Home Sweet Home

Phew, after two days travelling back through Switzerland, France and the UK, we're home! We finally made it home late last night, welcomed by the sugar factory towers that greet so many people back to Bury St Edmunds.

Kids in bed, car unpacked, Internet catchup...with TV on...husband enjoyed cup of tea while I stumbled off to bed. The usual routine.

Home eh. I love holidays but I am always glad to be back!

And so much has been happening.

I've come back to find that The Rubbish Diet has got a mention on the very lovely EcoStreet blog.

Then there's the news that BBC Reporter Chris Jeavans has challenged herself to a Plastic Free Month. Now that's a challenge and a half and it brings the topic of waste into the national media, which is great. I can't wait to catch up with her progress at her BBC blog Month Without Plastic.

But most of all, I am really looking forward to finding out about how the Greens are getting on at MyZeroWaste. After challenging them to a Zero Waste Week a few months ago, it is fast looming and I can't believe that there are only a few more weeks to go. The great news is that they've got a whole host of sponsors together, offering prizes to those who support them in their endeavours. To have a go at winning, all you need to do is sign up to a pledge and let them know how you get on.

So much to do, with so little time. And there's the Olympics and all their recycling efforts. Blimey it's all kicking off.

By the way, I'm sorry to say that's not my house in the picture. It's the really HUGE house opposite, which I now see is available TO LET. Should anyone be interested, it comes with a beautiful set of bins, one for recycling, one for composting and one for landfill.

Oh booger. That reminds me. It's bin day today and this week it's Recycling. Talk about falling back to earth with a bump. With loads to do I'll see you later this week with the news I promised about our travels.

In the meantime, I'd better not miss that bin lorry.

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Le Recyclage en Vacances # 5: Le Shopping

Well Hello!

After spending almost a week up in the mountains, my sister took me on a shopping spree to treat me to a belated birthday present. A 40 minute drive to the bottom of the valley.

Admittedly, I was a bit distracted by this particular sight...what...a recycling centre in a shopping mall?




No wonder the Swiss are good at recycling, if it's a case of drop off your bottles and cans before you hit the sales. Look carefully and you'll see that there's even space for empty coffee capsules.



It's just a shame I had nothing to recycle before heading off to buy a new purse.

The things you learn eh, when you're out on your travels with your eyes open a little wider than normal.

Well I can't wait to get home and share the rest of Swiss recycling gossip. I may end up revealing what's happened to my old purse. If I feel brave that is!

Until then...there's some mileage to get underway...so I will see you soon back in good old Angleterre.
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Le Recyclage en Vacances: # 4: An Udder Way

Hmm…. So….Mr A thinks he's having a holiday eh!

No more sorting. No more washing out lots of recyclables! No more worrying about stuff that can’t be recycled beyond our holiday village.

Well, guess what I’ve found, tucked away at the entrance of a local supermarket.

A rare find, and so perfect for recycling our milk bottles! Another tick in the recycling box!

On our last full day in Switzerland, you could say it’s a case of All’s well that ends well!

Well I suppose it was…

…until Mr A went off to buy some more milk,

…venturing out on his own, with nothing but a reusable bag and his best Franglais.

He happily returned with the white stuff, fresh pasteurised milk, which was a challenge in itself given the propensity for UHT over here.

But as for the packaging…. it was most definitely a case of Tetra Pak strikes again. Just when I thought we had the system cracked eh!

There's no recycling bank for this kind of stuff in Leysin, so they are counted as rubbish and are sent off to the incinerator to create energy.

But waste is waste, whether it's creating energy or not, so before we head back to Old Blighty, perhaps I should set Mr A, le bin saboteur just one more Zero Waste challenge.

After all, this is Switzerland and there’s more than one way to milk a cow.

So Monsieur A, grab a stool and a bucket…and in the words of Shania Twain from her very own chalet in Switzerland…I think it’s a case of…LET’S GO GIRLS!



What was that Mr A?

Pardon?

Funny that...he's decided to decline my offer of a tour of the local cow farm tonight, in favour of packing.

Oh well.... I tried!

Anyone for Café au Lait?

