Boot Market Time

I went to the boot market yesterday for the first time since last autumn and boy was I surprised. Ok, so it was a nice, sunny day and that always draws the crowds but it was BIG. Twice it’s usual size and there were more people than I’ve ever seen there before. Far more. Like more than double the number. That’s a lot of people. The car park had been extended but even that wasn’t enough - cars were parked along verges for a good few hundred yards or so on either side of the road too.

Another thing I noticed was that a lot of the stall holders were asking more for their stuff than they previously had. Not huge amounts, but a pound rather than 50p, that sort of thing. Some were taking the p**s though… £2 for a chiffon scarf? I don’t think so.

I managed to get myself a few bits that I’m really happy with. A lamp for the guest room when it’s eventually decorated (this summer some time), a little white cotton summer blouse, a belt, a scarf (not the one to two quid, I hasten to add), a spider plant and four necklaces. All in all I spent £6. Can’t grumble at that. LM got herself a really pretty dress for £3.50 too. One of those handy ones that you can just chuck in a weekend bag and it comes out uncreased. And that dries in no time, too. She was pleased :)

There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that the recession is sending more people in the direction of car boot sales. People wanting to make a few bob by getting rid of their unwanted stuff and others hoping to bag a bargain rather than pay full whack in the shops. Reusing… wonderful :)

And the fact that my fashion conscious daughter (albeit, not a strict follower of high street fashion) can find stuff she likes there is proof that it’s not all tat at the boot market. Far from it. Half of my home and wardrobe has come from car boot sales and I’m not ashamed to admit it, either.

Cross fingers it’s nice weather next Sunday and I’ll be off bargain hunting again. No doubt a good few of you will be doing the same :)

Sharon J xx

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Starting As I Mean To Go On

Today I’ve been tidying my bedroom and chucking out stuff that’s just cluttering the place up. By chucking out I obviously don’t mean that I’ve put it all in the bin for the landfill, but generally banishing it from my life. Some of the stuff will be going to the charity shop, some of it will be going to the Salvation Army collection point at the recycling centre and some will be going on Freecycle. It took a while because I had to keep resting but it didn't half feel good to be getting on with it :)

My immediate problem now is my wardrobe. I don’t have a lot of clothes because I got rid of all my size 16 and 18s a while back when, as a size 10, I realised that there was no way I was ever going to use them again. I’m now a size 12 but my goal is a size 16 (20 kilos away I reckon so it’s gonna take some time) and while I do have some clothes that I’ve bought from charity shops and boot fairs, I’ve realised that I’ve just been buying any old thing just so’s I have something to wear and nothing really goes together. There’s no style over anything… what I wear these days says nothing about who I am. And let’s face it, our clothes are a kind of uniform that give signals to the rest of the world about who we are and where we stand. A woman in a power suit says something completely different to a woman in long flowing skirt, gypsy blouse and hair tied back with a velvet ribbon.

I couldn’t chuck out everything I don’t really feel is me because that’d just leave me with too little to wear but I am going to start switching things. Even though I’m going through temporary wardrobes at the moment I still need to feel at home in my clothes so I need to be more mindful when I visit charity shops and the likes. Hence, I’ve decided that I shall build up a wardrobe I’M HAPPY WITH using only second-hand clothes for each step towards my size 16 goal. Then, and only then, will I treat myself to something new.

Ok, so there will be new undies and probably some vest tops bought new along the way but nothing expensive or “this season”. I prefer clothes that will keep on going for years - in fact I still wear a jumper that a friend bought for me twenty odd years ago (remember the pink one with the dog on the front, Carol?).

I also love brooches so will be looking for more of those and I need to start wearing necklaces again. I’ve neglected my wardrobe for too long and when you feel comfortable in what you’re wearing, you feel happier. Well I do, anyway.

Sharon J xx

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The Porch Door And Energy Saved

About 18 months ago I had new doors fitted in the living room. One leads to the kitchen, the other to the front porch. They’re pine doors but because they’re extra wide, they had to be ordered and cost a good deal more than their slim counterparts (rather like clothes for the fuller figure costing more than those for skinny chicks - a problem I had for years!).

