries and always take my own in mini bottles that I refill, or should I keep using them and bringing the remains home to use up and recycle the packaging?

These toiletries have a cost to hotels.  It is much cheaper to buy in bulk and refill, and there is less waste to deal with. I like to support hotels that have refillable product dispensers, but often where I am staying is not down to me as my hotel stays are mostly work related. So do I take my own mini toiletries and snub the hotel supplies. Or do I continue doing what I am doing now knowing I am eating into their profit a tiny bit. I think the hotel trade have worse things to deal with.

• Plastic straws should just be ditched altogether (supplied only on request for health and accessibilty reasons).
• Disposable hot drinks cups, plastic cups for water, disposable plates or cutlery... again get rid. If that is what's on offer I take my money somewhere else. 
• Bottled water... I try to always take my refillable water bottle and I ask at the bar to have it refilled.

So should I shun the mini shampoo?

When I cleared out my bathroom cabinets I felt I was overwhelmed by plastic. 

When I sorted it all out I had one of those moments ... Do I really want to give all this away. I put back a few things I was given for Christmas but the rest is fair game.
While having my moment ... I thought back to when I decided to donate all my plastic bags to my local charity shop. I had been taking my own reusable bags shopping for years so I couldn't believe the number of plastic bags in my cupboard. They were clearly breeding in there.
But I took the decision one day to take every plastic bag to the charity shop. All of them gone. It felt great.
I have never been short of a plastic bag since. There is always someone who brings me something in a plastic bag and thinks it would be weird to take it home again!
I feel it is going to be the same with the toiletries. Judging by the collection I have  now someone will leave something lovely behind for me to use up.

But that was yesterday's challenge. It just goes to show that sometimes you need to mull things over or sort things out. If Zero Waste Week expands to Zero Waste Month that's fine. Sometimes change, even if it is a small change, takes a while. You need to mull it over. Even by thinking about it that's a step in the right direction.

Onto today's challenge, and we are in the kitchen. We do quite well in the kitchen and are close to Zero Waste shopping with the help of my Zero Waste shopping kit below.

More on this tomorrow but my one more thing is going to be teabags.
I got fed up with trying to search for zero waste tea bags...no plastic wrap outside or unrecyclable silver plastic wrap inside and no plastic in the heat sealing. So now I'm going to switch to loose leaf tea which is a bit more expensive but much nicer. I am saving a bit of money over the summer by using mint and fennel straight from the garden and inspired by someone I overheard in a wine shop: "We are drinking less, but better".
That's my one more thing.

Zero Waste Week - 2018 - Day Two

Today's #ZeroWasteWeek challenge is all about the bathroom.

The recycling team that I do events for from time to time, tell me they think many people overlook plastic in the bathroom as an important thing to recycle. Years ago I used to find it an annoying task going through the bin in the bathroom to pick out what's recyclable.  So I added a recycling bin and my problem was largely solved.

Image: 101 Ways to Live Cleaner and Greener for Free

Largely? Well Yes. You have to accept there are some people who are never going to get it! They see a bin and it is just a bin - I hear Junior Daughter's voice echoing: "Why would you put a beer can in the bin that says Food Waste on it?" Sometimes I join in with that despair.  I walk past a bin with a clear plastic bag at the station that says "recyclables" and there's an apple core in it. Yet right next to it is a clear plastic bag for food waste. Is there no hope?

Well I say there is. To me, #ZeroWasteWeek is a great time for raising awareness and being hopeful that just one more person (or more likely several thousand more people, given the huge impact #ZeroWasteWeek now has around the world) is going to think about one more thing that they hadn't thought about before.  And it all helps.

Although my family are now really good at recycling all those plastic items from our bathroom, what we are really not good at is limiting the amount of them that we buy or accumulate in other ways.

It was many years ago now that I had the conversation with Mr Pitt (who travels a lot for his work) about what we think happens to all those miniature plastic bottles from hotel rooms that you've used it bit of and left the rest. Same for those brand new bars of soap.
Well they are clearly going to be thrown away. What a waste!

So we decided to bring them home with us. But then added to all those bottles and boxes of medicinal potions and lotions and things you need just occasionally or keep 'just in case' you need them, it amounts to something like this!

