Re:Made in June

10:10 have been encouraging everyone to re-make and fix things up, rather than dumping things when they get broken or are no longer needed.  Being a bit of a squirrel myself, I like this challenge a lot!

My Jubilee Weekend Project was to fix up a snooker table with JW.  We saved it from the jaws of a skip and turned it from this:

                                                                        Into this:

Next up, it was my lovely Grandma's 86th birthday.  Yes, that's right, the same age as the Queen, and she still works every day too; amazing!  To celebrate Grandma's birthday I turned these dry-cleaning coat hangers (donated by a friend):

In to these rather fetching padded coat-hangers, using left-over dress-making fabric:

My final recent re-make was to turn this:

 Into this: An Apple Tree for my Dad on Father's Day.

 Go on, what can you re-make this month!

Goodbye Magpie: Rubbish Update

Okay folks, a quick update on the rubbish situation for you!  And by that I mean the amount of landfill we are producing here at Magpie central.

Wheelie Bin of Rubbish Jan 2012

At the beginning of the year I pledged that as a family we would only produce one wheelie bin full of rubbish.  Well readers, I have to confess that I had to put my wheelie bin out for collection this week, a mere five months into the challenge.  We didn't even make it to the half way point!

The really weird thing was that the wheelie bin, which I would normally have to man-handle and drag down the drive way  due to the weight contained, was actually as light as a feather to put out. Basically because all it contained was empty crisp packets and plastic wrapping of one sort or another. 

So, what to do?  First up, I am not going to get downhearted.  We have still managed to reduce our landfill by around 80%.  If every westernised household did the same,  it would be an absolute dream result for local authorities across the world.  

Milk Bottles, Aren't they brilliant!

Secondly, as well as reducing our landfill, we have also drastically reduced our recycling burden by using far less plastic bottles.  We have managed this by not buying bottled water, by getting glass returnable bottles from the milkman, by stopping buying laundry detergent and by getting No. 1 Son to switch to cans instead of plastic bottles for his fizzy drinks (aluminium being far better to recycle than plastic).

Our thrift drive has also meant we have naturally cut back on booze, so less glass bottles there!  And of course, we aren't buying new stuff, so no cardboard boxes and packaging to deal with there. So, rather than putting out the recycling boxes for collection every week, I have found we are down to putting them out once a month.  And as every green girl knows Reduce and Reuse are top of the list when it comes to saving the planets resources.

So, for the coming seven months I am determined that the wheelie bin stays behind the garden gate and doesn't need to be emptied again until December. 

In order to achieve this, the challenge is going to be to further reduce the amount of packaging we buy and to ignore the temptation of the mass produced biscuit, cake and crisp aisle!  I hope we can do it!!  Does my inner magpie have the willpower?!  We shall see..

What about you?  Any top-tips for reducing landfill waste?

Make Do & Mend

As all of you fellow green-beans will know, April was Remade month.  So I thought it would be fun to share all of the things that I have fixed up and remade over the last couple of weeks.  Here goes:

No. 1 Son's Jeans (big old hole patched up)

My front door blinds (a repair to fix a snapped slat - too boring to photograph!)

A top I haven't worn before, which needed taking up & in (it had been lurking in the wardrobe for 2 years!)

And the piece de resistance, an old sideboard gifted to me by my in-laws, which got painted up (with a 1/2 tin of paint I had lying around needing used up).  

Before, looking a bit outdated and tired.

After, looking cool in Muted Mocha!

Every month is Remade Month for me. I find myself fixing stuff up all the time.  My next project is a snooker table, which I saved from being chucked on a skip.

I have to thank my Dad for my fixer-upper outlook.  A waste-not-want-not attitude was drummed into us kids.  If we needed anything in our house, my Dad would probably whip it up from the 'just in case' pile.  Need an Electricity Generator for those 70s and 80s power cuts?  No problem, Dad'll make one.  A Garage needing built? Leave it to Dad, he knew those blocks would come in handy.  New kitchen you say?  Dad's got a lovely one just here, which Jim down the road is chucking out! 

