Day 1: Welcome to The Lounge

Welcome to Day 1 of Recycle Week, the national campaign that raises awareness of making better use of our resources.

It's promising to be a fun-packed week.

Anything can happen and indeed it already has.

And it starts with one of my favourite hotspots in Bury St Edmunds, The Lounge in Hatter Street, a cafe that regularly doubles up as an art gallery.

As well as artwork, I can often be found hanging around there myself, with my laptop, particularly on Market Days. It means I can get on with writing AND do the shopping. And it just goes to show sorting out the rubbish isn't all work and no play. I do get plenty of time off for "good behaviour"you know.

And should Almost Mr Average call and check what I'm up to, I can always say "busy working in the lounge darling", in the same way as men who frequent pubs that are cleverly called The Office can circumnavigate the truth by actually telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Now one of the great things about The Lounge is the wonderful range of newspapers they have for customers to read. Something to appeal to all appetites including the full range of broadsheets and the Daily Mail. And it's a service that I take for granted, a free catch-up on the news over a refreshing pot of tea.

So this is where I'd settled yesterday afternoon, a quick half-hour to type up the day's blogpost and an opportunity to rest my back, which during a walk around Bury St Edmunds, was getting more and more painful as a result of a trapped nerve.

Time soon rushed by and before I knew it, it was time to go...

...but not before grabbing a Sunday supplement that had caught my eye.

It was 4pm and the cafe was in fact closing. So being an opportunist, I asked an assistant if I could take it.

To which she replied,

"Take them all if you like, they'll only go in the rubbish bin!"

What, the rubbish bin! That pile of papers, ending up in landfill!

That's what I'd call a waste of resource.

Fortunately the owner was there, a very nice lady who has just recently taken over the business. We had a light-hearted chat. She is indeed concerned about the amount of waste the cafe generates, including glass bottles as well newspapers. Being the owner of another local business she has already spoken with our local council regarding logistics of managing trade-based recycling.

Now I'd love to get my head around the complexities of how a small business manages the issue of recycling, so we happily swapped contact details.

But in the meantime, there was a small issue of the newspapers.

For goodness sake, IT'S RECYCLE WEEK. And I've got my pledge to follow, my commitment to helping my community waste less.

Could I really see all those papers going in the bin, when there's an opportunity to recycle them?

NO!

I know it should be classed as Trade Waste, but not if they were free to take home and I read them first.

Now there was an idea. If I could do it, so could others!

So before I left, I asked if they'd mind folk dropping in to collect a free paper at the end of each day. It might be old news to some, but for many it is the first opportunity to catch up with the main stories as they go home from work.

And everybody nodded their heads in agreement. It seemed a great idea if we could get it to work.

So it's official. If you live or work in Bury St Edmunds and you want a freebie paper, whether it's for reading, reusing or converting into briquettes for your fire, pop into The Lounge at 2 Hatter Street for your copy to take away.

You have to time it right mind. You might get a slap on the wrist if it's lunchtime, but if it's 5pm in the week or 4pm on a Sunday, you'll be welcomed with a "thanks for saving it from landfill" kind of smile.

I guess it's not a bad start to Recycle Week. And if there's any moral to the story, I suppose it's "Be careful what you ask for... because you might just get more than you anticipated."

There is another advantage though. That damned trapped nerve still hasn't gone and I am still in pain. Despite a morning of radio interviews, I am worried I could be stuck here all day.

With a pile of reading like the one you see before me, at least I won't get bored.

So please pop by later to see if I ever leave the house today. I'm taking some painkillers, so there's still hope. If not, at least you can keep me company and see what I manage to achieve during Recycle Week, from the confines of my living room.

And should Almost Mr Average ask where I am, at last I can tell him the truth... the whole truth and nothing but the truth...

"Honey I'm working in the lounge...that's right, our lounge, the one in Moreton Hall."



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Almost Mrs Averages leaves Suffolk!

NOW THAT'S A HEADLINE THAT WOULDN'T SELL NEWSPAPERS!

But yes, the news is that I'm getting out of town today and even venturing out of the region.

Destination LONDON! The UK capital of the freebie paper.

One of my memories of working in London during the nineties was how the tube trains were often used as surrogate recycling bins, with newspapers abandoned on the seats, the floors and even tucked away near the windows. The buses were no better!

I wonder if anything has changed, particularly in light of new titles that have since been launched. If my memory serves me well, we only had the Metro at the time. Since then, there have been a range of new titles, including thelondonpaper and London Lite, which were both launched in 2006.

There is a list of current London newspapers on the Wikipedia site but if you look at the above photo, there are obviously many others that aren't accounted for.

I have read that following the launch of thelondonpaper and London Lite, Associated Newspapers and News International agreed to pay for 64 recycling bins, in an attempt to manage an estimated extra 1,000 tonnes of waste resulting from their distribution. Now that really is a lot of wastage and makes me very glad that our little town of Bury St Edmunds only has two weekly freebies!

I wonder if I'll spot one of those bins today, hardly a major tourist attraction I know!

Anyway, I'll soon find out...and if I can track down a free wi-fi hotspot (suggestions welcome), I'll publish the photos later on. (An opportunity to blog from London....how exciting!)

So, it's a case of HELLO LONDON...and without further ado, let the rubbish tour begin.

P.S. Take a look at the creative designs that promote the message of recycling on the London Lite site. http://www.thelondonlite.co.uk/advertising/recycling.html. My favourite is the Tower of London version. How cruel of me!

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ADDENDUM
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It's almost 6pm and I'm still in London, having a fab time.

I've seen some rubbish bins and the odd freebie paper, but I've been rather distracted by loads of other things:

....including buying some strange fruit in Harrods and refusing the carrier bag. Yes, refusing a Harrods carrier bag, in preference of using my own! I bet that's quite unheard of!



But do I really need a bag that says I can afford to shop in Harrods?

NO! I don't...

...especially as I can't afford much more than some opulent fruit from the even more opulent Food Hall.

Later, I was also distracted by the fact that it's my uncle's birthday tomorrow and I'd forgotten to buy a card...so with Paperchase on hand, I quickly popped in for an emergency purchase.

But could I find a card that didn't come in one of those unnecessary plastic wrappers? Could I heck! So I plumped for a 60p cheery postcard instead! So much cheaper and much less waste...


And now...onto my final distraction. Before I head back to Sleepy Suffolk, I'm spending the last hour with my lovely friend Ruby, indulging in my favourite restaurant...the very opulent Sarastro on Drury Lane. It's the place where I had my 30th birthday celebrations and celebrated my hen-night, so is very close to my heart

And if it's a choice between documenting bins at Kings Cross or "indulging" in Sarasto's with a very decent meal for just £12.50, you can bet the restaurant wins hands-down!



But don't worry...there's always time for bins later...because with my new lifestyle, Almost Mrs Average can never take a day off!

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