The Rubbish Diet Challenge: Week 5, Dig for victory

Tomato seedlings on the windowsill in 2009

Can you believe we're now at Week 5 of the Rubbish Diet challenge. How time flies. It doesn't seem that long ago, since I was challenging you to your first weigh-in. I hope all is going well with your efforts to slim your bin and that you're enjoying the mini-challenges.

This week I hope to inspire you to make further inroads into your household waste by doing some extra things around the garden. That is if you happen to be blessed with a small patch to call your own. Even if you don't have a garden, you can still join in if you've only got a windowsill going spare around your home.

This week's guide will get you thinking about how you can reduce waste whilst gardening and how you can use your garden to reduce waste too, helping you to find ways to avoid packaging and divert your kitchen scraps away from the rubbish bin. There are lots of ideas to encourage you to grow your own and includes a mini-guide to composting as well as an introduction to keeping chickens for those who fancy taking their self-sufficiency a little bit further.

So there should be something for everyone this week and even if you're not that much of a keen gardener, I hope you'll get in the spirit and consider planting up at least one small container of your favourite herb, vegetable or fruit-bearing plant.

And if you want to be inspired to compost a bit more, don't just take my word for how easy it is. I've gathered a few examples that have been sent in over the last few months from some of my blogging and Twitter friends, both old and new.

For example, here's how Susanna at A Modern Mother collects her kitchen peelings, in a convenient caddy for transferring to her compost bin in the garden. She's blogged about her composting experiences to help share the knowledge over at
http://www.amodernmother.com/2010/02/how-to-compost.html



And here's an example of how the professionals do it too, thanks to expert gardener Claire Brown from PlantPassion, who saw my plea for photos last year via her Twitter account @PlantPassion. The photo on the left shows the contents from a wooden compost bin, revealing much better quality compost than I make.

Claire sent an example of her plastic dalek composter and new tumbler as well. No doubt, this set up will have some readers browsing with envy.

Claire also sent me a link to a fabulous blogpost she's written about compost bins and rats and includes useful advice, whether you are a novice composter or have been at it for some time. Visit : http://plant-passion.typepad.com/plant_passion/2009/05/could-my-compost-bin-attract-rats.html.


Fellow tweeter and blog reader @MrsBYork sent in a photo of York Rotters' demonstration bin, showing which types of items can go in it. To see a larger version, just click on the photo.







The photo to the right shows Mrs B's compost set up at home, which shows you don't really need much space at all.






Sarah Barnard, author, blogger and Twitter user @ethicstrading, has a couple of dalek type bins and revealed how she managed to get one of them free from her local Frecycle Group. As she says, not bad for a freebie eh! Too right, especially as I had to pay around £20 for mine, which is exactly the same as Sarah's.

Of course if you've got enough land you don't even need to worry about having a container to put it in. You can simply create your own compost heap in a suitable spot that takes your fancy.

So I really don't think I could finish today's introduction to this week's online guide without showing you the king of domestic compost heaps, brought to my attention by fellow Twitter user and composter @MartinCampbell2. Here it is in all its woodland glory. I can only dream of such space and consider it a rather spectacular specimen.



Now it's all very well composting, but eventually you also need to do something with it. Here's an example of what blogger AllGrownUp does with her compost, proving that you don't even need a huge veg patch to justify going to the trouble. In her blogpost she describes what it's like to "harvest" your compost for the very first time and how it's great to have free stuff made from what would otherwise be rubbish.

http://allgrownup06.blogspot.com/2009/05/in-garden.html.

And if you're looking for even more examples of composting, Mrs Green at MyZeroWaste wrote a guide for beginners, which she published on her blog last week: http://myzerowaste.com/2010/02/beginners-guide-to-compost

So with enthusiasm like that, I hope we've all been able to inspire you to get out into whatever space you have and start digging for victory in your war against waste.