As a teenager I thought my dad was nuts, what with all the following us around while muttering and switching off lights, combined with his general hoarding tendancies.  Now I realise he was just ahead of his time!

So, it is great to see the idea of fixing things, rather than chucking them out, being championed by 10:10 and others.   You can find out more here:  http://www.1010global.org/uk/remade  One thing's for sure, I know my Dad will approve!

How about you; What have you Remade and saved from the scrap heap this month?

The Future's Bright; the Future is....Green?

Having spent the last couple of weeks blogging for Edinburgh Science Festival, I have been having a few Eco-Nightmares, due to the frank predictions and (much needed) dire warnings about climate change from many of the Science Fest. speakers.

So, it was with a some-what heavy heart that I picked up Mark Stevenson's 'An Optimists Tour of the Future'.  Mark (a stand-up comic and writer) set out on a mission to see what the future holds.  And he found out some pretty amazing stuff!

Who would have thought that drought-parched grass pasture in Australia could fully recover, just by installing a few fences and moving cattle around differently?

Who would have credited the fact that you can print solar panels just like photographs, on giant flexible sheets of plastic and wrap them around anything from buildings to rucksacks?

Who would believe that nanotechnology allows oil to be produced without having to drill for it (and by the way, it's carbon neutral)?

And all of this is happening now, not in some way-off Star Trek vision, but right at this moment.  This book certainly helped me feel more optimistic about the possibilities that lie ahead.

The future is indeed bright; it is also smart, efficient and green and it is waiting for us, whenever we're ready!

Find out more at An Optimists Tour of the Future

The Whole Tooth and Nothing But the Tooth: A Compostable Toothbrush!

I was very excited when the postie arrived this morning with a parcel for me.  You would have thought it was my birthday by the 'oohs' and 'aahs' as I opened up the jiffy bag.  Inside were three wondrous things: Bamboo toothbrushes for the whole family!


I am all for being an active environmentalist, but I also want to be hygienic and clean! So I needed to find a way to replace my plastic toothbrush, (which I bin every three months), with a sustainable alternative.  Those toothy-pegs are important!

Thankfully the good people at Environmental Toothbrush in Australia were on the case already.

A toothbrush seems like a pretty small item to get het-up about right?  After all, how much landfill can they be creating?  Well, did you know that in Australia they dump 30 million toothbrushes every year?  And if you bear in mind that Australia's population is roughly a third of the UK's, you can estimate that here in the UK we are sending 90 million toothbrushes to landfill each year.  Which is roughly 3000 tons of landfill! 

What a lot of unnecessary waste, right?  Which was why I was so delighted to get my hands on my very own sustainable and compostable bamboo toothbrush!

And the pandas are happy too!

Bamboo grows at a rate of knots (my own bamboo hedge is determined to take over my entire front garden!), needs minimal water (unlike cotton) and don't worry, it isn't harvested from panda habitats!  It seems to be a great material and much, much, much better than petrochemicals.

The only downside is that the brushes aren't made in the UK.  But my current plastic toothbrushes aren't made here either.  So by my reckoning it is a great alternative.  Myself and No.1 Son have both used our new toothbrushes and can report that the are top-notch!
 
I ordered mine from Beneficial Health  at a cost of about £3.30 each (including VAT and postage), or you can bulk buy direct from Environmental Toothbrush which works out much cheaper per brush.

I am going to try and get my local Health Food store to stock them and from there they can take over the world!

If you are interested in reading more, the marvellous Mrs Green over at My Zero Waste Toothbrushes has done a thorough low-down on eco-toothcare!

I don't want to be a walking supermarket advert

Following a discussion about plastic bags, over on the lovely Mrs Green's site at My Zero Waste, I have been thinking about the logo on my reusable canvas bags.