Anyway, the door to the porch has never been right. To start with it closed but was clearly warped. The guy who fitted it assured me it would go back once it settled though and I believed him. It didn’t. It got worse. It got so bad that the door wouldn’t even shut anymore. And what’s more, he hadn’t even used the right number of screws in the hinges. Talk about cowboy!

With my gas bill going through the roof, the knowledge that using up resources unnecessarily and me being a proper little frozen fish finger who shivers at the slightest draught, I knew that I had to have something done about it. Cold air was coming in and warm air was going out and that just ain’t good. I lived through last winter like it but I certainly didn’t want to live through another with all that heat being wasted. It would be waste of both money and resources, not to mention how much it hurts me to freeze!

Enter Kyle.

During dinner on Tuesday I mentioned the door and how something needed to be done about it. Actually, I more than mentioned it. Fed up with the draught that was blowing through and after trying unsuccessfully to shut it (I always try even though I know it’s a no go) I kicked the damn thing and called it a few unsavoury names. Kyle, my daughter’s ‘gentleman friend’, decided at that point that he was going to fix it. And fix it he did.

As soon as dinner was over, he had the toolbox out, the door off and was fixing the dodgy hinges. Then he started chiselling away at the door itself, determined that no matter what, that door was gonna shut!

The result isn’t particularly pretty. There’s are bits missing along the lower side edge where he’s had to chisel them away (I don’t have a plane) but it shuts and that’s what matters. And it saved me a lot of money buying a new one and having somebody fit it, and what’s more, the wood will be used for a good few years more before it eventually becomes firewood.

Things don’t have to be perfect to be good. The door has character now and it does the job it was intended to do. All is well :)

Sharon J

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I Worked Hard But I Didn't Recycle

I was tidying the house a bit yesterday. Nothing major, or at least not what most others would call major, but for me it was hard work. My legs hurt if I stand for too long, bending does my back in something chronic (I’ve wrecked my back because the leg pains cause me to walk and stand all wrong) and I tire really easily. I hoovered half the rug, sat down; hoovered the other half, sat down; tidied stuff off the surfaces, sat down; carried the rubbish out, sat down; wiped the surfaces over, sat down. You get the picture?

Anyway, I was upstairs in the bathroom emptying the bin when I noticed that somebody had thrown an empty shampoo bottle in it - a bottle that should have gone in the recycling. There was also an empty toothpaste pack in there (not the plastic container but the box it comes in) that should also have been in the recycling bin. Now I generally expect anybody to take stuff that needs recycling down with them and put it outside in its proper place - the recycling bin. Clearly, that hadn’t been done. But what did I do? Did I take them out and dispose of them properly? No, I took them out, sighed and then threw them back in, tied up the plastic bag and took it all down to the landfill bin.

And do you know what? I didn’t even feel guilty. I was knackered, and just didn’t have it in me to do anything about it. I’d done the clothes wash, hung it out, done the dishes, made dinner, vacuumed the living room, porch and kitchen, tidied the living room, stripped my bed, got rid of some rubbish from my bedroom (including putting some stuff in the recycling bin and some other stuff in the charity shop box) and I just didn’t have it in me anymore to worry about it. I just wanted to get finished, sit down (again!) and do nothing else for the afternoon.

You’ll probably think I’m letting the side down but I’m not a purist and I’m sure as hell not perfect. I do what I can to make life easy on myself - I’ve simplified considerably since the start of the year and although there are still areas I’m working on (and some I haven’t even got round to thinking about starting on yet), I have to find a balance that keeps me relatively healthy through leading a quieter, simpler life that’s kinder on myself, the environment and my purse, and I’m not going to allow myself to stress or push myself too far physically for the sake of a few items that didn’t go into the recycling bin. It happens.

During the weekend I also threw a tin can in the landfill waste. I’d fed the dog and as it was evening and I was practically on the point of collapse, I just didn’t have it in me to wash it out there and then. I didn’t want a dirty dog food can standing on the worktop overnight either, so it went in the normal kitchen bin. But hey…. how many things did I recycle or find a way of reusing? Well a whole lot more than I didn’t, that’s for sure, and that’s what counts.

I really need to get an extra bin for the bathroom though. There should be room for one, so I don't really have an excuse.

