A bin update (or how we went a year without putting our bin out!)
The end of #ZeroWasteWeek feels like a good time for an update on my 'bin adventures'.
Avid(?!) followers might remember the heady excitement and minor social media hoo-ha when I posted in mid August last year about putting our bin out for the first time. Going 9 months without putting our black (landfill) bin out felt like quite an achievement, but also, annoying close but oh so far from a whole year. So I decided I wanted to see if we could do a full year from that mid August point.
And we've only gone and done it!
Before anyone wants to punch my smug not quite zero waste face, please know that this has taken over 10 years of chipping away at our rubbish to get to the point. It's far from an overnight success story, but I think genuinely a great example of how small changes really do add up.
Big wins:
- Getting a Green Johanna hot composter from Great Green Systems for our food waste (STILL no food waste collection in Wiltshire..!)
- Soft plastic recycling at the supermarket - am on the fence about the efficacy of this, BUT it does put the ball (packaging) firmly back into the supermarkets court to deal with
- We're lucky that our nearest zero waste shop (shout out to Denude in Frome ) is still up and running so we try and support that whenever we can
- I enjoy baking, so it's no real hardship for me to make homemade snacks, which massively reduces packaging
- We get a weekly Riverford fruit and veg box which also hugely reduces packaging
I absolutely acknowledge the privilege that allows us to make some of the choices that we do, and that not everyone will be able to do the same. BUT it really is a case of one change at a time - pick ONE item that appears regularly in your bin, and investigate options (they don't have to be perfect zero waste options, less waste is still better than doing nothing!)