Plastic bags are one of my bug-bears.  I just can't help muttering to myself when I see people walking by with a plastic bag which clearly only has a sandwich in it.  Grump, grump, grump! 
   
I don't really like supermarkets much, so it is strange that I am often a walking advert for them, with my reusable bag, (rather jauntily) swung over my shoulder, as I walk to the shops or in to town.  (Why did I buy those bags in the first place?  Convenience factor I'm afraid). 

Well, as you will have guessed, I'm not happy to advertise for them, so in true Goodbye Magpie fashion, I got out my sewing kit and I did something about it!

Much better!!  (Although JW points out it should read One Less Plastic Bag Everytime I use this Bag; but you get the idea!)

Saving Electricity: A New Toaster Causes Maths Confusion

Well, here it is, my brand spanking new toaster.  "Not very thrifty", I hear you cry!  Well indeed, and this is where the confusion begins.

For the past year, we haven't had a toaster.  Our previous one went 'pouff' and that was that.  I decided we could be doing with some space on the worktop, so didn't replace it.  I had also been reliably informed by revered British Chef, Delia Smith, that the only way to make a decent piece of toast, was to grill it.  So grill it we did.

However, since getting my trusty OWL electricity monitor, I realised that each time I put the grill on, the electricity reading jumped through the roof.  This was especially worrying as we eat rye bread for our toast, which takes a lot longer to crisp up than your standard white sliced does (it is however, very, very yummy stuff!)

So this set me off into a world of calculations.  Using my OWL I figured that each toasting session cost .5p.  When you reckon that we have toast most days, and that JW has his breakfast at a different time to us, most days, (meaning double the grill time; unfortunately 6.30am alarms and me don't mix!) Then you can estimate that it is costing us roughly £36.50 ($58.24) each year to make our toast.  Wowzers!

I have sat on this information and pondered about it on and off for the last few months.  My dilemma was this: using the grill is expensive, but a new toaster costs money! And if I was to buy a new toaster, I had no idea how much electricity it would save me.

I finally decided I would get a cheap toaster and headed out to Sainsbury's, where confusion abounded.  None of the toasters told you how much electricity they used (except for one model), so it was really tricky to compare them for energy efficiency.  I plumped for the Kenwood model, as it had a one-slice option, which claimed to save 50% of the electricity of other models.  But at £49.97 ($79.74), it was also amongst the most expensive (there goes my idea for a cheap model, oh dear!).

When I got it home, I made two slices of toast straight away.  The Kenwood Toaster toasted me up lovely pieces of rye bread at a cost of only .1p.  A whole .4p saving on the grill.  So, by my rough calculations, (taking into account the number of times it is used each day) the toaster should have paid for itself through saved electricity within 19 months.  From which point I will be saving £29.20 ($46.39) a year on electricity, as the toaster will cost a meagre £7.30 ($11.65) to run! Miles cheaper than the grill's toasting cost of £36.50 ($58.24).

The only downside is that the toaster is new and so it will have eaten up the earth's resources in its production.  At least all the packaging it came in was recyclable, with none of that hideous polystyrene stuff to content with!  And I will recycle the toaster itself when it finally breaks, (but not before 19 months I hope!)

Sometimes it feels like you need a maths degree to work this stuff out!

What about you?  What's your top electricity saving advice?

Goodbye Plastic Bottles; well some of them at least!

I am pretty excited today!  I have found a milkman who will deliver my milk in reusable glass bottles!!! Hooray!!  I can't quite believe it!

My scandelous pile of plastic!

I haven't had a milkman since I was a kid.  I used to love hearing the milk bottles clinking on the doorstep, while I was safely tucked up in bed, with another good hour of snoozing ahead of me.  It is going to be great to open my door to freshly delivered milk again, after a 20 year break.  Plus the fact that I will no longer have to lug heavy bottles of milk back from the supermarket all the time!

