Veolia Advent Calendar

Just heard about this ..... Watch your Waste-line this Christmas Check out the Veolia Shropshire Advent Calendar www.veoliashropshireadventcalendar.co.uk "Count down the days until Christmas with our waste and recycling advent calendar. Veolia Environmental Services and Shropshire Council have launched an online waste-themed advent calendar – which is perfect for helping Shropshire residents stay green this Christmas and watch their ‘waste’-lines! Every day throughout December, until Christmas Eve, there will be a new helpful hint about reducing waste this Christmas, or a mind-boggling fact about just how much we use and throw away throughout the festive period." So far so good..... What motivates you? When you hear a shocking fact about waste does it make you want to produce less waste? Maybe, you prefer to be part of the solution - so hearing about how well we are doing as a community gives you that incentive to work even harder at waste reduction? I like to know what difference recycling is making - how much energy we save, how much space in landfill we save and how many raw materials we save I would love to know what motivates you to slim your bin thanks ali

safe dates for food

Karen Cannard - the creator of the Rubbish Diet sent over this link from love food hate waste campaign.... "Re food, it's also worth remembering that even up to its Use By date, certain food can still be frozen. Here's a great link that you might like to share around your community:" http://england.lovefoodhatewaste.com/content/know-your-dates-londons-love-food-hate-waste-campaign I think I just need a 30 hour day - then I would be really organised! The chickens next door are enjoying my attempts at getting rid of food waste and the dog is getting fat! This has got to stop - no more food waste from now on!

Why oh Why do supermarkets sell stuff in black plastic trays?

Please tell me why supermarkets are selling stuff in black plastic trays? We cannot recycle them in Shropshire - even the most modern. sophisticated plastics separation facility can't do anything with black trays!! So why is stuff still sold in them? Are the black trays cheaper to produce? Does the food look better on a black tray? Either way, there should be a way that forces non-recyclable packaging out of the loop. Perhaps, there should be a disposal surcharge on products if their packaging is non-recyclable to discourage food companies from using it. Perhaps, supermarkets could start to refuse to sell products which come in non-recyclable packaging.... Another idea would be for supermarkets to provide the facility to take back all their own packaging.... all the bring banks in the car park are a good start - but if supermarkets had to find recycling and disposal routes for all the packaging they sold - they would soon start to only sell things wrapped in stuff that is easy and cheap to handle. Oh for a joined up World...

Landfills don't need calories

Talking of food waste - here's a bit of info to get us thinking.... "As its coming up to Christmas we could all do with a bit more spare cash in our wallet, right? Well did you know that the average UK family throws out approximately £550 worth of food each year! Shocking, isn't it? But it's true and most of that is simply because we buy too much or cook too much and then never get round to eating it. And of course when you've got a busy lifestyle with kids this problem is just magnified. Some kids can be fussy eaters too - we've all spend hours slaving over a hot stove only to see the little ones leave half the food uneaten on their plate. Well one way to help avoid this is getting your children more involved in meal planning and preparing dinner. This can be fun and may help them to appreciate the value of food and waste less. Simply by planning out your meals for the week ahead in a diary, you can reduce waste because you can plan out a shopping list, so that you only buy what you really need. Some ways of reducing food waste are really as simple as just storing food in a different place. Two-thirds of UK households are letting fruit go to waste, simply by keeping it out in a fruit bowl whereas fruit like apples will last up to 14 days longer if kept in the fridge. Another top tip is to make the most of your freezer. Try freezing any leftovers in individual portions and then you have a perfect lunch to take to work in the week. But make sure you wrap food properly before freezing to keep it at its best. Use freezer bags or plastic containers and minimize the air around the food helps avoid ‘freezer burn’. And it's not just all about money - by saving food waste we can all tread more lightly on the planet. Producing, distributing, storing and cooking food uses energy, fuel and water. All these activities result in greenhouse gases which contribute to global warming. Think of a pack of cheese for example. The resources that go into raising the cows, processing the milk, transporting the cheese, refrigeration, the fuel we use to drive to the shop to buy it - all this to put it in the bin at the end of the week. It's insane but it's happening all over the country right now - in fact in the UK we throw away the equivalent of more than three million slices of cheese every single day! In Shropshire around 20% of all household waste is food waste - so that means we're producing about 30,000 tonnes of the stuff every year. Of course now some of this will be composted or feed to pets and the like but even if it doesn’t all end up in landfill its far better to avoid this waste in the first place. Being frugal with your food is helping to ensure our environment is protected for the future generations." For more handy hints and tips and a delicious selection of family friendly recipes visit http://england.lovefoodhatewaste.com/ Regards, James Thompson, Waste Prevention Officer Waste Management Shropshire Council

The results are in.... 1st fortnight on Rubbish Diet Shropshire

Well after 2 weeks of eating, sleeping and talking rubbish - tonight I have weighed our rubbish..... da da daaah 5 people and a dog have produced 2 and a half bags of rubbish weighing a total of 5.4 kg. My wheelie bin is one third full. Our wheelie bin at the last bin day was nearly full with 5 bags in it weighing a total of 10kg. So in both weight and volume we have reduced our rubbish by almost 50%. The reduction is great but is 5.4kg still high? What weight of rubbish does an average UK family throw away each fortnight? Can anybody tell me? My next question is can we get any lower? Well, we seem to be getting into a rhythm now - avoiding non recyclable packaging. Our recycling system has had an overhaul to make it more efficient and the boys are heeding the big notice on the bin that says NO PLASTIC, NO METAL, NO PAPER, NO CARD AND CHECK WITH ME FIRST!! Our biggest problem is food waste. A couple of errors on portion size or forgetting to use up leftovers and bingo you have another kilo of methane just waiting to happen! So my big push over the next 2 weeks will be to be much more careful planning meals, buying food - trying not to be drawn in by bargain buys and using my freezer more effectively. Check out www.lovefoodhatewaste.org.uk to stop feeding landfill!! And thanks to the grow cook share project in Craven Arms because tey are going to share their Bokashi knowledge with us.