Sharon J

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Image Credit: Dylan Hartmann

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Bottle & Can Deposit Schemes

Image: Chris_J

A lot of countries in Europe (and probably elsewhere for all I know) have a deposit scheme in place when it comes to plastic and glass bottles and aluminium cans. You pay a couple of pence extra on top of the normal price but when you take them back to the bottle and can banks you get that money back.

I first moved to Norway in 1980 where the system was already in place. Every large supermarket had an automated collection system that issued a payment slip that could either be exchange at the check out as payment for part of your shopping or as cash and the smaller supermarkets and grocery stores had manual systems. It worked. Far fewer bottles and cans are found littering the streets and countryside there (although that could also have something to do with a difference in mentality too) and they few that do get thrown away are foraged by those looking to earn themselves a few bob extra. Kids especially can generally be seen hunting through the litter bins at zoos, outdoor swimming pools, lakes, picnic areas and the likes, looking for discarded bottles and cans that they can get a themselves a bit of extra pocket money from. Sounds gross I guess but there isn’t usually any dangerous litter in the bins in those places.

When I was a kid we had a deposit system on glass bottles (I can’t remember plastic bottles being used at all then and cans still weren’t anywhere near as commonplace as they are now). I’m not sure when that disappeared but I imagine it was when plastic bottles and cans took over. But why not bring the deposit system back? Surely that would increase the number of bottles and cans that are recycled which in turn would lower the cost of production and, obviously, leave less of a footprint on the planet.

It seems odd to me that the UK - a place that likes to think of itself as one of the world leaders - isn’t doing something that simple.

Sharon J

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What’s More Important To You?

Image: Foto-Eye

A while back I put up a poll asking readers what was more important to them. The results were as follows:

Shopping Locally - 28%
Using Car Less - 34%
Cooking From Scratch - 35%
Green Cleaning - 23%
Growing Own Produce - 35%
Reusing & Recycling - 44%
Other - 1%

Of the 67 of you that answered, 44% of you thought reusing and recycling were the most important. I can’t tell you how many people that was as everybody could make multiple choices but I don’t suppose anybody’s surprised by that result. Reusing and recycling are easy things we can all do in our daily lives to help improve the chances of this planet sustaining life as we know it, if not forever (nothing’s forever) but at least for a while yet. A while, in universal terms, being a good few generations. I’m kind of hoping that my descendents will be able to celebrate the turn of another millennium, but maybe that’s too much to ask for. Still, reusing and recycling stuff instead of just tossing it on the landfill does and will make a difference but there’s still a long way to go. I still need to sort out my bin cupboard so that I can recycle more than I do at the moment and it’s really important that ONLY recyclable stuff goes in the recycling bins. If it’s contaminated, it can quite easily end up on a mountainous landfill in India. Just take a look at this post by Indian Earth for more on this. It’s really quite shocking.

Cooking from scratch was right up there alongside recycling so it’s clear that more people want to know exactly what’s going into their food these days. Or is it just that the blog attracts those who like good food and know how to prepare it? Perhaps a mix of both. I still see plenty of people filling their supermarkets trolleys with rubbish but a few of my friends who have never taken the time to learn to cook before have actually starting making an effort these days so the message is obviously spreading. I still use the odd packet sauce and have some tins and things in the cupboard for days when I simply can’t make a meal (when my energy is rock bottom) but in general our food is made from scratch and not only is it healthier that way, it’s cheaper too.

Related to cooking is growing your own produce, another one that was right at the top with 35%. I can’t say that comes as any surprise - allotments have flown out of the door around these parts and even a friend who I would never have thought would bother with anything even remotely related to growing vegetables asked me whether it’s possible to grow them in pots as he’d been thinking about giving it a go. I have to admit that, apart from herbs, I haven’t grown anything edible for years, but that’s going to change. I’m getting stronger all the time so all I need now is somebody to make a least part of my garden maintainable and I’ll be out there with my gardening gloves and watering can next year.

It’s good to see that using the car less is considered important with 34% of you. Y’know, I think I’ve even noticed that there aren’t quite as many cars on the roads around town these days. Whether that’s because of people’s ethical choices or because of the price of fuel at the moment I really don’t know but whatever it is, it’s a good thing. Now we just need to get through to those driving their whopping great 4x4s for no apparent reason.

