Tuesday 9 September 2008

The morning after the night before

Well, after celebrating yesterday, today is like waking up the morning after the night before

You'll know why if you saw ITV's Tonight programme, A Rubbish Service, which revealed actual evidence of "recycled" waste from the UK being illegally dumped in India. Waste from four separate local authorities had been identified. You know, I'd heard rumours, the usual hearsay, but this is the first documentary I've seen that reveals that it's more than just gossip.

So what do you do when you hear news like this? Give up? Go hide in a corner?

Of course not. You pick yourself up, believe in your values, keep cutting down on your rubbish, including recyclable waste and most importantly seek some form of official reassurance.

Send an email to the director of services and relevant councillor at your local county council to ask the question "Where does your rubbish end up?" And if you want to talk more, contact your MP, or go and have a chat with Mr Green. He knows a thing or two over at MyZeroWaste.com.

But what about me? Yes, I'm going to be sending off my email today too, but not before I've tackled a problem of diverted waste that lies closer to home.

You see, after several days of sourcing the whiff that's been percolating in the downstairs loo, sniffing here, there and cleaning this that and the other, last night Mr A presented me with my rucksack.

He could only say "It's your rubbish and it's your responsibility". He's getting into the swing of things is our Mr A.

I could smell it even from a couple of feet away and couldn't believe how I had missed it altogether.

As I looked inside, I could see two rotten bananas almost melting at the bottom of the bag. Oh the stink...eurrgh...the fruit flies!

No wonder I'd felt dizzy in loo. It must have been all that methane.

Well Mr A was right.

It is my rubbish and regrettably it is my responsibility, but I couldn't spoil the celebrations and get dirty bunging rotting bananas in the compost bin. Not last night!

Sadly, that's this morning's job! Bleurrgh

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8 comments:

katyboo1 said...

It could be worse. My mum wasn't too well a few weeks back and I went over to help her in a cleaning capacity. My job was the downstairs loo. It had been smelling a bit funky in there for some time and my mum was in despair because she had scrubbed it. She thought it was the drains.

Lucky old me. I found the source of the problem. It was a decomposing mouse corpse that the cat had deposited in one of my dad's old shoes. I found it by putting my hand on it. The shrieks could be heard all over the county.

I gave it a decent burial.
Good luck with the bananas.

Anonymous said...

Ewwwww, Mrs A LOL! Remind me never to use the loo in your house! I bet that smelt really bad - I hope they have gone to their new home.

And as you'll have noticed, I too am in a better frame of mind after last night's programme - it didn't take long to bounce back and get into 'fight' mode.

Let us know what your council say....

Mel said...

morning all! Not that I'm in any way trying to bring you further down but I've just read a blog post over on RealSimple.com about how far behind Europe America is when it comes to household recycling (http://tinyurl.com/58sbwd). It makes for rather a depressing read, though the comments show that progress is being made in some places.

Mel

PS For my own part, I'm afraid the c****y photos went in the bin in the end... but almost everything else has been successfully Freecycled!

Anonymous said...

I'm currently sufferinga fruit fly epidemic and, even worse, I've had to bring my wormery indoors while there is renovation work outside my flat. The wormery is going to have to be indoors for 2 months, and I've just agreed to join my council's zero waste challenge at the beginning of next month. Any ideas for getting rid of the fruit flies? Its only been 2 days and I'm already considering freecycling the wormery - help!

Mel said...

Hi Jane,

The tip Wigglies gave me for getting rid of wormery undesirables was to cover the waste with a layer of garden soil (or if you've no garden, I guess potting compost would work). I also use a generous puff of diatomaceous earth (from Wigglies) whenever I spot a fruit-fly invasion, it seems to work a treat.

Hope your worms & you are both feeling better soon!

Mel

Almost Mrs Average said...

Hi Katyboo - eurghh that's ick, but made me laugh at the same time. I must be getting evil LOL. It reminds me of a dessicated frog that we found behind our boiler once, don't know how long it had been there but at least it didn't smell. Thankfully the stinky bananas have now gone in the compost ;-D

Hi Mrs G - LOL, it's all gone now so when you're in the area, please feel free to call by. So glad you're feeling more chipper and thank you so much for your little pressie today ;-D x

Hi Mel - thanks for the link, it's always a hard pill to swallow when you see news like that, but as you say I am confident that things are on the change. If I can change many others can too. Shame about the photos but fantastic news on freecycling the other stuff ;-D

Hi Jane - thanks for dropping in with the question, as I'm writing I've just spotted Mel's answer (thanks Mel, you're a star). I too had the same problem but with big flies but took the same advice from Wiggly Wigglers. I've stopped using it for a couple of months and it all looks fine now and the worms are also alive.

So give it a go and do let me know how you get on.

It's great that you've signed up for a Zero Waste challenge and good luck. What's your local authority by the way, as I'll help to promote it on the site? Have you thought about blogging about your challenge? I'd happily link to you if you did.:-D

Thanks again Mel - what's diatomaceous earth by the way? I've never come across that before. :-D

Anonymous said...

Right, I shall try those suggestions, thank you!

It's Camden Council. I think battling fruit flies might leave me insufficient time to blog, but thank you for the offer, I shall bear it in mind.

Almost Mrs Average said...

Hi Jane - thanks for the update and good luck with both the fruit flies and the Zero Waste challenge. Do come back and let us know how you get on...and feel free to pop by with some questions. :-D

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