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Le Recyclage en Vacances: # 3. Don't peak too soon

Our cabin is nestled amongst rolling green hills in the Alpine countryside, surrounded by fir trees and open fields, where a herd of cows is busy grazing. The tinkling of their cowbells, broken only by the sound of mooing, provides the most idyllic soundtrack to our spectacular view.

Across the valley, a range of tree-lined mountains greets our eyes, with their snow-capped peaks poking up through the low-lying clouds. The real icing on this Alpine cake is the glacier that emerges from the distance. Its beauty lies before us like a lady in the prime of her life.

The skies are so blue. The air is light and so fresh and it really feels like we are close to space.

Like a scene from a movie, I can hear the director shout "cut" and change the shot to Almost Mr Average stood happily in the kitchen.

Mr A is smiling.

He's happy because having spent a few days living with piles of potential recycling cluttering the small worktop, he's decided he can just bung 'em in the bin with the rest of the rubbish.

"Happy days", he thinks.

He's waited patiently for me to suss out the system and it is good news that in our holiday village we can recycle glass, paper, batteries and PET bottles.

But sadly there's no place for Tetra paks, plastic containers, fruit bags or kitchen waste.

So after months of battling against my defences, Mr A is taking a real holiday.

He's even refused my extreme request to take the containers back to England and is merrily bunging stuff in the bin, no matter what!

I think Mr A loves the Swiss town of Leysin. I think he wants to stay, not because of the beautiful and dramatic views but for his new-found freedom.

Until I wipe the smile off his face!

And shout

"Don't throw away that bread!"

Puzzled, he looks at me in disbelief.

Yes...for some peculiar reason, even though we can't save the rest of the rubbish, we can recycle stale bread!

So director, please cut back to the views of the Alpine peaks, whose beauty could make even a grown man cry!

Better to show Mr A crying over over a sight like that than being beaten in a comedy manner with the remains of a stale baguette!



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Le Recyclage en Vacances: # 2. Hello PET

Having sweated our way through France, we've arrived safely in Switzerland and are having a fantastic time with my sister and her family.

We spent the first part of the holiday at their lakeside home in the village of Concise. It was a great opportunity to relax, enjoy the views of the lake and explore the village.

And everywhere we went we noticed this familiar sight.


It looks just like our recycling bin from home, but with yellow chevrons.

I think this could start a new trend...Forget Pimp my Ride...Pimp my Bin is where it's at.

Anyway, before I get distracted with thoughts of Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen and Andy Handy decorating wheelie bins all over the land, I'd better get back to the business of these blue and yellow bins.

It turns out they are to encourage people to recycle PET bottles, i.e. those that are marked with a number 1. Rumour has it, they are all over the Swiss canton of Vaud and can be found both at leisure hotspots and on the streets!

Recycling on the go...I love it!

The landscape in Vaud is pretty varied. The canton, which is the equivalent of a county, stretches from the lakes in the valleys up to the great heights of the Swiss Alps. It is the 3rd most populated canton in Switzerland and the fourth largest geographically.

Apparently the tranquil and gentle lifestyle over here has, in the past, attracted international celebrities to make their home in Vaud, including Charlie Chaplin, Ernest Hemingway, Igor Stravinski and Audrey Hepburn. These days you're more likely to see Phil Collins, David Bowie, or Michael Schumacher.

I just hope they remember to use the bins whilst on their travels.

David Bowie could sing Zeroes whilst throwing in his bottle! Admittedly, Schumacher will have to slow down to take his aim ...and if he doesn't quite hit the mark at least Phil Collins can rub it in with a cheeky performance of I Missed Again.

Back in Bury St Edmunds, it's more a case of singing Take Me Home, but not for much longer as on-street recycling bins are planned for the town centre. Hooray! It looks like there's a new trend hitting the streets!

So wherever you are on holiday, whether it's the UK or overseas, check out the local bins and see if you too can recycle on the go! You may be pleasantly surprised!

In the meantime we've headed over to the Alps, where we're spending the rest of our time at great altitude.

We really are in picturesque Chocolate Box territory.

But the question on my mind, is how easy will it be to recycle that chocolate box?

I'll ponder that one with yet another bar of Toblerone.

See you soon.

