I'm going in, I may be some time!

Ok it's half term and it has to be done - the bedroom raid! Time to reorganise and declutter my 15 year old's bedroom. It is time to put the train set, the bricks and lego in the loft and to persuade my children to part with a whole load of soft toys and games that haven't seen the light of day for about 5 years. So after about 4 hours of cleaning, sorting and a lot of arguing - I finally ended up with 4 bags of toys for the charity shop. Just dropped them off at Hope House along with a bag of rags from the dressing up box - the lady was really happy to have toys at this time of year and Hope House gladly accepts rags. Just checked the wheelie bin and someone has put some old cracked black plastic plant pots in there!!

Repurposing! Don't you just love Americans?

Check out these great Reuse ideas http://www.boredpanda.com/creative-reuse-upcycling-repurposing-ideas/ So far my reuse ideas have not been quite so creative! - I am amusing myself by making wrapping paper from foil lined chocolate wrappers. I vow not to buy any wrapping paper at all this Christmas. Apparently coffee foil pouches turned inside out make pretty gift bags as well - not sure cat food pouches would have the same appeal?

What to do with ripped clothes and socks beyond repair

James Thompson at Shropshire Council has answered my query about whether you can put unusable textiles in the BCR textile banks at the Household Recycling Centre. James checked with the contractor and they assured him that they recycle everything that cannot be sold or used. James has suggested that they state this clearly on their banks - to stop people throwing textiles in landfill. Textile banks provision has been sub-contracted to midlands firm BCR Global who have installed containers at around 80 public sites including all of the main Council recycling centres Watch this short film to see how the textiles get sorted for re-use in developing countries or recycling into industrial rags http://www.bcrglobal.com/videos.html?play=full_dvd They obviously prefer to get as much of the good quality wearable garments which have more resale value but they can accept torn, ripped, broken and worn out do recycle the lower grade stuff, virtually nothing goes to landfill. So it's also a good outlet for lower grade textiles, linen, towels etc. I've checked with the contractor and the specification has not altered - it's still as per this list on our website. I have asked Veolia to make sure their staff are briefed and containers are clearly labeled etc. http://www.shropshire.gov.uk/waste.nsf/open/9FB272EC5FF31FD7802570D9003A2C00 On the same note - I noticed that the OXFAM textile banks at Sainsburys do state that all textiles that can't be sold will be recycled. Do you know of any other outlets for unuseable textiles? Bye for now Ali 07972858313

Did you know how important metal recycling is?

Recycling metal saves a huge amount of energy because the raw materials don't have to be dug out of the ground. Here is the information about kerbside metal recycling from Shropshire Waste website: http://www.shropshire.gov.uk/waste.nsf Metal packaging is 100% recyclable. Not just once: It can be recycled over and over again, into a huge variety of products. Every time it is recycled it saves natural resources, energy and cuts greenhouse gas emissions. Best of all, it doesn't take a lot of effort on your part to make a big difference. You can recycle the following metal items at kerbside: cans tins empty aerosols foil foil trays It's really important that we recycle every last scrap of metal, because all metal is precious. Metal recycling is one the most environmentally beneficial bits of recycling you can do. If you put just two extra metal cans in your recycling box you'll save enough energy to power your TV set for 12 hours! What happens to Shropshire's recycled metal? To make collection more efficient for everyone, metal packaging gets collected mixed with the plastics and so first it has to go to Veolia's Materials Recycling Facility in Wolverhampton to be separated using special magnets. The metal needs further sorting into the steel and aluminium fractions before they can be recycled. Steel goes to AGM in South Wales to be melted down in a furnace to make new steel. It goes into a variety of manufacturing processes. It could end up as a steel girder in a building, or a bicycle or a kettle or a washing machine or baked bean tins - the possibilities are endless! Aluminium goes to the Novelis closed-loop recycling plant in Cheshire where it is primarily used to make more cans. All metal is recyclable ...but unfortunately we cannot currently collect it all from the kerbside… Please dont put metal items like pots and pans, empty paint tins, bikes, garden tools, door handles, nuts and bolts etc. out for collection! You can still recycle them all but you just need to take them up to Battlefield and put them in the scrap metal bay at the Household Recycling Centre. http://www.shropshire.gov.uk/waste.nsf/open/1536bb96cc150f2580257021004523da

Lush for a Zero Waste bath

Thanks James for reminding me about Lush - a company that produces great toiletries with no waste!! Great for zero waste present - I might treat myself if I manage to halve my refuse over the next two weeks! For an alternative theres truly no waste with these lush bath bombs There's one in Telford, they only use recyclable paper wrappers and generally try to avoid any packaging at all Lush are quite a good example of a firm doing something on waste http://www.lush.co.uk/content/view/783 I remember them running a "shop 'naked' with lush" campaign http://pudding88.blog.com/2009/10/28/lush/