I can definitely see a few duplicates and "nearly finished but not quite" bottles 

The drawer beneath the basin

The box of stuff under my bed from probably before our
 "single-use plastic free year"
that I didn't manage to use up before switching to plastic-free alternatives.
Surely that means I was never going to use them anyway.

So much plastic. Aaahhh!! And this is despite having made the decision in 2015 to switch to unpackaged e.g. solid bar soap and shampoos or refills.  What I didn't do was stop using hotel products at all and I clearly didn't use up everything I already had! Many other things have been either left behind or gifted to us, but ... wow! what a lot of plastic!

What to do? Well I'm open to suggestions but here's my plan:

This evening I'm starting a "Make-up Exchange" and here's how:

1. Separate everything into four boxes:

• unopened
• barely used
• almost empty
• too old to use

2. Find a home for each box

• the unopened and barely used will become my "Make-up Exchange" box. I'll clean any eyeshadows that I still have lurking around but won't ever use. I will invite friends and family to take anything they want and anything left will go to a Women's Refuge that has been set up locally. 
• the almost empty will be the only things available in the bathroom so they get used up.
• the too old to use will be emptied and and recycled though kerbside collection where possible or else through the Terracycle recycling program which I'm setting up for my local community

3. Use up the stuff to use up and find suitable refillable miniature bottles to take with me when I travel.

4. Return to my solid / refill system at a later date and only buy make-up from brands with a recycling programme such as Lush. 

Here's a bit more about make-up exchanges on another blog post that I wrote and it gives you how to clean makeup too.  

This is another blog post with information about cleaning and extending the use of make-up.

I hope that by this time next year (or even sooner) I will have seriously cleaned up my personal hygiene act. My bathroom will be a properly plastic free zone of peace and tranquility and much quicker to clean - I think that's probably the best bit!

Zero Waste Week - 2018 - Day One

This year's Zero Waste Week is, of course:

 all about plastic!

I wrote earlier in the year about the Blue Planet effect and what a hot topic it has become. Thank you to the BBC and to the wonderful Sir David Attenborough for making plastic pollution such a hot topic.

Campaigns such as The Last Straw and Recycle Now's Plastic Planet fill me with hope that soon the life choices I make won't seem weird, but will just become normal life, for most people. Back in July 2014 I first went to my local butchers with my reusable plastic tubs and talked to them about Plastic Free July and said that I was planning to try to cut out single use plastic for a whole year.  They were very supportive and I've been taking my reusable tubs there ever since. Just from that small decision, I've started a trend.  A few months ago, I they told me I was one of four families now doing the same thing. Then a few weeks ago, I found out that the four has grown to five.  Who will be number six, I wonder?

But why do this?  What's the point of it all and does it help?  When I wrote my first book, 101 Ways to  Live Cleaner and Greener for Free, it was partly a reaction to feeling that every time I looked for a sustainable alternative to what I was doing or buying, it seemed to cost me more.  Take cotton buds, for example, it is not something I use very often, but I was really annoyed to find that a compostable cotton bud was more than twice the price of a plastic version. Composting toilet compared to water based system - beyond expensive..beyond my reach at the time. A growing sense of despair at finding that our growing convenience consumer lifestyles were 'costing the earth', yet the green alternative was 'costing the earth' in a different way, led me to take a look at what I could do for free in order to reduce the impact my family has on this planet. And the big thing was, I wanted to know if it made a difference. And so, I started to take a look at the maths and science behind various ways of saving resources and that became the focus of my book.

Today, we've become quite adept at taking our own bags to the supermarket. When I wrote my book, back in 2012, Wales had already introduced a 5p tax on single use carrier bags, but England was yet to follow suit. However, some shops had already introduced a 5p charge on plastic bags. This enabled them to monitor the number of bags given out and compare that to the number of bags given out before the charge. Looking back at my book today, I see that Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury's were among the supermarkets to be monitoring the reduction in plastic bags and willing to share their figures. I found evidence that the combined carbon footprint saving was 9356 tonnes - the equivalent to taking 1835 cars off the road.