Of course you may just fancy putting your feet up until it gets a bit warmer and I can't say I blame you. So let's take advantage with a nice cuppa and grab a moment to read more about this week's Rubbish Diet challenge. You'll find everything you need now online at: http://tinyurl.com/TheRubbishDietWeek5

And when you're finished do go and see how other bloggers are getting on with their own challenges. Share some support and say hi to the following waste watchers: Carol at New Mummy Tips; Pippa at A Mother's Ramblings and Tepary at Grow Family Grow. So far, it looks like they're doing brilliantly. Maybe very soon I'll mention those three little words "Zero Waste Week". Well I might as well start hinting now and it's not as scary as it sounds.

Thanks to everyone who's sent photos and links. It really is appreciated. It's always useful to have a whole range of real-life examples that can be shared with others.

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The Rubbish Diet Challenge: Week 3, Waste Not Want Not

Welcome to Week 3 of The Rubbish Diet Challenge, where this week I am taking you into the kitchen to find out how much food gets thrown in your bin.

Managing food waste is one of the most important areas of waste reduction. Not only has it huge potential for slimming your bin, but by reducing what you throw away can save you money and provide environmental rewards too.

According to WRAP's LoveFoodHateWaste campaign if we all stop wasting food we could have eaten, the CO2 impact is the equivalent of taking 1 in 4 cars off the road. That's a startling statistic and when I first heard it, it really made my jaw drop in surprise.

So in Week 3, I will be revealing what type of food waster I was, in the hope that even the least careful of folk will see that there is light at the end of the tunnel. And I've included tricks for using up leftovers as well as advice about portions and ways of dealing with waste if you just can't simply eat any more.

And if you're a stranger to the kitchen with the exception of visiting the microwave, I hope to inspire you to grab your apron, or lab coat and start experimenting with food. There's so much more to being a rubbish cook, than simply being rubbish in the kitchen. You never know, you may even be tempted to have a go at making pasta or bread as an alternative way to cut down on packaging.

So if you're ready to crack on with Week 3 of the Rubbish Diet Challenge, find out what you're in for at:

http://tinyurl.com/TheRubbishDietWeek3

Oh and I almost forgot, I did a spot of reminiscing today and if you didn't catch it at the time, here's one of the recordings I did for BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour a couple of years ago.



STOP PRESS

iPhone users - there's an exciting new app available from www.wasteawarelovefood.org.uk, which will help you plan your meals from your phone with a recipe finder and portion planner. You can download it directly from the itunes store.

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You really don't need much space to compost

Look, you can even get a wormery for your desk at work!
available from Bubble House

Hot on the heels of yesterday's post about my new Worm Cafe wormery, comes the news from Recycle Now that lack of space in the garden is one of the main reasons given by many people for not composting garden and household waste.

However according to Recycle Now’s Home Composting campaign, it need not be a barrier and with so many composting and other options available, anyone with outside space – around 95 per cent of households - should be able to give it a go.

Recycle Now's research reveals that over a third of us already compost garden and household waste in one way or another, using a compost bin or heap. Of those that don’t, one in four say this is because they do not have the space.

But as we've already seen on this blog, even the smallest outdoor spaces can be used for making compost.

Carl Nichols, Head of Home Composting at Recycle Now said:

“With so much choice available, anyone with outside space can compost at home. Even those of us with just a small patio or balcony, can do our bit, for example by using a wormery to turn waste food into free food for plants- indoors or out."

“Increasing numbers of people are starting to compost at home and we want these people to pass on their tips to their friends and families. By composting at home, not only are we reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill each year, we are also producing a rich and nutritious plant food with a wide range of uses for vegetables, indoor and outdoor plants and even lawns.”

To demonstrate that time and space needn’t be an issue and to bust other myths about composting, Recycle Now has put together a beginners’ guide:


1. Heap or bin? A compost heap is perhaps one of the most traditional methods for composting. However, compost bins are now widely available and popular as they are simple to purchase, construct and use.


2. What type of bin is for me? There are compost bins of all shapes and sizes, to suit your gardening needs.

· Small garden? There are many alternative designs of compost bin to suit all garden needs such as beehive designs or bins made out of recycled wood.
· Balcony or porch? A wormery is the ideal solution for someone with little or no garden. · Lots of space? The opportunities are endless – there are a range of larger bins available from many Local Authorities and most garden centres.
· No outside space? Some councils offer a separate collection for food or garden waste. Why not check with your local council to see if this option is available in your area.