Use Freegle for free stuff!

Freegle is fab! I am sitting on an office chair I acquired from a lady in Castlefields - I needed one and she needed the space - perfect! I had been storing a marble fireplace for years - i eventually put it on freegle and it was out of my garage 24 hours later! Freegle (replaces freecycle) in Shrewsbury. 5800 locals use this grassroots, and growing, free, non-profit local recycling opportunity. You offer something you don’t need on the web, goods or services for free, or look to acquire something you need yourself. A bonus is it keeps unwanted stuff out of landfill! To join, see: Local Shrewbury Group: www.freegle.in/shrewsbury Local group via Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ShrewsburyFreegle For national information: www.ilovefreegle.org

Cardboard Christmas will be on 5th January in Shrewsbury

In the last year Shropshire Council have provided a number of cardboard bins around the county www.shropshirewaste.org.uk BUT these will not cope at Christmas!! To make sure that we keep cardboard out of landfill Transition Shrewsbury are running another Cardboard Christmas day on 5th January 2013. The aim is to collect as much cardboard as possible - getting it out from under your feet, keeping it out of landfill at the same time as raising some cash for local charity We will be collecting cardboard at at least 3 sites in Shropshire: The Red Barn Pub on Longden road Belle Vue The United Reform Church, Abbey Foregate South Shropshire Furniture Scheme Ludlow If you would like to volunteer to help us .... ....or if you would like to run your own Cardboard Christmas project please contact Ali on alison.thomas08@gmail.com Download our Keeping Cardboard out of Landfill Guide from www.transitiontownshrewsbury.org.uk How about collecting down your street - we can supply bags for you to use. For more information - drop us a line So far we have Ashley Street, Woodfield Road and Woodfield Avenue, Castlefields, Would love to have more......

Recycling Day - a good or a bad thing?

Just put out the recycling for kerbside collection tomorrow.... great to get it all out of my kitchen!! 1 and a half black dustbins completely full of plastic pots, bottles, trays, foil and tins 1 green wheelie bin full of woody garden waste about 10kg of paper 6 wine bottles Plus I had a meeting at the Red Barn tonight so took my cardboard up there and I took a carrier bag full of plastic film to the plastic bag bin at Sainsburys and this week I recycled 3 bags of toys and 2 bags of clothes Meanwhile in my grey wheelie bin there lies one bag of rubbish weighing 3.1 kg. Mixed feelings about all this - on the one hand it is amazing how much you can recycle in Shropshire when you put your mind to it but, then again, we have used so much stuff, so much energy has gone into making all that stuff, everything comes in so much packaging...... SO now i have a dual challenge - the first to try and eliminate non recyclable waste and the second is to reduce the overall amount of stuff we produce as a family. Any tips on where to shop to reduce packaging gratefully received thanks ali

Even your odd socks can be recycled!

Just had a nice conversation with lady at Severn Hospice. She says that the Hospice shop on Wyle Cop is very happy to receive rags - just put them in a tied up bag and label them rags so that they don't waste time sifting through them. they sell them to the rag man who recycles all the textiles. You can put clothes in bags in a bank at Red Barn - these clothes are not sorted and are sent lock stock and barrel to eastern Europe. Usable clothes will find a new home - but you can't be sure that unusable items will be recycled. The Salvation Army have a bank at ASDA - check out this link to see what happens to them http://www.wear2bank.co.uk/Questions Better to take rags to OXFAM banks at Sainsburys or bag them up and take them to a charity shop. By the way - I also found a cardboard bank at ASDA! Great for people in Abbey Foregate, Monkmoor and BelleVue

Stopping junk mail benefits all

Follow the link to see how to stop junk mail http://shropshire.gov.uk/news/2012/11/council-helps-residents-to-reduce-junk-mail/ Although we can recycle all our junk mail - it is still better not to produce it in the first place! By signing up to the mail preference service we save trees, save energy, save space in our recycling bins and save the council money in reduced collection costs which in turn means our council tax goes further! I signed up on-line and even I found it straightforward! By the way - anyone got any clue what to do with plastic animal feed bags?

3 days of rubbish diet

Ok we are 3 days into rubbish diet.... I have 4 broken plastic plant post in my wheelie. But my kitchen bin although small and compact is almost three quarters full!! What on earth is in there? yoghurt lids chocolate wrappers the plastic film from meat trays scrapings of a burnt pan a load of bits and bobs including half a plastic sword from under the bed!

Check out James' blog on love shrewsbury

James Thompson, Waste Prevention officer at Shropshire Council is blogging about recycling on Love Shrewsbury website http://www.loveshrewsbury.com/blog/james-thompson Great stuff James - please can you blog about our Rubbish Diet thanks