A recent DEFRA report tells us that over 6 billion fewer bags were given out in the year from April 2016 to April 2017, i.e. since the introduction of the tax. According to the research I did in my book, each bag has a saving of 10g of carbon dioxide equivalence (the measurement for carbon footprint) so that would mean an equivalent saving of 60 million tonnes of CO2. I make that the equivalent of over 11 million cars being taken off the road.

Small change, enormous difference. 

The Blue Planet programme was very good at highlighting the other perspective ... the 'what if we don't do the right thing?'

I want to reduce my use of resources all round, but I find I particularly want to reduce single-use plastic, because this is the resource I find is often used unnecessarily, and it forms the rubbish I see mostly littering the countryside I live in. Further, it is the rubbish that when discarded in the wrong way, travels most easily and causes the most damage, it seems.

I think this is now the fifth year that I've joined in with Zero Waste Week, and blogged about what I've learnt and the changes I've managed to make. I know there are some interesting things that are in store for us, and although I'm already well on my way with the Zero Waste Path, there's still a good way to travel and it is easier to journey with like minded people travelling in the same direction.

I want to find at least one more things that I can do to reduce my consumption of single-use plastic.  I've got my non-recyclable waste down to less than a bin full per year, I've reduced my recycling enormously through small lifestyle changes and reuse, yet I still see plastic all over my house. So I know there's still something out there for me. What will it be?

Zero Waste Week - The make-up exchange

Even though I am an aspiring ZeroWaster, I took a look in my bathroom cabinets and they are absolutely brimming full of products, mostly plastic packaged in some way, many of which I am unlikely to use ever!

I find it hard to believe I have so much accumulated stuff.  I've been using the same few fairly solid plastic or glass bottles for several years now and refilling them with shampoo and conditioner that I buy in a big 5 litre container from a local buyers group with SUMA.  I also have about half a dozen hand soap containers that I refill with lovely fig had soap from another local company called SESI.

Yet, still I have hundreds of bottles and packets of stuff in my bathroom cabinet.  That inspired me to think about a make-up exchange.

I will be running the make-up exchange on Tuesday 4th September during Zero Waste Week. I thought it would be a good idea to encourage businesses to think about running a make-up exchange too.

All you'd need is a box in reception or in the kitchen or even just by your desk.  Tell all your colleagues about what you are doing and why and persuade them to give their cupboards a clear out.


With this thought came the worry that "What would you do if you have loads of products left over?"

I have just the thing for that.

There are several organisations that accept make-up and donate to women's refuges or to refugees.

Firstly, I came across this article by Sally Hughes and Jo Jones, describing how they set up their Beauty Banks.  Have a read and it will make you want to help.   Or you can just cut to the chase and send stuff to them at: BEAUTY BANKS, c/o JO JONES, THE COMMUNICATIONS STORE, 2 KENSINGTON SQUARE, LONDON W8 5EP.
The downside is they only accept unopened items.

But what about those items that you may have used once or twice but then abandoned? That's what I really want to deal with.

Caroline Huron's Give and Makeup Charity accepts good quality part used items. The rule is..be respectful...if you would be embarrassed to give it to your best friend, then please don't send it to them. For hygiene reasons, they can't accept mascara and they can't accept lipgloss. Other make-up can be cleaned. There's a full list of what they accept on the link.

The address for Give and Makeup is either London: GIVE AND MAKEUP, PO BOX 855, LONDON, W4 4AW or Cardiff: Give and MakeUp c/o Escentual.com, 63-67 Wellfield Road, Cardiff, CF24 3PA

So onto that issue of cleaning. It seemed to me that it must be possible to clean makeup. I asked a make-up artist how she keeps her make-up clean.

• Use a small piece of tissue to wipe off the top layer 
• Now apply a drop of rubbing alcohol (or vodka) to another piece of clean tissue and wipe over. to kill germs

This works for eyeshadows and lipsticks, though lipstick is generally very fragile so you need to be gentle.

I'm off to clear out my cupboards to donate the spares. I'm going to be ruthless, I hope!

Serendipity Soup

Serendipity Soup

I was trying to think of how to use up some gravy and came upon this idea. Simple and delicious. The story and the recipe are on the Leftover Pie blog.

The Blue Planet Effect

I’m loving the Blue Planet Effect. Never before has plastic packaging had so much attention.

