Never let a good friend go to waste!

"Yes, please" came the reply to my offer of a night in savouring the delights of gin and tonic.

Aren't good friends fabulous!

One minute I'd been feeling sorry for myself for having to cancel a few social events last week, due to feelings of pain and discomfort arising from my wrist.

The next, there was a plan in place, something which I could look forward to; an opportunity to raise a glass and enjoy a good catch up with a great friend and some mother's ruin.

"And I'll empty your dodgy Bokashi bin too" she added.

Blimmin' 'eck. That's an offer you don't get every day, especially when it involves excavating an almost solid layer of mould infested ick from the Bokashi bin thanks to the untreated cheese that was accidentally left to fester for several weeks while we were on holiday.

Mr A has been too busy pegging it around the region outlining housing growth options, so hasn't had a chance to sort it out - not that the Bokashi bin is his department anyway. He's got enough to do with planning and housing strategies this month. Domestic mould infested cheesy bran concoctions are trivial by comparison and besides, ever since my commitment to keep food waste from landfill, the bins are mainly my domain, for which I am always more suitably dressed.

But my limp wrist has been too weak and painful to deal and I've since got used to the notion that it would have to wait until I'm on the mend again.

So the suggestion to have it dealt with was very much welcome,

Of course, to be polite, I initially refused the kind offer from my friend.

It actually reminded me of the days as a student when I would decline the odd £5 note kindly offered by older relatives. Eventually I'd accept, knowing I really could do with the help, but not until the pre-requisite banter had taken place first... "honestly you shouldn't"..."no really, I'd liked to"..."please take it"..."I insist"..."ok then, you are very kind, thank you".

However, knowing what was good for me - and indeed my sensitive stomach - it didn't take long to say yes to the Bokashi disposal services.

Her only insistence beyond this wonderful offer of help was to ensure a supply of rubber gloves.... and to be paid "danger money" in the form of Abbots, an alternative currency upheld by our local bartering group, Bury LETS - and not to be confused with religious men in habits.

So the evening came and expecting the worst, my good friend arrived with a change of clothes, which were accessorised with some rubber gloves and safety goggles. It's a shame I couldn't find the dust mask too.

But it wasn't actually that bad. A few slaps and tickles of the mouldy tundra soon saw it despatched to the black bin, representing one of the rare deposits of food waste to landfill during the last 19 months and the only Bokashi disaster during the same time period - which shows if I can manage it for such a long time, it can't be that hard.

And now the Bokashi bin is ready and waiting for National Zero Waste Week, which begins tomorrow.

However, we have so little cooked food waste these days, I've decided we're going to make a special effort not to use it this week, especially now that we've got used to our alternative feathered weapons against food waste, aka the chickens who reside in our suburban back garden.

But I am still extremely grateful for my friend's assistance as well as for her companionship vis-a-vis helping me later that evening with the gin and tonic.

Ah gin...now that's one thing that would be impossible to waste. And I've even got some ideas for what to do with the empty bottle, but that's another story that will have to wait until it's finished.

Hopefully it won't take long.

Well it is National Zero Waste Week after all and what a great excuse to celebrate.

Especially if my friends never have to go near my Bokashi bin ever again!

And if I never have to witness another episode of Mr A's post-holiday mould-ridden bokashied cheese.

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More information about National Zero Waste Week 2009 can be found at www.myzerowaste.com. More details about Bokashi composting - which is a very effective system for managing cooked food waste - can be found at www.wigglywigglers.co.uk.

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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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Putting an end to food waste in landfill

So what should you do with chicken stew that's been hanging about in the fridge for four days?

I did my best. I fed it to the kids, the husband and the cats. I even invited some friends around, but it hasn't gone away, despite my best efforts in adding some chinese spices just to make things more exciting. Don't get me wrong. It's delicious, but bad planning has meant that it wasn't used up as quickly as it should have been, not with Mr A being out in late meetings around the region and my lunchtime meetings around town.

Now it's got to that lingering point....you know what I mean...when the stew gets past its use-by-date and just hangs around in the fridge, in a sealed container, waiting to be thrown in the bin.

There it waits and waits and waits, cluttering up the fridge, until it's the right time to be thrown away. Timing is everything. After all I don't want it smelling out the bin or turning into a health hazard in the fridge!

However, that is about to change because....thanks to some great advice from composting guru Simon Sherlock, yesterday I received my new bin from Wiggly Wigglers. It's not just any old bin...oh no...indeed it is a very special bin, which should help me solve our food waste problem.



Regular readers will know that I don't create food waste lightly and I've been making great inroads into reducing what we buy and how it is cooked to ensure that portions are correct and that food doesn't go to waste...but guess what...I am only human and can't be perfect all the time.

Determined to get rid of food waste in time for the Zero Waste challenge, I have already made great use of the wormery, which arrived a few weeks ago and which accepts food scraps and kitchen waste. However, food waste that contains meat or fish cannot be place directly into the wormery so this is where my new bin comes in.

Its official name is the Bokashi Empowered system. Now that sounds all posh and technical for what appears to be a fairly normal looking bin (Bokashi is in fact a Japanese word for Fermented Organic Matter). Now, I'm not technical, but my understanding is that the bin itself is made of a special plastic that has been injected with EMs (Effective MicroOrganisms). It can be placed in the kitchen and used as a normal kitchen waste bin for most food waste such as vegetable peelings and leftover scraps.

Of course, the aim is to reduce leftovers but there are times when you can take the horses to water but there is no way you can make them drink! This means I now have somewhere to put those annoying leftovers that the boys don't manage. Whether it's tuna, potato skins, pasta, rice, chicken, lamb, beef, fish pie, shepherds pie, breakfast cereal, or many other things that don't take their fancy.

The technique is to place all the food in the bin and sprinkle a layer of Bokashi active bran over the waste and then keep adding in layers until the bin is full. It is then left sealed for around two weeks. In this time the waste ferments. Liquid can be drained off for use as plant fertiliser and then the fermented food waste can be added to the wormery.



Those who are quick off the mark will no doubt be thinking about what happens to the rest of the food waste that is generated while the bin is left to ferment for two whole weeks. That's easy. The kit comes with a second bin, which can be placed on top of the other one or even at its side. My challenge with such a small kitchen is to find some space for the system. However, one bin is only the size of an average kitchen pedal bin, so it shouldn't be a problem. If I can't find a space, there is always the option of leaving it outside the kitchen door.

With this system in place. I am hoping that the next official "weigh-in" will see the bin bag drastically reduced in size. That's a whole week to go, so keep your fingers crossed. What's more important is that I am confident this will bring an end to the smelly black bin syndrome that penetrates the air in the warmer summer months.

If you want to know more about the Bokashi System, there is more information about how it works at the Wiggly Wigglers site and at Wikipedia.
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