The Friday Journal Week 2s rubbish highlights

So, hello you wonderful gaggle of bin-slimmers! Its almost the end of Week 2 of The Rubbish Diet challenge and what another fantastic week its been, with our EIGHT households dotted around the country - and New York - facing up to the challenges and in most cases overcoming their frustrations to reduce their waste.  Its been brilliant to see them reporting back on local recycling facilities that theyve discovered, and not just those provided by their local councils but opportunities supplied by chain stores too, which have take-back facilities for plastic film (e.g. supermarkets), batteries (e.g. Robert Dyas) and small electricals (e.g. O2 stores recycle digital cameras, iPods as well as phones).  As this week is all about shopping habits, its a great reminder to keep your eyes peeled for stuff that you can recycle when youre next in town.

And talking of eyes.  That photo up there in that top right hand corner, is by no way my attempt at creating an air of authority over our waste-busters.  Its more of a reminder that my personal highlight of the week has been my submission to middle-age with my commitment to varifocals. And with a 2-for-1 offer at Vision express, I decided to ditch the option of getting a free second pair of brand new specs and instead had my old reading glasses reglazed with my new prescription.  I cant even begin to tell you the joys at being able to see the screen properly.  Of course, if I hadnt chosen the reglazing option, I could have donated my old glasses to the Vision Aid Overseas scheme, for which Vison Express collected 10,000 pairs of spectacles in 2010.  If Im honest, Im now feeling a bit guilty for having had them reglazed and not donating them, but I only realised when it was too late. Other ideas for recycling unwanted glasses can be found over at MyZeroWaste.

Elsewhere, of more national interest, the £250m treasure chest to revert to costly weekly rubbish collections was launched today.  Rather than repeat myself, Ill recycle the blogpost that I wrote on the matter in September when the scheme was first announced.  It would be detrimental to revert to outdated weekly collection methods but hopefully the fund will enable those councils that wish to invest in diverting food waste out of landfill, to add such a scheme to their service.

News from plastics reprocessors also reveals that as more different types of plastics are collected, serious investment is still needed in proper separation methods to improve the quality of output from the recycling process, as well as harnessing a wider public commitment to recycle more plastic bottles within the household waste stream.  On the other side of the waste stream, it has also been highlighted that retailers are still finding waste reduction a key issue in their supply chains, despite making progress on their own operations.  It really does show that when you look at the wider picture, just like trying to improve things on the home-front, it can feel like three steps forward and one step back.


However, progress is being made throughout all aspects of the waste stream and highlights that every participant has a role to play!  And each effort counts, whether its the recently announced agreement amongst London bars & restaurants commiting to ditch the humble plastic straw,  or independent retailers like Mark Hall, pictured left, whose business provides a take-back scheme for customers to return their old Courtyard Chutney Co. jars.

For example, with each jar returned, customers receive 25p off their next purchase, which is great news for regular customers, Marks business and what he describes as "jar miles".  All jars, whether new or old, have to sterilised before use, so the process still saves the business money and with brand new sealable lids that conform to H&S regulations, jars can be back on display within days.

And finally, back to our bin-slimmers.  The most lovely surprise of the week was the news that Terry-Anna from Ipswich appeared on BBC Radio Suffolks Mark Murphy show on Wednesday with an update on her Rubbish Diet challenge. Having only created just half a rubbish bag of waste this week, she explained her strategy on-air.  Do listen in if you have a chance before next Wednesday.  Its a bit of a giggle and youll find it at 2hrs 36m into the programme.

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The Friday Journal Its all been happening in Week 1

What a week its been.  Very much of a whirlwind really, which kicked off in great style on Monday launching on BBC Radio Suffolk from Bury St Edmunds Household Waste Recycling Centre.

It really is incredible to see how much can happen in just five days. News coming in from the households participating in the challenge includes great discoveries of local recycling facilities that will help keep all sorts of materials out of the bin.




There have been challenges too, including one household, which was trying to find a convenient Tetra Pak recycling bank. Hopefully that will be resolved.
 

The bin slimmers have also been organising new storage facilities, recycling new things and have even given me access to their bins to see if anything had been missed.  And yes, it is rewarding to find stuff in a bin that can be passed on easily for recycling and already fits in with an existing recycling routine.

Ive made a few discoveries this week too, not least that all the recycling centres across Suffolk take plastic packaging such as rice and pasta packets as well as the polythene bags, but we can also bung corks in their timber collection and their media banks will accept VHS tapes, cassettes as well as CDs and DVDs.

Thats the thing with recycling centres, facilities are always changing so if its been a while, its always worth popping in for a bit of a gander, as was discovered by one of our participants today, who drives past most days but has never been in, except for one occasion as a passenger.

Other great discoveries include improvements over the last year to council business recycling facilities in Bury St Edmunds, which now includes heavyweight items such as glass. Having met with our borough council today, Im also looking forward to more good news being announced over the next few months.  Further afield, Aylesbury Vale District Council, home to one of our families, will also be announcing improvements to their service too.

This week, our local primary school commited to taking its own Rubbish Diet Challenge and has already started to investigate how they can reduce food waste over the next seven weeks, a project thats been adopted by their eco-club, so Ill be keeping an eye on how they get on.

And elsewhere, a local cafe, The Coffee House in Moreton Hall, signed up as a Tapwater.org refill station, enabling passers-by to refill their water bottles for free and reduce the need for bottled water. I only suggested it on Wednesday and by Thursday, they were on the Tapwater map.

So what with our Ipswich bin slimmer receiving her new slim bin from the council, a compost bin on order for another and a kitchen waste caddy awaiting delivery and some reports coming in of less waste, it has been a really good start to The Rubbish Diet Challenge 2012.  And I really cant thank the participants enough, as well as others who are joining in as the challenge progresses.

But the proof is always in the pudding and we will find out more at next weeks Monday Meeting, when a new set of mini-challenges will be set,

However, in the meantime, if you havent seen it before, do check out one of my favourite videos of this week, put together by Tim Atkinson, aka The Dotterel, whos taking the challenge in Lincolnshire.  The full blogpost can be found here.

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