But I’m noticing that people are sometimes deciding to ditch single use plastic in favour of other forms of single use packaging, which can be more carbon intensive to produce. Paper, glass, and compostable packaging are undoubtedly less damaging to the ocean.  But all packaging comes with its own issues.

Plastic has become a popular packaging because it is lightweight, which reduces the carbon footprint of transportation.  Plastic is cheap, which helps keep prices low.  Plastic is waterproof (until it rips!) so helps with deliveries that could otherwise be spoiled by rain. Some advocates of plastic say it helps to reduce food waste. For example, plastic packaging (of the airtight kind) can help prevent oxidation which leads to discolouration of foods such as meat or avocados.  It is said that cucumbers are wrapped because it slows down the rot, making them last 10 days longer (as long as you don't open the plastic, I guess).  As I read on one pro-plastic website:

"Try as we might, we will always create some waste. In the end,

 which would we rather create – a little bit of plastic waste or a lot of food waste?"

They've got a point, of course, but we won't mention the tonnes of wonky cucumbers that get wasted because they are not the right size and shape to go through the packaging machine.

Another advantage of plastic is its recyclability. Unlike paper and card which can only be recycled up to 5 or 6 times before the fibres become too short to be usable, plastic can be recycled over and over again.  For food grade plastic, we can't say that it is infinitely recyclable like aluminium or glass, because a tiny fraction of the inside of the plastic is scraped off and disposed of to ensure the resultant rPET (recycled Plastic) is clean. However, it is more recyclable than paper and card.  

Furthermore, a paper bag has a carbon footprint of approximately 16 times that of a plastic bag yet probably doesn't last as long.  It seems like we can't win, doesn't it?

The big problem with plastic really is almost the same as the advantages.  It is lightweight and cheap. Because it is lightweight and cheap it is hard to ensure that transporting used plastic for recycling is economically viable.  It needs to be crushed and baled in order to get rid of the air before it is transported.  Because it is cheap, not many organisations that produce waste plastic value it enough to  have the space for a baler and to store enough bales for it to be viably transported.

Because it is lightweight it is easily blown about by the wind.  So even if you do put your used plastic into a bin, if the bin is not well designed the plastic can find its way out again.

The real way forward is to ditch those things you can do without altogether by switching to reusables.  Here are my top 5 easy switches:

·      Straws …either refuse or get a reusable, dishwasher-proof stainless steel straw. 

Metal straws with cleaning brushes

·      Bags… you can buy or make lightweight reusable net bags for your fruit and veg and reusable shopping bags are plentiful and equally easy to make your own.  In my local butchers we have no problem taking our own tubs to buy our meat and we can reuse our egg boxes too. 

Net veg bags from Onya

·      A reusable water bottle will save you money and be kinder on your health as well as the planet. We know the downside of fizzy drinks, and don’t be fooled by flavoured waters, milkshakes or fruit juices as they can be just as bad or worse. Bottled water has a carbon footprint 1000 times greater than tap water in a reusable bottle.

My refillable water bottle comes with me everywhere.
 It has saved me a lot of money over the years.

·      Cling film – it is a nightmare to use anyway, so swap for a lidded container or a plate that fits over the top of the bowl.  Clean tea towels are also a good thing to cover food with as they prevent the food from drying out, keep off any flies and (most*) other creatures.  Unlike cling film, though, a tea towel will stop the food from sweating. I also invested in some reusable silicone baking sheet and this sometimes does the job of lining things that I might previously have lined with cling film, like for making fridge cake in a loaf tin.  I also invested in a couple of packs of Bees Wrap which I find very handy.  It rinses really easily and I have been using mine for a couple of years now and it still looks like new.

Various alternatives I use in place of cling film.

·      Takeaway coffee – break that habit and you would save a fortune, but if you really can’t then make your savings bit by bit with a reusable coffee cup. Many outlets now offer money off your coffee if you bring your own cup.

If I don't have my coffee cup with me I don't get coffee
 unless it is in a proper cup!

If you are not quite ready for reusables yet, you can still do your bit by making sure you recycle all the plastic packaging you can.  In the UK we recycle 58% of our plastic bottles. That means that a whopping 42% get discarded in the general waste and in the hedges and ditches of our countryside.  