3. Garden design: If you are concerned about how your garden will look when you start composting, build the bin into the design of your garden. Compost bins could be disguised behind surround made of either brick or timber (or stone if in keeping with your garden), or you can put trellis in front of your bin and grow climbers over it for a really natural screen.


4. Getting started: Simply add a selection of ‘greens and browns’ to the bin for the perfect mix. ‘Greens’ are quick to rot and provide important nitrogen and moisture – try tea bags, vegetable peelings, old flowers and nettles, or spent bedding plants. ‘Browns’ such as cardboard, fallen leaves, twigs and branches are slower to rot, but provide carbon and fibre to the bin.


5. The end product: After nine months to a year your compost will be mature enough to use. You’ll know it’s ready when the compost has turned into a dark, crumbly soil-like substance. It can be used to enrich borders and plants. If you have little use for compost, consider using a wormery as this will produce less compost but plenty of plant food. For further information about home composting and how to get started, as well as advice and information to help you along the way, visit www.recyclenow.com/compost

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To support Recycle_Now's campaign I would love to feature photos of your home composting solution as well as details of the most unusual things you compost. I'll publish my favourites on the blog at the end of the month. Either email at karen[at]therubbishdiet[dot]co[dot]uk or send me a link via Twitter.

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Getting all wiggly at the worm cafe

Don't you love it when folk give you a second chance in life?

It makes you feel grateful doesn't it, especially when you're carrying a whole load of guilt about being a...

...Worm Murderer!

Yes a killer of defenceless little wiggly things.

I know. I am guilty as charged m'lord and I don't feel good about it.

Which is why I am thankful for a lovely gift I received from Wiggly Wigglers, which arrived on my doorstep just over a month ago.



It was their latest wormery...appropriately called the Worm Cafe, giving me the opportunity to make up for my misdemeanours.

The Can-o-Worms wormery that I'd previously been using had been going quite well until we hit winter last year, when I really couldn't be bothered to take my peelings and food scraps along the path, past the spikey plants and delve amongst the wet bushes just to feed the worms. It was much easier to bung everything in the Bokashi bin.

If the wormery had been smaller, we could have simply stored it outside the kitchen door and would have been far more convenient to use. However as useful as the Can-o-Worms was, it was just too big to do that and would have got in the way. I know, because I tried it.

But the Worm Cafe is perfectly shaped to fit into the smallest of corners. And just like the Can-o-Worms, it is easy to set up and comes complete with bedding, worms, a lime mix, worm treat and moisture mat when bundled with the Value Pack. It's also made from recycled plastic, so that's great news too.


I'm now pleased to say that our Worm Cafe has now been established just outside our kitchen for over a month and from a convenience perspective is very easy to use, particularly because its lid rests on the edge, so you don't have to juggle that while adding the scraps.



And as we no longer throw so much away these days, it is now the perfect size for my family, especially as we also have chickens and I no longer use the Bokashi bins.

I am confident that at last we've got a fool-proof system but I suppose I'm going to have to get through the Winter and see the first compost before I can truly celebrate.

In the meantime, I'm pleased to pass on our old wormery to our Beaver Scout leader and make my promise to be better behaved with my new batch of worms.

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More information about the Worm Cafe can be found at www.wigglywigglers.co.uk.

No Sex Please, We're British

I know I'm turning into a girl with a one track mind, (not to be confused with THE girl of course), so for a change, I thought I'd break away from the subject of rubbish and focus on worms.

Last week I emptied out the "liquid gold" from the wormery and noticed that yet again, there were quite a number of the wiggly things in there, all dead.

Since I got the wormery in February, I must have emptied out almost as many as came with the can'o'worms.

Forever feeling remorseful for the number of dead worms that get scattered in my garden, I thought I should order some new ones to keep the spirit of the wormery alive and wriggling.

Yet, when I poked about in the crumbly rich compost, there were hundreds of the wriggly wiggly creatures. All looking very happy indeed.

I felt relieved, but how were there so many? Somehow, I couldn't stop my thoughts wandering in the direction of how worms breed.

