Recycling Blame

It can't have escaped people's attention that recycling has hit the news again, this time with a Food Packaging Study from the Local Government Association, as part of its "War on Waste" campaign.

For anyone with an interest in waste minimisation this should be a real welcome report as it pays particular attention to the weight of food packaging that can be found in a typical shopping basket across eight supermarkets.

The survey revealed the following results:

• Waitrose had the heaviest packaging (802.5 grams)
  
• Lidl had the lowest level of packaging that could be easily recycled (58 per cent)
  
• Tesco had the lightest (645.5 grams)
  
• Sainsbury’s had the highest level of packaging that could be easily recycled (67 per cent).

While council leaders acknowledge that people are recycling more rubbish, they are also concerned that efforts are being held back by supermarkets. The LGA argues that supermarkets should pay a contribution towards recycling services so that more packaging can be recycled at an affordable price which will help keep council tax down.

Of course it will be no surprise that the British Retail Consortium has reacted to the report by calling on councils to improve recycling measures and reach a consensus on which materials can be recycled.

Well, I've got just one thing to say on the matter...

...but before I belt it out, I suggest you put your fingers in your ears as I take a deep breath and yell to the world.......

ARRRGH.....!

Don't get me wrong, the study has thrown up some interesting research and - quite rightly - the evidence should be reported. It is indeed a very useful report, with well-researched detail.

But while government representatives and retail bodies engage in an open air boxing match, I am worried that many consumers will be left looking on with either disregard or bemusement, feeling the lack of power to do something about it.

And then there's the recession to deal with. Don't forget we can always blame that too.

Oh well. That's it. We might as well bury our heads in the sand till it's over eh, when the economy is back on its legs, the supermarkets have ditched their unrecyclable packaging and the country has a perfect recycling system.

Or alternatively, we could continue to vote with our feet and our wallets, applying the small changes that make a huge difference, always looking out for alternatives...because they do exist and we still have the power of choice.

Well that's what I had to say on the matter today on the JVS show at BBC Three Counties Radio, while discussing recycling and the recession. If you're interested do tune into Listen Again where you'll find me defending the issue at roughly 2 hours 47 minutes into the programme.

I only hope I've convinced the lovely JVS to carry on washing out his yoghurt pots! You've got to keep an eye on him you know. Perhaps I should have suggested he has a go at making his own!

Well you have to keep cheerful don't you!

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Buying fish on my doorstep

"Are you interested in buying fish?" asked the man at the door.


"Well I'm a bit busy at the moment. Just finishing off my work!" I replied.

Work(?)...gerroff...I was just desparate to put the Eglu video on my blog. I looked at my watch. Time was tight and I'd soon have to pick up the kids from school.

Then came my inner nag. The one that said I should eat more fish along with the rest of the family. I paused. Do I? Don't I? Shall I? Shan't I?

"What's the packaging like?"

"It comes in recyclable cardboard box, which we can take off your hands - would you like me to show you?"

Now if a man wants to show me recyclable packaging, well you know I'm all ears.

And it was true. We went to the van to show me his frozen loins - cod loins of course - all packaged in a single recyclable polythene bag and safely stacked in a reusable or reyclable box.

So I paid my dues, took the fish and give him the box back. Ah...a simple solution for my bin and one less reason to go to the supermarket.

Fish pie anyone?


Huge thanks to Dave from Supreme Cuisine for agreeing to the photo.
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After the Party: Recycling Pringles et al.

You've heard the phrase. "Once you pop, you can't stop".

But when you actually do stop because you've run out of Pringles and the party's over, what should you do with the empty can, and other cans like it?

Until now, I've just been bunging the can into the recycling bin, without any additional thought. After all the packaging has a little symbol on it, which looks lovely and environmentally friendly.

Have a look.


It looks like a "Please Recycle Me" symbol doesn't it?


WRONG!


All environmentally friendly consumers, be warned. According to WasteOnline, this symbol, which is called the Green Dot, simply means that the manufacturer has paid a contribution towards the packaging recovery system in GERMANY! It's got nothing to do with recycling potential at all!

Now that makes me feel like a real Dummkopf. Please tell me that I am not the only person in the UK who has misunderstood this lovely looking symbol of environmental integrity. Take a good look at the packaging in your house and let me know what you think.

However, I really hate to be thwarted, so whilst admiring the Packasaurus Ex at the Press Launch the other day, I thought I'd check with the lovely Kate of St Edmundsbury's Waste Team, whether it is possible to recycle Pringles cans.

Much to my relief she said yes. Pringles cans may be recycled at our local Materals Recycling Facility (MRF). However, there is a technique and you can't just bung them in the bin as I've been doing for years.

