I fancy going on a rubbish reduction year

[Flo]

I seem to have managed to not buy very much landfill whilst shopping for the house from the looks of it after going through the majority of the house cupboards and drawers. If I keep an eye on things I should make the 6 months mark before the wheelie bin needs to go out for the bin men domestically.

I shall have the equivalent of about two thirds of a wheelie bin full of plastic sacks off the allotment as I've been unable to find loose compost (just can't make enough to raise half of it 3 inches in depth to be level with the paths round the edges) or five tons of well rotted horse manure (don't drive). But this is a one off problem, it's my food supply and a lot for the local family too. I refuse to wear a hair shirt over it. The amount of stuff that we compost from the two households which would have otherwise be landfill without the allotment balances out the plastic bags from the compost.

[Flo]

Things will improve no end when I get to the bottom of the tea lights. Having bought them I might as well use them but they do fill up the rubbish bag quickly.

My other source of rubbish is the fact that I buy pulses such as lentils in small bags. Hmm - better to have a think about how I buy the refills as the average supermarket only sells lentils in large packets. Pearl barley and things like dried beans all seem to come in small sizes.

So far as I know there are no places near me as I don't drive where I can buy loose and take my own containers. But that is something to be investigated as the cupboard is full at present.

[Flo]

Well I did put out the bin today. It was about a third full of my rubbish (not too bad considering that I may well now have got to the back of the cupboards). But I did have a major disaster (or two). The gardening shoes became unwearable (17 months with me is brilliant) and the slippers (same age) fell apart. Neither were compostable and neither could be recycled. The wind blew in an awful amount of garbage which I could be heave in the bin.

But the killer was - I walked home from the weekly hour long litter pick done by a group of us volunteers having said can I please take a picking stick and a sack. Ten minutes left me with half a very large bin bag of litter. Bin was beginning to be heavy to get up the seven steps.

So how is everyone else finding the year with regards to the landfill rubbish?

The recycling is dropping off due to a lack of reading newspapers

[Clara]

Was doing fairly good til yesterday (I reckon we make about 1 carrier bag a week), when my neighbour was bringing in building materials with his mules so I decided to have a major clearout so he could take it out on his return journey (rather than us carry it 1km) - most of it was recycling (lots of cardboard packaging that I'd kept just in case things had to go back), but like you just goes to show if you go looking for it there's plenty of rubbish around!

[Flo]

I reckon rubbish sits in a corner breeding.