I’d have thought, with so many cooking from scratch and growing their own, that more than 28% would have found shopping locally important, but obviously not. Perhaps some of you just don’t have any local shops that are easily accessible or that the choice just isn’t good enough to make the trek worthwhile. I know I have trouble finding everything I need in local shops and often have to weigh up the environmental cost of using the car to get to the farm shops against nipping to the supermarket but I do prefer to support local producers and retailers whenever I can. Even at the supermarket I look for UK produce and the closer to home the better. Asda are at least good at labelling their fruit and veg with not only the country of origin but, if it’s UK produced, the area. I also try to stick with seasonal produce because even though I can get most things all year round now, I don’t want to support the forced production of food in greenhouses that use huge amounts of energy.

I’m not perfect though, and yesterday I bought strawberries. Yes, strawberries in October! Only because LM is really fussy and won’t eat any other fruit than strawberries, raspberries and blueberries though and I really do want to get as much fruit and veg into her as I can.

What really surprised me was that so few found green cleaning important. Only 23%. In several posts I’ve written about the damage that chemicals do to the water, the creatures that live in it, the environment as a whole, not to mention what it does to us but still it’s right down at the bottom of the list. I really don’t understand that because green cleaning isn’t difficult, in fact it’s easier than using the plethora of cleaning agents that can be found under the sink in most homes. Just a few products will do most jobs around the house without polluting the planet. If you're interested in reading what I've already written, you can look here and here and here. Maybe I should write more about this.

Sharon J

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Tetra Pak Recycling

.Image: stevent

At long last our borough has introduced Tetra Pak recycling, an important addition to the recycling schemes, and considering that 20 billion of the 55 billion cartons produced were recycled on a global basis as far back as in 2005, it's not before time.

Apparently, Tetra Paks - those cartons that drinks often come in - are quite easy to recycle even though the paper, aluminium and polythene need to be stripped away from one another. Ours can’t go into the kerbside recycling bins but a number of supermarkets have council recycling units in their car parks so those who shop there anyway can easily take them along and pop them in.

To find out where you can recycle your Tetra Paks, take a look at the recycling location map.

According to Tetra Pak the company, their products have a far lower carbon impact than plastic cartons so while I’ve been choosing plastic over cartons until now, simply because I had no way of recycling them, my choice will soon be changing?

Why soon and not straight away? Because I still need to get that darned bin cupboard de-cluttered (the bin doesn’t actually ‘live’ in there) and some shelves put up so that I can store my recycling. Once that’s done, I shall definitely be recycling Tetra Paks. Unfortunately, until then, I just don’t have anywhere to store the papers, bottles and now, plastic lined cartons, that need to be taken ‘elsewhere’ to be recycled. I really must get my skates on.

Sharon J

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The Problem With Plastic

Image: Mimi_K

I read quite a few simplicity and ‘green’ blogs and one thing that I’ve noticed is the number of people who are trying hard to eliminate any kind of plastic from their lives. I guess I must be the odd one out, because I don’t have a problem with plastic per se.

The way I see it is that plastic, polythene and other polymer based substances aren’t necessarily bad things - they have their place in our modern society and I’m perfectly happy to use my plastic watering-can, bucket, food storage boxes, garden trug and other bits and pieces and I realise that my telephone is made mostly of plastic, my laptop contains a good deal of it, as does my fridge and a whole host of other useful items. What I’m not happy with is the way in which so many people treat plastics.

It seems to me that the majority still view plastic as something that’s easily disposable. It’s cheap so they’re not losing much when they open the bin and dump it in. Every day,

Apparently, last year 17.5 billion plastic bags were given away by supermarkets here in the UK, equating to 290 bags per person or more than 5 ½ bags for each of us every single day. What on earth are we doing with all those bags?

Also, of the total amount of plastic produced here - around 4.7 million tonnes of it - 35% was produced for packaging alone! That’s more than 1.6 million tonnes of plastic packaging!

When you consider that only around 7% of that total was actually recycled, it’s no wonder our landfills are overflowing with the stuff, not to mention the amount of plastic that’s ‘disposed of’ in the countryside and on our streets.