I know it seems a bit rude to barge into their personal lives, but I thought I'd have a poke around with an old stick to try and find some evidence.

But there was nothing fruity going on in wormland. They were just all going about their everyday business, as little single worms do.

I am not surprised really. After all, what worm wants to meet his beloved for a date with some cold peas and rice under the watchful eye of their keeper? Let alone get it on after their romantic interlude.

So there was nothing for it but to ring up the experts, Wiggly Wigglers, and pose the question "How do worms breed?" They made it sound so easy.

Worms as you know are Hermaphrodites, which means that they all have male and female reproductive organs. They breed by sliding through each other's saddle, which is the thick part of the worm. An egg is formed and fertilised as it travels along the worm's body where eventually it drops off its nose. It then takes around 4-6 weeks for the little worms to emerge...

Awww...bless...!

Anyway, I think I've got that right. I know it's the simple version, but for someone like me who never even attempted O'level biology, this is just the right level.

So having dug deeper (excuse the pun) into the issue at hand, I think that's enough sex for me thank you. After all, I am British and will have to hide my blushes when I next visit the worms.

Yes from now on, I think I'll just stick to my rubbish, happy that the worms seem content enough to multiply.

Anyway if you're interested in finding out more about my adventures with worms and waste, I've written a guest post for the Wiggly Blog, which which will be published this week, so please wiggle over for a nosey.

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The BBC, landfill and my own back garden

I know it's April 1st but I promise you this is no April Fool.

When I woke up yesterday morning I had no idea that by the evening I would have a BBC news team in my back garden, filming my recycling habits for today's Breakfast programme on BBC One.

Again, I know it's April Fool's Day, but the issue being covered is no joke. Today the landfill charge is being increased by £8 per tonne of waste in a major step by the government to encourage businesses and householders to recycle and compost more of their waste.

In financial terms, this means that the cost of waste disposal in the UK's landfill facilities will rise from £24 per tonne to £32 per tonne. Until now annual increases have been just £3 per tonne. However it appears likely that we will see further increases at the new level until at least 2010, when landfill tax is expected to reach £48 per tonne.

So it looks like there is something else to hit our pockets. Talk about kicking a man when he's already down and brow-beaten by other economic problems, but if our country has to meet the targets set by the European Landfill Directive, drastic action is needed.

If each and every one of us had to bury our own waste in our own back gardens, surely we would want to do something about reducing it well before the authorities come knocking on our door.

We are simply running out of space in the country's back garden, which we call landfill. Already this week we've seen Plymouth's landfill site close because it is full to capacity. The city's waste in now destined for alternative facilities in neighbouring Cornwall. Our local facilities in Suffolk are facing the same issues, with space expected to run out in six years time.

So it is no coincidence that more and more councils are choosing to change household waste collection to a bi-weekly service, with the aim of encouraging people to reduce their rubbish.

At the moment I don't mind paying the extra council tax that will need to be recovered to cope with the issue, as it will be a while yet before society gets used to having to reduce our levels of household and business waste. I just hope that some of the money collected by government is invested in improving recycling facilities to help alleviate the problems.

However, ask me the same question in a couple of years time when I might be a lot more hacked off if I have to pay for a share for my neighbours' waste to be dumped. I may not be so generous.

In the meantime, consumers should not become the "fall-guys" of waste management problems. The whole manufacturing and retail chain needs to demonstrate significant changes to help us reach the targets set by Europe. Councils across the UK also need to provide comprehensive recycling facilities that are both easy to use and effective. I feel lucky that our local authority offers excellent recycling services. I would certainly not be happy paying a local council for dumping my landfill waste on the basis of poor local facilities.

However, let's look on the bright side as it's not all doom and gloom. I recently highlighted on the Sustained website, the figures from Defra which reveal that non-recycled waste levels were lower in 2006/2007 than those recorded in 1983/1984. Having peaked in 2000 at 450 kilos per person, the annual figure for 2006/2007 was down to 351 kilos per person.

What this shows is that there are lots of folk out there who are already slimming their bins and having talked rubbish with so many others, I know there are plenty more people out there who would like to take proactive action too. We just need to capture their imagination and show them how easy it can be.