I went searching for a milkman, as my plastic bottle pile was getting really out of hand.  And what with the first green principle being 'Reduce', I felt I really had to do something to reduce my mass of plastic. 

Although plastic bottles can be recycled, apparently it is a pretty inefficient process (as opposed to say, aluminium, glass or paper), which is in part due to the variety of different types of plastic mixes which are used to make plastic bottles.  Some people call it plastic downcycling, rather than plastic recycling.  Which does tend to get my guilt-nerve a-twitching.

Farewell Sparkling Mineral Water

So, my Pile'o'Plastic will be relieved of the following:
1. Plastic milk bottles
2. Plastic shampoo bottles (I am making my own shampoo from Soap Nuts, I know, extreme, but true! see my post here)
3.Plastic water bottles (those big bottles of fizzy water were my weekend treat; but they are both expensive and environmentally disastrous, so they have to go.  But don't feel I am being hard on myself, I am already dreaming of the diluting juice that I am going to buy myself tomorrow instead, a particularly flavourful cherry fruit cordial!)
4. Laundry Liquid bottles (I am using Soap Nuts for that too :)

If only I could get No.1 Son to stop drinking bottles of Coke Zero; but a switch to Coke cans may be more likely!  He also refuses to stop using shampoo, and let's not talk about the Pot Noodles! 

What about you?  What is your top-tip for reducing plastic waste?  I would love to hear them :)

Natural Shampoo: Does it work?

I haven't used any synthetic moisturiser or cleanser on my face for a number of weeks now, (following a horrible allergic reaction to a 'posh' skincare cream).  My facecloth, witch hazel and walnut oil routine is proving to be ideal for my face.  And this got me thinking about my haircare routine.

I do like my hair to look nice (who doesn't?) and over the years I have gone through several phases of using expensive shampoos and conditioner sets, to then swinging to buying whatever is on offer at the supermarket.  My current shampoo has been dictated by what is on bulk-buy at the wholesaler we use. 

But in a desire to reduce the rubbish I am putting on my skin and to reduce the rubbish I am producing (check out the picture of the shocking pile of plastic bottles I have for recycling at the moment!!) I stumbled upon the idea of using soap nuts to wash my hair.

I have been a recent convert to soapnuts for washing my clothes.  They are the fruit of the Soapberry Tree, which is dried and harvested by hand in India and Indonesia Check out Living Naturally Soap Nuts for more info..  By my thought process they must be better for the environment than synthetically produced, plastic bottled, water polluting, detergents.

The information blurb that comes with the soapnuts has pretty much 101 uses for soapnuts!  One of which is as a shampoo.  So, always up for a challenge, I thought I would give it a go. 

Turning the soapnuts into shampoo couldn't have been easier.  You just had to put 15-20 nuts in six cups of hot water, bring the boil and simmer for 30 minutes. 

After 30 minutes are up, you simply wait for it to cool down, then add a few drops of your favourite essential oil (I used ylang ylang) and bottle it all up.  I had too much for one bottle so put the spare into labelled glass jars, ready to refill the plastic bottle.

So, what was the result?  I washed my hair last night.  The soapnut shampoo did not lather at all (I expected this, as the blurb warns you it won't). So I treated it like conditioner, by pouring it on my hair, rubbing in, then leaving for a couple of mins, before rinsing out.

I then used an apple cider vinegar rinse.  Basically a few spoonfuls of cider vinegar diluted in glass of cold water, poured over my hair (I did this over the sink; I am not brave enough to pour cold water over myself in the shower!)  This is an old-style treatment for hair that I have read about lots of times, so wanted to try it instead of conditioner.

And you know what, my long hair is soft and shiny and smells fresh and clean.  So it worked.  (I doubled checked the smell with JW, who didn't know what I had been using, and he confirmed my hair smelt 'very nice'.  So no trace of vinegar then!) 

I will keep using the soapnut shampoo and vinegar rinse for a couple of weeks and report back on it's success or failure in the longer term!