Even our oceans aren’t free of the stuff. On a world basis, it’s estimated that around 46,000 plastic objects are floating within every square mile! Yepp, shocking isn’t it? Not only are our beaches being swamped with plastic debris washed up by the tides, but marine life is suffering through our selfish abuse of our own ability to create new substances. In fact, 170 different species of marine wildlife have been reported to have been fatally injured through mistaking plastic for food. Here in the UK an average of 2 plastic items can be found on every square meter of beach, either washed up or left behind by visitors.

Plastic’s durable because it doesn’t decompose quickly and therein lies the problem. Because it’s also cheap to produce and therefore acquire, it’s all too easy to just get rid of it again without a thought to where it’ll go or what will happen to it.

Thankfully, things are gradually improving. The government have given stores until next spring to reduce the number of plastic carrier bags they hand out by at least 70% or they’ll introduce a forced fee per bag with the income going to environmental projects (or so they say). Marks & Spencer have voluntarily introduced a 5p charge per bag and already the number of bags they’re handing out has been reduced by 80%, proving that if people have to part with their money for something, they’re more likely to think twice about it. Perhaps the problem with plastic is that it’s simply too cheap?

When you can buy a bucket for £1.99, it doesn’t hurt much to just ‘chuck it’ and buy a new one when the original’s looking past its best or no longer matches the décor, whereas if the same bucket cost £10, I’m sure far more people would think twice.

One of my pet peeves is the amount of plastic that supermarkets use for packaging. I bought two small pork chops a few days ago that were packed in a relatively large plastic tray that was again covered with a sturdy plastic film. Now I realise that, unlike the local butcher, they need to pre-pack their meat while leaving the contents visible but the plastic tray was far larger than it needed to be; at least four, maybe even five, chops would have fitted into it. What a waste!

That’s the last time I buy ‘small’ from the supermarket. I prefer to buy my meat from the butcher anyway, but sometimes I have no choice. From now on, when the supermarket’s my only option I shall buy in bulk. Half a dozen chops, chicken breasts or pieces of steak packed in one piece of plastic has to be better than the same packed in three although I know I still won’t be entirely happy about opening it, dividing the contents for freezing, and then discarding the plastic. Some I can reuse to at least extend their life a little but not all of them. The butcher, on the other hand, wraps his meat in a small piece of plastic film and then greaseproof paper - very little packaging in comparison.

Any plastic carrier bags that come into the house are reused as bin liners - the council still prefers us to wrap our waste rather than dump it straight into the bin (health & safety) and I’m blowed if I’m buying special bin liners! I have a friend who only ever uses scented bin-liners but throws her carrier bags straight into the bin. What, I ask you, is the point?

As I said, plastic is here to stay and has its place in our lives - it’s the way in which we use it that I have a problem with.

Sharon J

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Musically, I'm Not Being Environmentally Friendly

Image: BlakJakDavy

I have an mp3 player somewhere. Richard bought it for me a few years ago although I’m not sure whether it was a Christmas present, birthday present or something he’d bought to keep me entertained during a spell in hospital. Either way, I didn’t use it as much as I first thought I would and right now I haven’t a clue where it is.

I just couldn’t get on with it. There was something about having music stored in a tiny gadget that just didn’t feel right to me. I like to be able to look at the designs of CD covers, read the blurbs that are sometimes in the fold-out paper bit that goes in the plastic case and check the play list. I also like the designs on the actual CDs and the fact that I have something real in my hands.

I know that mp3s are better for the environment - less plastic production blah blah, but try as I might, I just can’t like them let alone love them. In fact, I positively loathe them. I’ve downloaded a few to my laptop but I’ve very rarely listened to them, except for those that I burned onto a CD and have in the car, which is kind of evading the point.

Did you know that a CD actually contains gold? Only a tiny trace but the main problem is the amount of aluminium, polycarbonate (made from crude oil) and acrylic lacquer - yet another form of plastic - that they contain. Then there are the chemical dyes used in the printing. None of this is doing our planet any good whatsoever and yet here I am, still clutching to my CDs instead of embracing mp3s.

Then there’s the packaging. More plastic!

