Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby

Do you remember our Ruby and how she decided to put her own bin on a diet.

Well, I managed to catch up with her yesterday and wow, what a difference!

She told me that her family's amount of recyclables is down almost by as much as 50%, which is amazing! This means they are no longer filling their landfill bin with packaging because of overfilling their recycling bin. These days, it can all fit into the recycling bin with room to spare. This means the amount of rubbish in their landfill bin has also shrunk over the last few weeks.

When I spoke to Ruby she told me "It's as a result of being aware of choices. I've tried not to have too many ready-meals and have started cooking properly instead. I've stopped buying vegetables in packs just because they look nice and have chosen loose products instead, using the paper bags provided by the supermarket."

"Cooking properly has made a huge difference and it's a fallacy that it takes longer to make something from scratch."

"Tonight I cooked a fish recipe that I found on the BBC Good Food website, which used haddock, prawns and Parmesan. It took about 15 minutes. It is fast food but it's fast healthy food and is so much better than buying over-packaged meals. I've also found it very therapeutic just pottering about and cooking. Another website I like using is BBC Food's Get Cooking where they have videos of chefs making things. The link to the site is: www.bbc.co.uk/food/get_cooking/main/"

I was amazed to hear this. When I first chatted to Ruby about her Rubbish Diet Plan, I was careful not to overdo it, as I didn't want to put her off. Even though I suggested buying products with less packaging I hadn't quite expected such a result on the ready-meal front. After all, it was such a major part of Ruby's busy lifestyle!

This is what Ruby had to say on the matter.

"I've always been suckered into the lifestyle portrayed on ready-meal packaging, which has lovely photos on the front, but it's nothing like that when you open it up. I've realised how much we're marketed to and it's something I would now consider complaining about as much as the amount of packaging itself. Supermarkets and producers need to stop such subliminal manipulation of consumers".

I can't help agreeing with her, especially with what I know from my own marketing education that I embraced in the early nineties.

Anyway, the other big news is that the Ruby Household has recently contacted the local council's waste and recycling officer to order a wheelie bin for kitchen waste*. This will also have an impact on their rubbish, so I am looking forward to that chapter.

All of Ruby's latest news will soon be available on Ruby's Rubbish Blog, as soon as she works out how to get her photos off her new camera.

I left Ruby to enjoy her new goodies that had just arrived from Lakeland. She couldn't help being very impressed with the packaging...no bubble wrap...just brown paper that can be easily recycled.

Isn't this great...Ruby talking rubbish. The best thing is...she seems to love the subject as much as me....

...RESULT!

*If you're not sure whether you are up-to-date with your local recycling facilities, why not "ring up your council". LETS Recycle has a list of recycling officers for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. You never know what new options are available in your area. You may even find offers on things like Bokashi bins and Green Cones.

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