There has been a lot of talk about the Chinese ban on waste form other countries. Switching to brands using recycled packaging helps to keep the value of recycled plastic high and this will help the UK companies that recycle plastic. Higher demand means higher prices and that comes from brands that use recycled plastic in their bottles getting good sales and those that don't losing market share. We can all help with that by checking out the packaging of what we buy.  Many years ago Coca Cola did an experiment to see if a 100% recycled bottle was a viable option.  It was, but we are not recycling enough of our plastic to meet the demand for 100% recycled so they opted for 25% recycled content.

Switching to compostable packaging helps too but only if you then put it on your compost! Compostable packaging breaks down in a home compost or industrial compost facility, but it won't break down in anaerobic digestion and it will take many years to break down in Landfill.  I decided back in 2015 that I wouldn't buy snacks like crisps, cakes, biscuits or nuts unless they are in compostable packaging, which I do then take home with me for my compost.  Making that decision has, I am sure done me a lot of favours, as I usually take some nuts and dried fruit from home in a small container when I am travelling about and otherwise, I just wait until my next proper meal.  I think my waistline thanks me for that decision on a regular basis!

* Neither cling film nor a tea towel will deter a mouse.  It will just chew right through it to get to the tasty offerings beneath :)

Book Review

101 Ways to Live Cleaner and Greener for Free  December 2016

Author Anna Pitt,

Illustrated by Toni Lebusque

Publisher: Green Lanes Publishing 2012

172 pages ISBN  978-09574637-0-7

The author aims to make us more aware of environmental actions in our homes that we could do something about. It also gives, as the title promises, 101 tips on small, free and often very simple things we could do to reduce our environmental impact. The author explains her definitions of ‘clean and green’ as avoiding pollution and waste and caring for the planet.

Sections in this book look at reducing food waste; saving water, energy and fuel; recycling; reusing. All sections have science facts, maths number-crunching and tips; the latter presented using cartoon illustrations and humour.

We learn about gases and toxic leachate liquid produced at landfill sites and about food waste processing sites. The maths includes how much CO2 emissions are reduced when food waste is diverted from landfill and the financial savings to families.

Alongside ‘carbon footprint’ which people are generally familiar with, we learn about the ‘water footprint of avoidable food waste’.  ‘Embedded water footprint’ is the amount of water needed to produce 1 lb of food - beef tops the lot with 6810 litres per lb, goat with 480 litres and potatoes 450 litres.

Fossil fuels, biodiesel from crops and our increasing carbon footprint are clearly explained.

Saving energy, we learn, can be as simple as not leaving phone chargers plugged in all night and it ‘is estimated that up to 40% of the energy we consume is actually wasted’ (p.53).

My favourite everyday kitchen tip was number 27 - use a measuring jug when adding water to the kettle so you only heat the water you need.

The chatty style of this book will appeal to older teens and young adults. It can help families starting their journey to reduce their environmental impact. It is practical, easy to read book with handy tips.

Alona Sheridan

No Waste Within

A new campaign is being launched by Zoe Morrison of Ecothrifty Living blog and Emma Dawson of The Food Brood to highlight the issue of food that gets wasted during food photography sessions and to champion a movement of food bloggers, food stylists and photographers who refuse to waste food.

I first read about the waste that goes on within the food writing industry in Shane Jordan's book, Food Waste Philosophy. When I was writing my own book, Leftover Pie, there was no way I was going to allow that to happen. Before my first photo shoot session I said to the food stylist that all of the food was going to be eaten. I am very glad that I found people to work with who care as much as I do about food. Part of the planning that day involved planning what we could eat when, everything was cooked according to the recipes as they are in the book and the tweaking and rearranging that did get done was with strict instructions that the food would still be edible and yummy! and Oh   ...boy! There was a lot of tweaking and rearranging.  I had no idea how long it would take to get the perfect amount of pickle to run down the side of the jar!
Most of the photos on my blogs, both here and on Leftoverpie.co.uk are photos I snap while cooking everyday food that my family are about to eat.  But stories I was told as we were getting the perfect picture of my scones were horrifying. Leonie's fridge and freezer were packed full of f ood she had rescued from photo shoots.  I even took some kale  home with me. She said it would take her weeks to get through all the kale she had rescued so I felt obliged to help out.