CDs were designed to be virtually unbreakable so you can imagine how long they’re going to be around, either at the landfill or wherever else people decide to chuck ‘em. Hundreds, if not thousands of years! And considering

When you consider that several billion music CDs are sold every year, it’s anybody’s guess how many of them are going to end up as waste. And that’s without thinking about all the DVDs, computer games and CDs used to store photos and stuff on. Piled up, I bet they’d make quite a mountain.

Knowing what to do with used CDs and the likes isn’t easy because general recycling centres don’t take them, at least not as separate waste. Of course, it’s always better to donate them to a charity shop, sell them on eBay, give them to friends, put them on Freecycle or sell them at a care boot sale but what if they’d beyond use?

Luckily there’s a company called The Laundry that recycles them. All you have to do is post them off to them and they’ll strip out the aluminium and polycarbonates for use in the manufacturing of other, new components. I shall save my ‘beyond use’ CDs and DVDs up for them in the future - they’re not exactly heavy after all so postage shouldn’t really be a reason to dump them instead.

But will I ever be converted to mp3s? Time will tell…

Sharon J

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A Can is A Can, Whichever Way

Photo: MrTickle

My recycling bin gets emptied today.

My two daughters and Lise's boyfriend have, between them, managed to get through so many cans of drink (Carlsberg, Red Bull, Pepsi... you name it, they've probably had it) in just one week that my normally half full recycling bin has been full since Tuesday. I was gobsmacked by the fact that three people alone could produce that much aluminium waste so decided to have a nosey around the 'Net to see what would actually happen to all those cans.

A lot of us use aluminium cans – and by that I mean those used for beer and fizzy drinks, not the tin cans that soup, dog food and that sort of thing come in – at some point. Some of us only use them very occasionally, others use them on a daily basis. And guess what? I’m not gonna preach and say “stop using them”. Ok, so it would be best if we never used them but as they’re one of the waste products we produce that are easiest to recycle, there’s no reason to feel mega guilty about them or render people working in the industry jobless.

Apparently, once cans are sorted from our recycling bins, they’re pressed into huge bales and sent off for melting. Their decoration is then stripped off through a burning process before they’re moved into high temperature furnaces where they’re melted along with previously unused aluminium. The molten metal is then cooled and rolled into thin sheets ready to become new cans. And best of all, the whole process from the cans being picked up at the kerbside to being ready to refill takes just 60 days. That’s efficient recycling.

The downside of using drinks cans is this – if you don’t recycle them but throw them in the general household waste bin or, worse, chuck them along roadside verges, in woodland, fields and similar, they’ll still be there in 300 years time! Can you imagine somebody who’s one of your descendants by 18 generations cutting himself on a rusty can that you once threw away? That’s like you being hurt by something that somebody threw away in 1708! Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? Certainly there are still original cans laying about that date from the 1950s when they were first introduced in the UK. What’s more, aluminium can leech into the ground (where we grow our food) and waterways and as its been connected with Alzheimers disease, every can that isn’t recycled is a potential toxic hazard.

Another interesting fact is that if every can sold in the UK were sent for recycling, there would be 14 million fewer general waste bins to empty every year. That alone gives a darned good indication of just how many cans we use.

Another interesting point that I picked up is that the production of virgin cans (no, that doesn't mean cans made by one of Richard Branson's companies and neither does it have anything to do with sex) leaves a HUGE footprint while recycling a can uses just 5% of that energy.

At the moment we’re recycling around 30% of aluminium cans here in the UK so we could do a lot better. Before people throw a can anywhere other than into the recycling bin, I wish they'd ask themselves whether they're really happy for it to hang around the environment for hundreds of years, harming wildlife and potentially humans. Is that really too much to expect?

Sharon J

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. ~Native American Proverb

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Other posts that may be of interest:

• The Story of Stuff
• Thoughts on Littering
• Junk Mail - What A Bloomin' Nuisance
  

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The Story of Stuff

Some of you will no doubt already have seen this entertaining and thought provoking film called The Story of Stuff but if you haven’t, nip over there now and take a look. It’ll only take up about 20 minutes of your time but I can practically guarantee that it’ll give you something to think about.

The Story of Stuff

I thought I was reasonably clued up about ‘stuff’, but seeing things presented this way definitely gave me food for thought.

Sharon

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Help! I'm All Boxed In!