Reducing Our Rubbish: Challenge Update

The challenge to reduce my family's rubbish, down to only one wheelie bin for an entire year is going pretty well.

After three weeks, we have managed to produce only three carrier bags of landfill rubbish.  This is miles better than the one bin bag of rubbish we were producing four weeks ago!

I am confident that I might be able to reduce this even further, as I have found out that we can recycle plastic tub lids and bottle tops at JW's work, as well as the plastic tray recycling I discovered there the other week.  Which is great news!

I would stop buying this plastic stuff, but with No.1 Son this is very tricky!  However, I am working on finding a milk man who delivers glass bottles...so watch this space.

My latest addition to my waste reduction strategy is good old fashioned cloth hankies, to replace my constant supply of paper ones. 

I use about 1/2 box of hankies per week, which I was previously putting in the bin.  Three weeks ago I started putting them in the compost bin, but quickly realised I was going to stodge-up my compost bin with hankies!  So, I am now on to washable ones. 

I have started to use soap-nuts and bicarb of soda to wash clothes in, so there won't be any additional detergents going into the environment.  And as my hankies are small, they are designed for one use, and then to be popped into a seperate cloth wash-bag.  When the bag is full, I will put on a full load of hankies (I might add some lemon or thyme oil to the wash too). 

So there aren't any hygiene issues (honest :)  In fact, for me they are probably more hygienic, as I tend to stick multiple paper hankies up my sleeves and in all my pockets before they finally reach the bin! (yuck!  I know!)

You could argue about the use of water and energy to wash the cloth hankies, but then thinking about it, the energy and water used to produce paper hankies must be really high too.

It took me a while to build up to using my first cloth hanky, having never used one before.  But you won't believe how comfy they are on your nose until you try them! 

I made my hankies from old linen sheets and have been having fun embroidering my surname initial on them, thanks to an old book of children's embroidery my mother-in-law gave me, (along with tons of old threads!)  So, all in all, my new hankies haven't cost me a thing.  In-fact in the long run they should save me a little bit of money, as I won't be buying any more paper tissues.

My new box of reusable hankies :)

In fact, I have been so confident in our waste reduction plans that I have got rid of the large household kitchen bin for good.  It has found a new home at JW's workplace (they needed a new bin anyway).  Hurray!

Farewell, My Tumble Dryer

Farewell Dryer!

The new, leaner, greener me has been toying with the idea of dispatching with our tumble dryer for a few months now. 

Over the past couple of years I have tried to not use the dryer, as it is A. very expensive to run and B. really energy intensive, making it an environmentally bad-boy.

In the main, I manage quite happily not using the dryer, and then I go through month-long spells where I can't be bothered hanging things up and start to use it again.  In other words, I get really lazy, as hanging stuff up takes a max of a couple of minutes!  So, I took the decision on Monday to sell the dryer and therefore get rid of the temptation altogether!

In preparation for not using the tumble dryer, I had already set up a drying area, with clothes horse and a retractable washing line, next to a heated towel rail (which is on a timer and switch).  I had also fished out some (v. ugly) plastic hangers from the back of the wardrobe, to maximise drying area on the line.  And about a year ago I made a knicker and sock hanger, from a couple of wire coat-hangers, some ribbon and some wooden pegs.

My Clothes Horse

I am also lucky, in that I have an outside washing line.  But that said, I do live in Edinburgh, one of the rainiest places on earth, (well it feels like it most summers anyway!)

I do quite a bit of washing, averaging eight loads a week.  So, by not using the tumble dryer (ever) I will be saving a lot of electric. 

Ideally, I would also like to cut down on the amount of washing I do.  But this will be tricky as at least three loads a week are made up of my Guinea Pigs' bed blankets.  But, I have a few ideas to try, which I will share with you in later posts.

My Knicker and Sock Hanger

In the meantime, I am £50 quid up, having sold my tumble dryer within a couple of hours of posting my ad on Gumtree, to a guy who was going to buy a new one otherwise. 