To make Pringles cans recyclable, the trick is to separate the metal bottom and the plastic lid and throw them in the bin separately. This is so the cardboard component can be easily added to the card at the MRF.

This is great news especially when you think that this product is the UK's number 1 snack, particularly at Christmas, and comes in at number 32 in the Nielson Top 100 Grocery Brands list. That would be a lot of pringles being sent to landfill if recycling facilities aren't available.

However, it does appear that facilities aren't available everywhere.

Apparently we are lucky in Suffolk, where products like this can be processed effectively.

I would love to know what your local facilities are like. Any feedback in the comments would be very interesting indeed.

If you find that they can't be recycled in your area, the only answer for keeping them out of landfill is to send them to the school for junk modelling or try one of the ideas from the site shown below.

http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf989247.tip.html

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The Third Weigh-In

It's a proud moment when you can see the efforts bringing rewards. Excuse me for a moment, while I just let out a huge shout of "weh-hey".

Can you see that small bag, which is just a little bit taller than the wheels? That's my rubbish!

And considering it's a fortnight's worth, there's not much of it. At a guess, I would say there's probably 25 cubic litres at the most!

There's only one week to go until the beginning of Zero Waste Week, so you can probably guess that I am now feeling quite confident, especially when you compare the results of the first weigh-in from 4 weeks ago.

Now that the food waste and cleaning fall-out have been dealt with, I just need to tackle the remaining nasties that are being sent off to landfill this week. Due to a very busy fortnight as well as the onset of a minor back injury, I'm afraid it wasn't my top priority over the last few days.

Besides, I would also hate to peak too soon.

In a week's time I have to start officially tracking the contents of my bin for St Edmundsbury's Zero Waste Week, so I need to think about what else has gone into the bin today to ensure such items can be avoided.

Apart from the unusual incident of having to dispose of some dog mess (thanks to an irresponsible owner who let their dog leave a "number 2" on my path), the main contents were plastic film that can't be sent for recycling. This kind of thing comes from grape packaging, dry cleaning covers and packaging from inside cereal cartons. There's also the odd butter wrapper, which is not yet manufactured to meet recycling standards, which is pants! However, I am pretty confident that I can crack most of these inconveniences this week.

So to aid the motivation this week, I have downsized the kitchen bin that we normally use for black bin waste. From now on, our lovely, shiny 50 litre brabantia beauty will be used for recycling.


The tiny green bin that you see next to it, will be used for our landfill waste!

Now here's the difference. Before starting The Rubbish Diet, I used to dispose of 2 or 3 bin-loads from the big shiny Brabantia every two weeks.

Even before the official start of Zero Waste Week, I am amazed at the prospect of not even filling this small green bin to its brim.

Isn't that incredible!

So, if you're motivated to have a go yourself. Just look at the links on the right where you can follow the story so far. It's only taken me 6 weeks, but in that time I've had to find out the knowledge myself. The resources on the right will give you all you need for a head start.

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Valentine's Day Unwrapped

If you're celebrating this day of romance, I hope you've managed to do it with waste in mind. I think I've managed well, having bought nothing but a roll of red paper to cut out lots of red hearts to decorate the house. I promise that once their initial use has passed, they will be re-used or recycled.

Some people won't be spending this morning in such romantic surroundings. Instead you will find them here at a Sustainability Packaging through Resource Efficiency seminar in Lincolnshire, which has been organised by Envirowise, a government funded organisation that advises businesses in environmental awareness. Attendees will be given practical advice on how to reduce waste and packaging as well as the legislative responsibilities of packaging regulations and duty of care.

If you've wondered what happens to paper and card in the recycling process, take a look at the SustainPack site, which has a wealth of information including how paper is categorised.
http://www.sustainpack.com/aap_rwp.html

Other useful resources which outline why paper and card should be recycled include the Waste Online site.

http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/paper.htm

The following factsheet at www.paper.org also reveals recycling targets for major paper users, including Newspaper Publishers, the Direct Marketing industry and the Periodical Publishers Association:

http://www.paper.org.uk/info/pdfs/Recovery_and_Recycling.pdf

It's all interesting stuff. However, what's more interesting is the little free valentine's gift that came with a present that Mr A bought me from a very well-known store in Knightsbridge. It was already pre-packaged and the first that Mr A knew of it was when it was unwrapped and he is in complete agreement that it is probably the most useless thing ever for his happily married, average-sized wife.