Anyway, if you're up early you'll see me briefly demonstrating my own recycling facilities on today's BBC Breakfast and later on News 24. Look closely and you may even get to see my lovely wormery. So it's definitely a case of the early bird catches the worm and all that.

Addendum: Have just come back from an interview at a Suffolk landfill site, which should also be on the BBC1 lunchtime news as well as other broadcasts throughout the day.

Useful sources:

More information on the 2008 budget and landfill tax can be found at Lets Recycle. Waste disposal statistics can be found at Defra.
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Opening up the Bokashi

Today was D-Day as far as the Bokashi was concerned.

It has been left fermenting for the last couple of weeks. I hadn't dared open it and thought I'd leave it for a few more days just to be sure.

When I opened it today, I really didn't know what to expect.

However, what I hadn't quite expected was to see the food on top of the bin looking just like it did when I put it in two weeks ago. I suppose I thought it would be a bit more sludgy at the very least.

Hmmm. I wasn't sure whether I should leave it for another week, but without further ado, I thought it wise to ring Karen at Wiggly Wigglers and get some advice.

Much to my relief, she said it was normal and as long as I could smell something akin to pickle, it was safe to put in the composter or wormery.

Phew. That was a relief. It did smell like pickle, or even a bit like gone-off wine and it wasn't unpleasant at all.

So I ventured forth and started emptying the contents into the compost bin. As I dug deeper into the Bokashi, I could see how the food had started to break down into a more sludgy consistency that very much resembled a vegetarian shepherds pie.


I remembered that there had been some chicken at the bottom of the bokashi bin and even though I'd been reassured that it could also go into the composter, I thought I'd reserve it for the wormery. I don't know why, but driven by instinct I thought it would be useful to add some extra newspaper to both the wormery and the composter to help reduce the moisture from the bokashi contents.

I can't wait to see how it all turns out.

On a separate note, the wormery seems to be doing quite well and before too long I'll be ready to add an extra compartment to it. It's the equivalent of converting what is currently a worm bungalow into a two storey home. The worms won't know what to do with themselves!

Anyway, a quick visit to Jane Perrone's Horticultural blog reminded me that I should really be looking after the worms a little better than I have been and one of her latest posts prompted me to add some of the worm treats and anti-lime pellets (so thanks for that Jane, you are probably the worms' saviour). I also realised that I should also drain off any liquid that had filtered through into the worms' basement, before they run the risk of drowning.

So yesterday I drained off about two litres liquid, which I diluted in water and used as fertiliser on the roses and herbs in the garden. It was a little sad to see the rose of the watering can being clogged up with a few dead worms, but I am grateful that it wasn't the carnage that I'd been dreading.

In the end, I poured the dozen or so expired wrigglers onto the lawn as the dish of the day for the birds, who are probably delighted to get a change from the usual serving of bread.

So, fingers crossed, I think the combination of the wormery, composter and bokashi system has been a success.

And on that note, I'm off for a glass of wine to celebrate.
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Zero Waste Week: Worms worms everywhere

"Worms worms everywhere,
under the flowers
and under the chairs.
Slipping and sliding
around on the ground,
just how many worms

can you see and count?"

I love this poem . It's called Counting Worms. This is only a snippet, but you can read the rest at the Reading is Fundamental site, where you will see that it has been penned by Sophie who is just 6 years old (yes only 6). My favourite part is :

"There's one in the soil
where he spends the day
munching a big leaf

someone threw his way."

Cheers Sophie, I couldn't have said it better myself. In fact if you look more closely at the photo above, you can see lots of the wriggly creatures nestled in the matting of their cosy wormery, where they had been busy munching on our kitchen waste until I disturbed them to throw in some eggshells. How rude of me!

They have been pretty easy to keep and when I looked in on them yesterday I noticed that some of them are growing nice and fat.

The wormery has been brilliant in helping us to avoid putting food waste into landfill. However, they can be as fussy as the kids when it comes to their diet. They don't like citrus fruit and adding meat products is also out of the question, which is where the Bokashi comes in, which takes most forms of cooked food including meat and fish.

