Home Truth

Partly as a result of the great quantity of stuff I talked about yesterday, we generate a great quantity of waste. We are in the privileged position of having TWO wheelie bins! A long story - large family; entitled to a larger bin; never been delivered; using two normal wheelie bins in the meantime; the meantime stretching to over two years!

Anyway, I can remember when as a family, we easily filled the two bins every week. Now sometimes we only put one out. How? By learning how to dispose of waste more responsibly and effectively.

Recycling has become the norm. The council box provided for recycling is filled with all our crushed cans and glass jars and bottles. Changing a habit can feel hard initially but at some time becomes second nature, until you can’t imagine living without the fortnightly recycling collection.

The dark green bin for garden waste is less often filled at this address. Not because we have no garden, but because we are cultivating the natural overgrown wilderness look. However, on the rare occasion that we take pity on our neighbours and have nothing better to do on a Saturday afternoon, we trim (today’s understatement!) back the hedge, prune the dead heads off the shrubs, cut the grass and rake up the leaves - and then are able to dispose of the resulting pile in an appropriate purpose-built manner.

I believe some of you are not so lucky. Some councils are not as forward-thinking as ours. They’ll get there - particularly if you point it out to them on a regular basis!

While we are on the subject of gardens, we are also blessed with a council-provided compost bin. My husband is so proud of the fantastic compost he has cultivated over recent years. Unlike the Panorama eco-man last week, my husband does not urinate in ours as far as I know: maybe because he would need a stepladder for an accurate aim and that may be considered a bit risky! No, he keeps our compost moist with the grounds from the cafetiere, which is a great way for him to justify his filter coffee addiction.

Unfortunately, as I have already said, we are not great gardeners, so the fruits of his labours do not often see the light of day. Maybe he is saving it for when the kids leave home and we suddenly sprout green fingers. It should be really quality compost in fifteen years’ time!

Collecting scraps for the compost used to be a great trial for me, I have to admit. My optimistic gardener of the future insisted on an open plastic container precariously perched on the kitchen window sill half full of fruit and veg in various stages of decomposition. Now we have a handy little plastic compost bin - with a handle, a lid and it’s even green to match the kitchen! Even more pleasing, it comes with little completely biodegradable bags to make transferring the waste so much less of a nightmare.

Never knew I could get so animated about a load of rubbish! More on our household waste next time!A load of rubbish

Filed under: Uncategorized on March 9th, 2007