Hmm, I am too embarrassed to put it on Freecycle and the ladies in the local charity shops would most definitely blush upon opening it. And of course, I can't send it to landfill. Perhaps the only thing for it is to send it back to the store, with a little note that says "thanks, but no thanks, who really needs such useless tat?". So if you work in customer services in Knightsbridge and you get a little package from Almost Mrs Average who's on a Rubbish Diet, you'll know why.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone. I hope you have a lovely day, wherever you are.

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Which came first, the carton or the egg?

With various discussions and comments about overpackaged products appearing on the blog lately, I spoke to the people at INCPEN to find out what steps manufacturers are taking to resolve the problems.

INCPEN is a research organisation, which among other tasks encourages industry to minimise the environmental impact of packaged goods and to continually improve packaging.

I invited INCPEN to submit some information about their vision. The following slideshow is a guest presentation that has been sent in by them, outlining the commitment to sustainable production of the organisation's members. Members include international and UK companies that are involved in all aspects of packaged products in the retail chain, from material suppliers, manufacturers, producers, wholesalers right through to retailers. Household names such as Unilever, Coca-Cola, Kellogg's, Boots, Sainsbury's and M&S are among its list of members.

| View | Upload your own

A more detailed vision statement can be found in document form here. It is also worthwhile visiting the INCPEN site, which provides links to a variety of resources including its Code of Practice for optimising packaging and reducing waste. There are also factsheets on a range of subjects, which include Deposits on Packaging Containers, Litter, Packaging, Plastic Carrier Bags and Waste Management.

If you are interested in researching the history of packaging, there is an excellent timeline which can be found in the education section, which offers a whole host of fascinating facts. For example, did you know that potato crisps were packaged in tins in the 1920s or that aerosols first became popular in the 1940s?

For schools, the education site also introduces a range of educational resources for KeyStages 2, 3 and 4 of the National Curriculum.

INCPEN focuses on a holistic approach to sustainability and not just pushing for compostable or recyclable packaging. The research organisation also argues that some "overpackaging" is better than "underpackaging" when considering the issue of food waste.

If you have got some time to spare, it's worthwhile popping over to INCPEN to find out more. Visit www.incpen.org.

P.S. Of course I know the carton came after the egg, but isn't it great that the polystyrene cartons of the 70s have been replaced with compostable cardboard. Now that's what I call progress, even if I did enjoy the sound of breaking up the polystyrene egg boxes as a child.

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Shopping with waste in mind

So this is Day 1 of my attempt to create Zero Waste and I decided that there was no better place to start than a morning at the supermarket, researching grocery options that will incur the minimum impact on my black bin.

Since signing up for the Zero Waste programme, I've spent some time pondering the whole residual waste issue, i.e. the waste that goes into the black bin after other alternatives such as recycling and composting have been exhausted.

What has become immediately apparent is the relationship between what we buy and what we waste. Generally, the terms of this relationship are simple. The more products we buy, the more packaging we have to manage, whether it's boxes, cartons, food bags or carrier bags. The problem is that not everything can be recycled and there belies a key contributor to residual waste.

So my first challenge was to take a look at my shopping habits and assess where changes could be made. Here are just some of the highlights.

1. Carrier Bags

I know this is an obvious start to a habit-changing blog but carrier bags are the bane of my life. Most won't biodegrade and can't be recycled and as I hate putting them in the black bin to lie in landfill for decades, they tend to pile up in a bag in a kitchen corner. I try to be good and use shopping bags and bags for life, but I am human and have my lazy days and sometimes forget. Having now signed up for Zero Waste Week, I promise to make a better effort and with that in mind I set off to the supermarket with my reusable bags, including some of those rescued from the kitchen corner.

2. Packaging

In our consumer-centric world where the standard is perfection, the suppliers in the food chain seek to create an end product with minimum opportunities for damage and fewer returns and complaints. Consequently, walking through the aisles of every supermarket the consumer is faced with over-packaged produce. I really believe that this is driven by supplier merchandising goals rather than consumer-led demands. Whatever the cause, a Zero Waste programme needs to consider the context of packaging and whether or not it can be recycled, re-used or preferably eliminated altogether.

Even though I am a proactive recycler I did my shopping today with a fresh eye. I spent some time looking at the packaging information and was surprised to see what could and what couldn't be recycled. I deliberately chose Waitrose as I am a regular customer and I believe the company is making great progress in the area of packaging and waste issues. The particular sections where I paid most attention today were fruit and vegetables, meat and dairy produce and fruit juice.