After two weeks of use, we have now managed to fill the first Bokashi bin. As well as the odd piece of cooked chicken, we have also added vegetable peelings, loads of banana skins, apple cores, sandwich crusts and some cooked pasta and rice. I've even thrown in some cat food, although I should really check whether that's actually allowed. I don't see why not! All I need to do now is just leave it sealed and unopened for a couple of weeks and then I can add it to the wormery or composter. In the meantime, the liquid can be extracted and used as plant food or poured down the sink to clean the drains. You can read more about the Bokashi system in a previous blog post here.

It's thanks to the Bokashi and the Wormery that Day 2 of Zero Waste Week has proven to be a complete success.

You see, I made one of my infamous Dragon Stews yesterday, using the remnants of meat from Sunday's roast dinner and if I hadn't had the Bokashi to hand, it would have meant quite a few slops going in the bin.

Even though it was delicious, there were a couple of teething problems, which didn't meet with Mr A's approval or indeed that of the Junior Posse. I think it was my flirtation with Celeriac that did it, an ugly vegetable, which I'd never used before but on a whim decided to experiment. In fact, it's been sat in the fridge for a couple of weeks, awaiting its fate. So Judgment Day arrived yesterday in the form of Dragon Stew. Adding some fresh ginger made it very flavoursome, but it didn't appeal to the kids (and I thought I was being kind, having left out the chillis)!

Anyway, Day 2 was a success all round, with no rubbish created, which is brilliant.

What's been amazing is that so many people are keen to share stories about their own rubbish. As well as the lovely comments that are coming in on the blog, a lady in the playground told me how she has been encouraged to reduce her waste this week thanks to a letter I'd put together for my son's school to send out to parents. She is tackling packaging and food waste in particular, which is great news.

A friend also told me how she played the recording of Monday's Woman's Hour broadcast to her 10 year old daughter and when they went out shopping that afternoon, her little girl refused the carrier bags offered to her in the shops. How inspirational is that!

I also had a great time on Newstalk's Moncrieff Show yesterday. It was a giggle, especially when one listener suggested I should get a pig for our garden. I mentioned that I had worms instead!

When asked by Sean Moncrieff to suggest a specific item that we should stop putting into our bins, I suddenly got nervous, scrambled around for an answer and blurted out "Sanitary Pads", yes indeedy, a topic which had previously left me feeling so awkward, it took me a whole month to even find the courage to blog about it! Yet it was the first thing that came to mind during a live interview for the Emerald Isle.

That's live radio for you and I guess now that I've tackled that topic in such a public fashion, I should be able to handle almost anything!

The unoffical "Rubbish Diet Radio Tour" continues today, but this time closer to home with a live interview on Radio Suffolk. If you tune in sometime around 11.15am, you should be able to catch me talking Rubbish to James Hazell. I hope James knows what he's letting himself in for!

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Composting for Beginners

I am absolutely amazed at the results of the Zero Waste challenge this far, and much of it is thanks to the solutions that are available for reducing food waste, whether it's vegetable peelings, gone off fruit or leftover scrapings . With a compost bin, a wormery and a Bokashi system it is working a treat.

I thought it would be useful to share some details about effective composting. However, as I am still a novice, I roped in Karen from Wiggly Wigglers to introduce the subject gently. So it's time to grab that cup of tea again and get some more top tips from someone more knowledegable than me.

"A question often asked is, "Why compost at all?" Well, the answer is simple. Over 50% of household waste is organic matter from our gardens and kitchens. If sent to landfill this organic waste gets buried under all the other waste and isn't exposed to air resulting in methane production which is harmful to the environment. It is also a missed opportunity to recycle waste into valuable garden compost.

Depending on the amount of space you have and the type of waste you need to compost there are several different options open to you. Even if you only have the tiniest space, such as a balcony, there is a solution.

If you have outdoor space and generate garden waste, you really need a compost heap. You can buy (or make) various containers from box style composters with slatted fronts to moulded plastic bins which all effectively operate in the same way. Fresh waste is added at the top and composted material retrieved from the bottom.

