cutting waste.

so this morning while cleaning the kitchen, i was compelled to really reduce the amount of waste we put in the green wheelie bin that goes straight to landfill. Our council are actually quite good with recycling and we have a blue wheelie bin to put plastics, metals and paper etc as awell as an extra black box for glass. the two bins are alternated and tomorrow it is green  bin day.

Here is my challenge - like my life is not challenging enough! - to reduce the amount of waste in the green bin in the next 2 weeks. At the moment it is about 3/4 full and will be emptied in the morning.

How am i going to do this, well first is food waste. Lucy really makes a lot of waste food, as do we all really so last year i invested in a bokashi bin - well 2 actually -. the idea is you put all food waste, cooked or raw in this bin with some special bokashi bran which helps it to drain off. the bucket has a tap at the bottom and this is the great bit about it, you can tap off the rotted down liquid and dilute it as feed for your plants and vegetables and my word is this stuff good. you leave the full bin for 2 - 3 weeks and then tip it in your compost bin. It accelerates the rotting process and makes lovely compost. I often fall off the bokashi wagon and have to be spurned on to get back off. It is smelly and then sometimes i run out of bran.... anyway we are all systems go for that.

Everything else is really about careful buying and planning. Keeping an eye on the fridge and not over buying. Planning what we will eat and when. Trying to buy things in less packaging. Recycling everything that can be in all bins in the house not just downstairs. We already use washable nappies most of the time, i just need to be a bit stricter with that. Now we are also recycling our crisp packets at school and sending them to the philipines to be made into bags.

So i will keep you posted as to how we are doing and let you know the results in 2 weeks.