I  know this is a much needed campaign and it is great to see it being well supported by food bloggers across the UK. Please do share it widely.  And join in with the hashtag #nowastewithin.

I am always surprised when people ask me if we ate the 'Leftover Pie.' Of course we ate it!

Here is my pledge...

“I promise that no food waste was created by the development, cooking, styling and photographing of this recipe and that, where it wasn’t possible for me to enjoy it myself, I have redistributed, repurposed, retained or recycled the food.”

A Freegle flurry

We recently had some building work done in our house, which involved a room where we stored a whole lot of stuff, some of which was in daily use, such as wellies and trainers, and other things that are used every now and then - like sellotape, string, spare lightbulbs and the like. However, as we found when moving it all out of the room, there were a fair number of things that we haven't used for years.  So I was time to get Freegling!  Freegle have a lovely new site, quick and easy to use.  Here's the link. 

So we said goodbye to the chocolate fountain that has given us some fun times through SD and JD's teenage years, and it was goodbye to a couple of sets of Scaletrix, some "Scene-It" games that we've known all the answers to for many years.  Plus we parted with a huge box of books, some DVDs and lots of art and craft materials.

As for the more obscure items, we had a roll of chicken wire that we are not going to use and that found a good home and we parted with some large builder's supplies sacks that we had some gravel delivered in. They are great for use in the garden, but we accumulated a few more than we need.

That brings me to one of the wonderful things about Freegle: you often get to meet people who have similar interests to you and similar philosophy on life.  You can end up being inspired by other people's intended uses for the things you no longer use any more.

To see what I mean, here is how Louise and Mark made use of our gravel bags, and a few other things that we managed to find for them when they were telling us about their allotment and their plans for it.  They had originally envisaged cutting open the gravel bags to use as matting to suppress the weeds.  However, we had recently put up our fifteen year old tent for the very last time before we decided to retire it - too many leaks, bent poles and a large rip along a seem.  I had been contemplating what further uses I could find for it, and was thinking shopping bags from the upper part, underlay (i.e. weed suppressing) for paths for the ground sheet but being very busy with my new book I realised my projects would be unlikely to happen this year.  Louise and Mark were much more likely to make use and when the time comes, having had the idea, I am sure old tents are being decommissioned on a regular basis, so I could probably find what I need from friends or Freegle, when I need it.

Our old tent is now a weed barrier

It is so great to see your things rehomed and put to good use.

Louise says:

"The gravel bags are going to be used as a sort of raised bed, the idea is they get filled with compost (we will need some stronger posts!) and sink down onto the existing weed covered horrible clay soil.  We will then build up the sides, using more recycled wood (everything on the allotment is from Freegle or Freecycle, or various skips etc. throughout West Oxon).  The top bit of the bag then is cut down the seams, and folds over the wooden sides. The groundsheet/flysheet we have put down to prevent weed growth.

The gravel sacks are now raised beds

"The tent is currently just thrown over a terribly overgrown patch of mint and grass, and currently held down by anything we could find.  It doesn't look terribly attractive, but we get really high winds, so need anything we can get to hold it down.  Once the weeds have gone in the covered areas, we will rotivate (rotivator was found in a barn, and my husband Mark restores old engines so has made it work again) and then do more ground cover to stop the weeds and make raised beds with some decent compost on top.  Hopefully, we will be able to extend the concrete slabbed area for a pot garden - slabs, naturally, came from Freegle, and we will hopefully find some more!

Water butts and drainpipe collected from Freegle

A beautiful shed!

"I have also added a photo of the shed, which was upcycled from one on the allotment that was a wreck - it had blown over in the high winds earlier this year. We repaired it, painted it with some leftover paint from the garden at home, and re-felted the roof (alas, not recycled - we tried but it leaked).  The gutter, drainpipe and water butt are from Freegle.  Oh, and the compost heap is made from bits of wood found anywhere!"

Isn't Freegle a wonderful thing! I was so inspired that I decide to do a donation to Freegle.  It is such a wonderful service, it deserves our support.