The Rubbish Bin
Page last updated: 18th Aug 2008
Throwing something away and getting it out of the house is therapeutic, somehow.
But, if it is going to make its way to some hole in the Earth, there to rot
- or not - for the next umpteen thousand years, then maybe the bin wasn't such
a great place.
To find out more abnout where our rubbish goes, there is a good explanation of this on the Ethical Superstore site.
So, I started to look at everything that went into the bin and see if I could dispose of it in more of a green way.
Vegetable matter
Anything that grows or is made up of things that grow in the ground it can
be composted. The secret of a good compost is to get the balance between green(G) and brown(B) waste, too much green and it gets acid and can become smelly:
- Vegetable waste (G)- all the trimmings, peelings and outside leaves.
- Cardboard cartons (B) - like those eggs come in.
- Brown paper packaging (B) - see below.
- Bread - slugs in my garden tuck into brown bread left for the birds. It keeps them off other things I'd rather they didn't eat.
- Vacuum cleaner dust (B)- OK, if you have masses of nylon carpets, this won't rot. But most of the house dust is made up of skin (we shed a lot!) and fine particles of cotton and wool from towels and clothes. Since it will be going to land fill anyway, why not use your own garden plot.
- Hair (B) - best cut into short lengths as it takes a long time to rot down and long strands can cause wild life a problem.
- Grass (G) - has a habit of suffocating a heap so layer the grass clipping with twigs (to allow air) and cardboard boxes (to keep the balance).
- Egg shells - washed and crushed. A good source of calcium.
If you have a kitchen caddy for collecting your scraps, you can line it with a compostable bag if you want to keep things clean. Just scoop up the bag full of veg waste and throw the whole thing on the compost. I generally use the paper bags that you can buy mushrooms in or just line my caddy with a paper towel to soak up extra moisture.
Meat and fish
Not a good idea to compost meat and fish - it will attract a host of opportunistic animals who tend to make a mess of your heap! In a sealed bin they are very good at creating a pong that generates flies, so not a good idea.
Any meat and fish scraps will be gladly accepted by the local cats and dogs. We have plenty of cat visitors to our garden and somewhere around is a fox, any scraps I put out at night is gone by the morning! Do cut them up though, bacon rinds can get stuck in their throats.
Bones - now here is a lot to be had from bones. Firstly, they are usually covered in meat scraps so boil them up and make stock. Now you have a lot of bones left over. Put them on a tray to dry out and next time you have the oven on, put the tray in to dry the bones out thoroughly. It doesn't take much work with a pestle and mortar to make your own bone meal and add this to your compost heap, it helps to speed up the decomposition phase.
Paper
That little hole in the front door seems to let in a lot of the stuff. Unfortunately,
boarding it up is not the answer:>) We get everything, from the glossy
magazines at one end of the spectrum through to brown paper packaging at the
other.
- Brown paper packaging:This one is easy - throw it on the compost the worms need it to balance all that green stuff.
- Glossy mags: And this includes any form of coloured printed matter needs to go in the paper recycling bins. Compost is made by worms chewing their way through everything and coloured dyes are invariably not digestible being of chemical composition.
- Tissues and Paper Towels: I tried washing hankies once - only once. There are some things it is better to throw away! So tissues are something of a mainstay in my household. Sneeze and throw. These days, however, I throw them in the compost bin. The same goes for kitchen towels, we usually use them for mopping up spills which are generally of organic matter, so throw them on the compost.
Glass bottle and jars
Well, this is pretty much standard now. Get into the habit of putting them
in the boot and, when you drive passed those green bins, stop and pop them
in. This is better than using the car to make a special trip.
On the other hand, revive the art of making your own jam, have a go at making wine and bottling fruit and veg from the garden:>)
Plastic
This is a very confusing area. Plastic is everywhere and on everything. The
recycling bins will accept bottles but not food containers. I have heard that
this is because many food containers are made of a combination of plastics
so sorting them is tricky.
I need to know more about this and what can be done to sort out our plastic problem. For example:
When I was a kid, my mother had a few heavy duty plastic bags which she would wash out and use again and again until they were punctured and beyond service. Then they invented plastic bags on a roll and cling film! Hey, how did we live without them? I have tried to cut down on my use of them by using plastic tubs to store food and bits in. These can be washed and reused many times over. No need to rush out an buy containers, they are free with many products you buy in the supermarket.
Now, if I find myself reaching for the roll of easy tear plastic bags, I think, "Have I got a handy container i could use instead?"
Plastic containers such as yogurt pots are great for the garden where you never have enough pots anyway. Sort into sizes and store in the garden shed ready for next year's seedlings.
Pots with lids such as cream or soup are great for sorting out stuff such as screws and odd bits that accumulate in the garage and shed. Just add your own label and get organised!
Large plastic 'jars' with screw top lids are useful in the pantry. Anything you buy in cellophane wrappers (sugar, dried fruit) invariably needs to go into a storage container as it splits so easily.
Plastic bags, carrier bags and polystyrene trays make up the bulk of my kitchen waste. I have no idea how I can dispose of these safely. We can cut back on some by having our own shopping bags rather than using the store provided carriers. There is now a form of bio-degradable polythene bag which my vegetable supplier, Riverford, use for their products. So I make a point of looking at all bags to see if they are marked for recycling - at least we know they will eventually break down in land fill sites. But what to do with all those wrappers: sultanas packets, sugar packets, biscuit wrappers, and so on. Ideas welcome.
Metal
Tin and aluminium cans are easy to recycle.
However, what can we do with tin foil these days? When I was a kid we used to collect milk bottle tops for guide dog charities. Not many of us have milk bottles any more but we do use a lot of tin foil.
I have looked on the net for anyone asking for tin foil. Most schemes seem to be very local but that they exist means there is a market for it. In Chesham, there is a collection tub inside the Town Hall entrance.
Plastic Carrier Bags
As part of the Plastic Bag Free Chesham campaign, I can hardly let this page go without one final comment: Give them up!
Thirty years ago we coped without them, we carried our own shopping bag. When they were first introduced they were a luxury item you paid for. Then they got thinner and cheaper and were regarded as disposable and offered free in shops. We now know the cost of this free give away. It blows in wind, clogs landfill sites, and pollutes our environment. Giving them up is one very easy way to help save the planet :>)