And now I finally have somewhere to put our wellies, which I am constantly tripping over at the back door!  I will get round to putting in a cupboard in the hole that the dryer has left, it may take me a wee while to get that organised though.  Where on earth do you buy a single cupboard from anyway?

A new cupboard in waiting!

No Impact Man by Colin Beavan

I have just finished reading No Impact Man, by Colin Beavan, and it is just the push in the right direction that I needed for my own 'live a better life' project, Goodbye Magpie.

The book documents how Colin and his family spent a year trying to live their lives whilst creating no harmful impact on the planet.  The approach they take is extreme, but very inspirational, and it goes to show how little of the over-packaged, resource intensive stuff we actually need.


The book is honest and so well written that I raced through it in a couple of sittings.  I have since watched the accompanying documentary and signed up to Beavan's blog at http://noimpactman.typepad.com/ 

I would highly recommend that you all do the same!  I have come away with so many helpful pieces of advice that I plan to put into practise over the coming weeks.  So keep reading to see how I get on.

Thanks No Impact Man; you have saved another family from self destruction!

Easy on the honey: Natural skincare

My new regime of using only natural Witch Hazel and Almond Oil on my face is going well.  The extreme dryness (caused by a reaction to a really 'posh' skincare cream I was given) is abating. 

Cheered by these results I wanted to try a natural skin polish, in order to help get rid of those last pesky flaky skins cells.  So last night I mixed up some honey with a teaspoon of porridge oats, added a little dash of milk, to the mix to help with the consistency and then rubbed the mix onto my face.  I was really dubious about this, but had read so many times about this type of mix that I thought it would be worth giving it and go.  And it absolutely was! 

The whole process was a bit messy, as the oats dropped off as I used them, so I had to lean over the bathroom sink to catch the mess.  But as I worked the oats on my skin, the oats became really soft and the honey mix meant that it really glided over my skin.  It felt absolutely gorgeous! 

I used one of my trusty face-cloths to wash the mix off and my skin felt really super smooth afterwards.  I even had to get JW to feel it, so that he could check-out the difference too, (he humoured me and made the appropriate confirmation of softness; he is a good husband!)

It only took a couple of minutes to mix up (if that) and another couple of minutes to rub on and wash off.  100% natural, quick, cheap, packaging free and effective.  What is not to like!  Oats, Honey and Milk Mix will now be part of my regular routine.

Reducing Our Rubbish

Our week's rubbish

Challenge No.8, to Waste Not Want Not, is going really well.  The first week is over and we managed to reduce our rubbish from the usual one bin bag full, right down to only one carrier bag full! Result!

And I have found even more ways to reduce our waste further for this coming week.  Most of the stuff we chucked in the bin last week was plastic wrap and food trays.  I would avoid buying them altogether, but No.1 Son is very awkward in his eating habits and I don't want to discourage him further.  The good news is that it turns out that the recycling bin at JW's work, takes plastic tubs and food trays; we could have been using it years ago if only I had thought to check!

We also went to the new local Farmer's Market at the weekend, where I was able to buy a huge sack of tatties and loads of other unpackaged veg.  Along with some delicious local butter and cream and the best baguette I have eaten in a long time!

JW's tasty lunch

After our trip to the market, JW had a really tasty lunch, and all sourced from within 50 miles of Edinburgh!  I had a very nice lunch too, swapping the sausages for risotto (which had a bit more food mileage I admit!)

Trash Free Periods

The first week into my project of reducing the rubbish that my family sends to landfill, to only one wheelie bin full for the entire year, is going reasonably well.  Not having any handy bins in the house is a definite big plus in terms of getting us to reuse and recycle more.