Fruit and vegetables ~ although you can't beat the regular market for products with minimum packaging, if you buy with care at Waitrose, I discovered it is possible to buy produce with very little packaging being destined for the black bin.

a) Where the produce is large enough to handle without damage, e.g. bananas, grapefruit or oranges, they can be placed into the trolley without packaging into separate bags.

b) If bags are required for smaller items e.g. tomatoes or mushrooms, Waitrose offer paper alternatives, which can be recycled or composted. This avoids having to use the flimsy plastic option, for which the only destination is landfill.

c) Where produce is prepackaged, it is worth looking at the packaging information to see if the packaging is biodegradable or can be recycled. It surprised me how many fresh products didn't have this kind of labelling and how I'd taken for granted that I could just put the packaging into the recycling bin.

It was encouraging to see how packaging technology has moved on in some areas, including the introduction of biodegradable plastics, which I found had been used to package the organic pears and apples that I'd bought. Okay, it isn't quite clear how long this kind of packaging will take to decompose but it should be quicker than normal packaging and it also looks like I can add it to my compost bin, so that's another tick in the box.

On the other hand, if it has been produced using an oil-based resource, according to Wikipedia if placed in a landfill, its degradation will contribute to global warming "through the release of carbon as a main end product". So be warned if you don't have a bin for compostable waste. If there are any experts reading this maybe you could provide further comment on the benefits of biodegradable plastics.

Dairy: This is an area to which I had not given much consideration previously. I have my milk delivered by our local milkman in reusable glass bottles, so milk packaging is not a problem. However looking at the other packaging in the dairy aisle highlighted a number of issues, including:

a) Cheese packaging, where the majority of prepackaged cheese uses waxed plastic and this cannot be recycled. This made me think twice about buying my usual products and as a result I selected cheese from the deli counter. Even though it was wrapped in a small plastic bag, at least it was much flimsier than the standard cheese packaging. It would be a big improvement if Waitrose used paper bags for this purpose and it is something I would like to suggest to them.

b) Yoghurts ~ where I normally buy yoghurt in packs of four small pots, I realised that even though the plastic tubs are recyclable, the lids are not. Consequently I have replaced my usual product with one single but larger tub of natural yoghurt to which we can add fresh fruit to enhance the flavour.

c) Butter packaging has proven to creep up on me with a big "Boo"! A few months ago I switched from buying butter in plastic tubs to blocks of butter wrapped in paper, in favour of using less packaging. However as the paper used for packaging butter has a special coating, this cannot be recycled. So if I want to reduce my residual waste it looks like I will have to go back to the plastic tubs which can be recycled.

Meat ~ Choosing prepackaged meat today, I was very encouraged to see that Waitrose products were generally packaged using recyclable materials. I have got into the habit over the last few years of putting the the plastic meat packaging into the black bin on the understanding that it couldn't be recycled. However, with my new-found knowledge I am happy that this is one area which will help me to slim my bin.

Fruit juice ~ Now here is a real juicy topic to get my teeth into. Apologies for the terrible pun here, but I couldn't resist. The problem that I have with fruit juice is this. It comes in those awful waxed cartons. Even though they can be taken to recycling points in St Edmundsbury they are also allowed to be put into the black bin. As a busy mother, you can probably guess which option is popular in our household...and yes, you're right...it's the black bin (that's if they are not rescued beforehand for junk modelling projects)!

With Zero Waste in mind, there is the option of gearing up to take the waxed cartons down to the tip. However, I know they would just pile up in the corner, creating one big general annoyance, before I found the time to recycle them. So instead, I implemented some lateral thinking and decided to opt for buying fresh fruit, from which we can make fresh juice if needed. What better than a bowl of fresh grapefruit and oranges, which come neatly packaged in their own skins and can be composted after use!


3. Too much food

After the problems of packaging, the issue of food abundance is probably the most difficult area to tackle in my Zero Waste challenge. Cooking with fresh food is the norm in our house and as a result it is easy to let use-by dates fall by the wayside as well as the food with it. Planning meals is not a particular strength of mine and what I cook normally depends on how we feel and what other activities fill up the day. My usual strategy is to select two fresh fish\meat products and use these as the basis of two meals, which can be enjoyed over four days and supplemented by vegetarian meals for the remainder of the week. Although this issue was at the forefront of my mind whilst shopping, this subject is very much deserving of a post of its own, which I will address very soon.

So in conclusion, today's excursion to the supermarket was enlightening and worthwhile. It was a very useful exercise in reinforcing my existing knowledge as well as raising issues which I now need to tackle if I want to make Zero Waste a reality. I am confident that many of my choices today will contribute positively to the challenge. Of course, if anyone has any suggestions that are relevant to this topic, please feel free to send in your comments.

Further information:

Waste Online's Guide to Recycling Packaging Symbols