Almost Mrs Average xxx

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Le Recyclage en Vacances: # 1. En France

So, I packed my reusable bags and the suitcases and hopped into the family car for the start of our great adventure....

...driving from the UK to Switzerland to visit my sister and her family.

I know, I know, driving all that way is not the most sustainable method of getting from A-B but it's better than flying and we're doing it in the knowledge that we're saving diesel as a result of broken air-conditioning, sweltering away in a mobile greenhouse through France with temperatures of 30 degrees.

I would love to reassure everyone that our choices of travel and accommodation were deliberately chosen following Zero Waste principles but the truth of the matter is that I'm terrible at travel arrangements at the best of times, and for such a long journey we needed to get our family of four to Switzerland in the most comfortable way possible.

However the pro-active Zero Waste decisions that I made were to limit the snacks that we bought for in-car travel and to make sure that we ate the perishable contents of the fridge before we left. I suppose bringing several of the kids' toys and books with us also contributed as far as entertainment was concerned.

But it was in true haphazard style that our journey across the channel and through France turned out to be pretty successful as far as Zero Waste is concerned.

As it happens, we travelled from Dover with our usual ferry company, SeaFrance, which in the last few months have upped the ante on the recycling front. I used my best French to chat up the staff to ask them about their Recyclage activities (I even learned a new word there).



Although there are no recycling bins for passengers, the great news is that behind the scenes they recycle plastics, metals, paper and even food waste.

Looking at the SeaFrance website reveals that the company does take its environmental impact seriously and with regard to waste measures, the company seeks to:

• reduce consumption of resources and raw materials
• minimise waste from its activities and recycle wherever possible
• purchase from suppliers who share its concern for the environment
• whenever possible purchase and use recyclable products or products from sustainable sources
• promote good environmental practice within the industry
  

So the moral is...if you're on board a SeaFrance ferry, don't put your plastic bottles in the bin...leave them on the table or hand them to staff, who will sort them out for you. Hooray.

So having felt happy that I could suitably dispose of our recyclables on the ferry, we then set off for our 4 hour journey to Troyes, the location of our overnight stop to the South-East of Paris.

Our first pit-stop was at one of the many "aire de services" dotted along the auto-route, where we were greeted by a public recycling point, featuring huge containers for verres (glass) and emballages (including cans and plastic packaging).



By now we were gathering a suitable number of empty plastic bottles, despite having several reusable containers. So again we could happily dispose of them properly before travelling on to the hotel in Troyes.

Finally we arrived at our splendid hotel, where we quickly slipped into the land of nod.


Having had a great rest, thought twice about using the toiletries and indulged in an amazing breakfast, I happily made the greatest discovery...revealed by a poster displayed on the wall...


It stated that the hotel, which is part of the Accor chain (and includes Novotel, Ibis, Mercure and Etap) has signed up to the group's Environmental Charter, which amongst many other glorious things features a promise to...

• Recycle paper/cardboard packaging
  
• Recycle papers, newspapers and magazines
• Limit the use of disposable packaging for the hotel supplies
• Recycle glass packaging
• Recycle plastic packaging
• Recycle metal cans
• Organise sorting of waste in bedrooms
• Limit individual packaging of hygiene products in bedrooms
• Recycle restaurant organic waste
• Recycle garden green waste
• Dispose safely of hotel batteries
• Dispose safely of guests’ batteries
• Recycle electrical and electronic equipment
• Recycle ink cartridges
• Dispose safely of fluorescent bulbs/tubes

Phew. What a relief!

It may have been purely coincidental, but this fine piece of news certainly makes me a happy bunny that our travel accommodation was perfectly aligned with my overall attempts at Zero Waste.

So ....

...based on our travel so far and and having experienced what's really possible, when making holiday plans in future I will most definitely make the effort to track down hotels that actively seek to reduce waste, and will be delighted to give them our business.

After all, if it's been so easy to come about by accident, just imagine what you can find if you really look.

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Mrs G launches her first video

If you're looking for more inspiration while I'm off on hols, here's Mrs Green to keep you company, with her very first video shoot launched on YouTube this week. Go Mrs G! I hope this video makes it onto Gloucestershire's Zero Waste Week site.