With an outdoor heap you can add both garden and kitchen waste and you should be aiming to add approximately 50/50 of carbon rich brown and nitrogen rich green waste to achieve good compost. Green waste consists of things like kitchen waste, grass clippings, nettles, old flowers, spent bedding plants and comfrey leaves.

Brown waste consists of things like paper, cardboard, twigs, straw, egg shells, garden prunings, wool, wood ash, feathers and cotton.

However, you should never add cooked foods or meat to an outdoor composter as this will definitely attract unwelcome rodent visitors.

The trick to making the best compost is to keep it aerated. You can do this by turning the heap occasionally and making sure that you have a good mixture of green and brown waste.

If you don't have garden waste to deal with and space is tight a wormery could well be the solution. Composting with worms is called vermicomposting and wormeries are perfect for dealing with kitchen waste. The best shop bought wormeries are those that have several trays, such as the popular Can-o-Worms, as they are easier to use than an “all in one” model.

Composting worms are native to the UK and in the wild can be found on the surface of the ground, generally in leaf litter. They are not the same as earthworms, which are deep burrowing creatures and not suitable for composting systems. Composting worms will eat all manner of household waste from fruit and vegetable peelings, cardboard, paper, bread, pasta right through to the contents of your vacuum cleaner.

It is important that 25-30% of everything added to a wormery should be dry material, such as paper and cardboard. Perfect items to add would be torn up egg boxes, toilet and kitchen roll tubes, torn and scrunched up newspapers (this helps to aerate the wormery) and paper shreddings. By the time your confidential documents have been through the shredder AND the worms you won't need to worry about identity theft. The addition of paper and cardboard not only helps to balance moisture levels within the wormery, but also provides the worms with much needed fibre.

As with outdoor compost heaps, it is not recommended that meat is added to wormeries as it attracts flies.

Worms are nature's composting heroes as they eat up to half their own body weight in food each day and, in return for a few meals a week, provide you with great compost and a liquid plant feed. This liquid feed should be diluted with water at a rate of 1:10 and can be used to give your plants a real lift. The solid compost can either be used as a top dressing or mixed with potting compost.

To see how a wormery is set up and maintained click here.

Another exciting form of composting is the use of Bokashi, which in this case is bran impregnated with effective micro organisms. This is a system that has been used successfully by the Japanese for about 25 years and involves the addition of good bacteria (the same principle as those well known drinks and yoghurts) to your waste to speed up the composting process. You put your kitchen waste and the bran into the Bokashi bucket in alternate layers and, when full, leave to "pickle" for two weeks. At the end of this time you can either add the waste to your normal compost heap or wormery.

The main advantage of the Bokashi system is that you can add meat and fish scraps and all those left over bits of food the kids leave (that's if the dogs don't get there first!). Once these have been pickled they can safely be added to your outdoor compost heap or wormery.

It may be that if you have a lot of waste and the space that you opt for more than one of the above composting methods and this is quite common. However, if you do only have space for a wormery you are still helping to slim down your bin and prevent waste being sent, unnecessarily, to landfill.

If every household composted their food waste it would mean a saving of over a quarter of a tonne of carbon emissions per year. This is the equivalent of approximately 1,000 miles of driving in a car that averages 40 mpg."

You can visit Karen's blog, which she maintains on behalf of Wiggly Wigglers at:
http://wigglywigglers.blogspot.com


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Making Progress #2

I know there are a few days to go until the bin is put out for collection, but I am feeling pretty confident that by Sunday evening the black bin waste will be limited to just one bag, which includes some rubbish that was still hanging around in our kitchen bin the weekend before the last collection.

We've made a few changes, which have had a great impact on working towards Zero Waste.

Firstly, I have turned to baking bread (or rather, bunging ingredients into my faithful breadmaker) and have been enjoying waking up to the smell of fresh bread each morning. This has already made a difference because it has reduced the number of bread bags that we put in the black bin. If we've gone a day without bread-making, I now supplement with a fresh loaf sourced on my travels.



The arrival of the wormery has made a huge impact as we've been able to easily discard spare rice, pasta and bread, which would have otherwise gone into the black bin. The worms have now settled in and when I looked in on them yesterday they seemed to be quite busy working through the layer of food that we've added this week. We have had to be quite careful with the amount of food that we've put in and for the moment we can't add more than one layer. So it is a good job I am still being conscious of portion sizes and trying to reduce the amount of food cooked.