My first major challenge on the no-bathroom-bin-front came today with the start of my monthlies.  Sorry, the topic may be off-putting for some, it isn't really a favourite subject of mine either!  But all women go through it, so I shouldn't be embarrassing really.  Anyway, I have been thinking about swapping to washable pads for a long time, but it has taken me until today to pluck up the courage to use them.  What a revelation, they are fab!  Much more comfortable then ordinary sanitary towels and dead easy to use too.  Why haven't I been doing this for years? 

I have four pads, one to wear, one to wash, one to dry and one spare.  Simple as!  I am giving them a hand wash with soap in the sink as I go, then drying them out on the towel rail.  I will give them all a good wash through in the machine at the end of the week.  It is easier for me as I am home based, but if I am out and about, I won't be bothered about using a small plastic drawstring bag to store any changes in until I can get home. 

As well as saving on landfill, it is also saving my pocket, as I usually spend around £2.00 per month on sanitary supplies.  You can buy washable pads for around £10.00 for a set, which will last you years.  Although, get this, I made my own nifty set with spare oil-cloth, (that I had left over from a tabletop project), as the leak-proof backing, along with spare cotton material and wadding.  This is probably going way too far for most people, so just Google Washable Sanitary Towels, for a good selection to buy.

With a £24.00 saving per year, every year, I am very happy with my trash free period.

2012: The Year of Waste Not Want Not; reducing my family's rubbish

As I am on a quest to find a better way of living, it seems to me that looking after the world around should be on my list of priorities. And so, I am determined to make this year, one where I am kinder to the planet. 

I tend to be quite evangelical and then quite passive in alternate bursts about environmentalism.   It would be great to find an environmental friendly lifestyle that can just become part of my everyday way of living. Being a vegetarian is definitely a big plus, and likewise reducing my consumer urge and not buying so much stuff is definitely a change in the right direction when it comes to looking after the planet; but there is certainly a lot more that I could do. 

So, my first major challenge for 2012 is to reduce the amount of rubbish I send to landfill.  I have been quite inspired by Mr and Mrs Green at The Zero Waste Project , whose website shares their fabulous tips on being landfill waste free. 

At the moment we put our rubbish bin out once a month.  Our wheelie bin is the standard size at 120 litres, and it is always completely full when it goes out monthly.  From this I have a very good estimate, that in the last year we sent 1,440 litres of rubbish to landfill.   

My challenge for 2012 is therefore to reduce our 12 wheelie bins of rubbish down to only one!!

As you all know, landfills are really depressing places, not only do they let harmful greenhouse gases out into the atmosphere, increasing global warming, but here in the UK it is estimated that we will run out of room in our landfills in only 10 years. As the saying goes, I want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem, so I have taken the following steps today:

I put the bin out for (hopefully) the final time for the next 12 months.  As you can see it is stuffed to the brim.

Then I relegated the kitchen and ensuite bathroom bin into the garage.  By not having a handy receptacle to put our rubbish into I figure it will make it easier to recycle than to chuck.  (I left a small bin in the bathroom which guest use when they visit, just so sanitary items don't get flushed down the toilet by mistake instead.)

I then upgraded my home recycling centre by adding additional boxes for envelopes and confidential papers; milk bottle tops; crisp packets; batteries and for recyclable plastic film packaging.  I already had slots for paper, plastic bottles, cardboard, tins and glass.

I set out a small cardboard box by the kitchen sink for food scraps which will then be chucked on the compost heap each week (box and all; much cleaner than those horrible plastic boxes with bags that never rot down properly on the heap).  And finally I set out a 'milk' jug for coffee grounds and egg shells which will get spread on the flower beds each week (this is supposed to deter slugs).

JW and No.1 Son have been consulted and have acquiesced their approval.  Although I fear No.1 Son's eating habits may be my nemesis.  At 16 years old he tends to only eat pre-packed foods, which makes me tear my hair out.  This is a picture of his computer room bin, full of sweetie wrappers as usual.  And a lot of his food comes on those annoying plastic trays.  But we shall see how we get on in the great Year of Waste Not Want Not 2012!  Watch this space...