With a full wormery, we have been making continued use of our compost bin, However, it looks like next week might present a challenge, as even the compost bin is looking a bit overwhelmed at the moment.


I have also been busy cancelling junk mail that comes through the door. Even though it doesn't have an immediate impact on the black bin, it will help the overall reduction in waste. As well as cancelling the catalogues that have been sent by a couple of companies (in the hope of getting another order) I have also contacted Royal Mail to request that they stop delivering the leaflets and other unsolicited marketing bumph that normally gets pushed through the door.


Martin Lewis of Money Saving Expert, provides some excellent advice on cancelling junk mail, including ways of reducing unsolicited calls and emails etc.

Things are still going well on the shopping front. However, having placed an online order from Waitrose, requesting produce to be placed in PAPER bags, I was a bit gutted when my shopping turned up with all the fruit and vegetables packaged in the flimsy plastic kind (including the grapefruit).

However, since then I've been picking fruit and vegetables while I have been out-and-about. My favourite shop so far is definitely the Aldeburgh Market shop, which is located on the high street of the lovely coastal town in Suffolk. It's the first high-street greengrocers that I have seen for a long time and is a real treat.


By the way, for anyone who still might be thinking that this is an impossible challenge, you may (like me) be encouraged by the progress of other families. Check out this link, which features the Brosnan family from Bath, who attempted the very same challenge back in 2006 and during their Zero Waste Week managed to limit their refuse to just a yoghurt pot, toothbrush and some plastic wrapping.

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Look at my lovely worms

As you know, my Can-O-Worms arrived yesterday and I was like a child at Christmas, very excited about unwrapping it and setting it up. It was extremely easy to put together and within about 90 minutes, I had it set up and ready to use.

Most of the time was spent soaking the bedding, which I just left in a bucket of water for one hour. I didn't take photos of the whole process, but Jane at Horticultural did and I recommend taking a look at her Can-O-Worms blog post, so you can see how easy it really is.

The hardest part for me was the thought of unpacking the worms. One worm I can deal with and perhaps two, but any more than that represents a squirmy wormy, wriggly wiggly jumble that affronts my squeamish side. I could never really have made it as Charlie Dimmock, as Mr A reminded me when I created our garden a few years ago.

However, a quick snip of the packaging (having shaken the bag to make sure that that no worms would be damaged in the process) meant that I could just pour them into the wormery. A couple had escaped and I managed to scoop them up and pop them back in.

Having been all "eurgh" about the wriggly creatures, I seem to have developed an immediate fondness for them and have adopted them as our new pets. As with all pets, it was time to give them some food, a breakfast of banana skins, bread and egg shells, with the odd piece of red pepper.



After that, it was time to cover them up, leave them to it and get on with some work (both me and them).




I am really pleased that I found a great sheltered spot in the garden, which has suitable screening, where they can be left undisturbed.

I'm now looking forward to giving them the leftover cheese sandwiches from last night's tea, which would otherwise have ended up in the bin. We have to be very careful to not overfeed the worms at this stage and take it very slowly, but once it's fully up and running, this new addition to our garden will make a valuable contribution towards my Zero Waste goal.

If you've been inspired, have a look at the Wiggly Wigglers site for more details and if you have any queries, the lovely people there will be very happy to help. They even have a blog, which covers lots of other interesting topics.

If you want to take a look at more applications of composting, I've just received a link from Simon Sherlock, which will answer many of my own novice questions: http://www.sherlock.co.uk/blog/2008/02/my-composting-setup.html

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Opening a Can-O-Worms

There is nothing like opening a Can-O-Worms to kick off discussions! I have the wormery and the book, which arrived safely from Wiggly Wigglers this morning. All I need is some extra tips from anyone out there who has already mastered their own Can-O-Worms.

While I sort out the worms, if you have some time, have a browse down the sidebar to take a look at some of the new links I've added. I've included a very useful feed from The Guardian's Waste section. It makes some very interesting reading.

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