Photo: ahhyeah

Every fortnight I have a delivery of medical supplies, and every fortnight I’m left with several large cardboard boxes that I then have to take to the recycling centre. Because I have limited mobility and sometimes just going from the living room to the loo is just about all I can muster, this is a chore I could easily do without. But I have to get rid of them and I’ve no idea what else to do with them, unlike some imaginative, inventive people.

Take a look at this link and you’ll see what I mean.

http://www.supernaturale.com/articles.html?id=198

If only I had the talent (and energy) to put my boxes to some really good use instead of chucking them in the dumpster at the tip!

I did ask my ‘daughter’ (not my natural daughter, but a girl I took under my wing a while back) whether she’d like some for her 18 month old son to play with but her partner said no, they’d rather have ‘proper’ toys for him than rubbish, thanks. Oh well…

I'm planning to rip a small one up now and then to feed to the worms but they can’t have too much because they simply can’t handle it. I've tried giving them away on Freecycle but there have been no takers there either. I thought perhaps if somebody was moving... but no.

I can’t store them because I don’t have the space so I’m stuck for ideas. Anybody have any ideas as to what I could do with them?

Sharon J

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Energy Saving Light Bulbs – A Conundrum

I have a problem.

Like most, I’ve long since switched to CFLs (compact flourescent lightbulbs) – the energy saving light bulbs that we’re all told we should be using these days. The trouble is, I’ve no idea how I’m supposed to dispose of the used ones.

I’ve phoned the council to ask whether they have any special recycling facilities but apparently they don’t (I say apparently because the person you speak to doesn’t always know the answer, they often just think they do) and I can’t see what other options are open.

I’d heard that US branches of IKEA take back these light bulbs for recycling so I checked with my nearest branch but no, the service isn’t available in the UK. The person I spoke to seemed to be surprised that I’d even asked about such a thing and had no idea why they didn’t. I also checked their website and there’s no mention of it there either, even though they really push how environmentally friendly they are.

So here I am with a few burned out lightbulbs and expecting the rest to start burning out any time now but without the foggiest idea as to what I should do with them. I know they mustn't go in the normal household waste because of the mercury they contain – we don’t want that leaking out and potentially causing more environmental damage than burning extra energy with conventional light bulbs would have done, do we? Mercury really isn’t something to be scoffed at.

Anybody have any ideas on this? What do you do with your old energy saving lightbulbs?

Sharon J

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Social Bag Making

Fed up with plastic carrier bags?

Why not get together with some friends and make some 'morsbags'?

The idea is to create a 'pod' of people, or join an existing one, who all sew these simple shopping bags and, when they have enough, distribute them free to shoppers in the hope that fewer will use plastic.

Ideally they should be made from recycled fabric - old duvet covers, sheets, curtains, fabric from charity shops, etc.

I won't be organising a pod because I can never really make arrangements in advance for things. I just never know what my energy will be like on any given day. I would like to make a few myself to give to friends and family though, so I shall be saving any suitable fabric I find. Apparently they only take about half an hour to make.

Now, if only I could figure out how to use the darned sewing machine...

Sharon J

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Worms

Picture courtesy Stoke Worms

No, I haven’t gone and contracted a bout of worms, I’ve bought a wormery. So now I’m going to start vermicomposting.

Basically, a wormery is made up of a base unit on which several deep trays sit, topped with a lid. You start filling the first tray with peelings, old fruit and veg, left over cooked food (but not meat or anything spicy or salty), old tissues and kitchen roll, shredded newspaper, bits of moistened cardboard, tea bags, coffee grounds, pasta, cereal, bread, cake, biscuits, hair (both human and animal) and even the contents of your vacuum cleaner bag. The only things you can’t put in (and we’re talking organic matter here, obviously) are citrus fruit and peelings, onions and anything that’s spicy, salty or has vinegar on. Oh, and poo, unless it's from a herbivore! That’s still a lot of stuff that would otherwise be chucked out with the rubbish that’s then turned into compost and plant food instead.

The worms live in the tray that you’re ‘feeding’ at the time and as they munch their way through it, it comes out of the other end as worm casts which is a nutrient rich compost. What’s more, because you need to keep everything moist (not soaking wet – you don’t want to drown the worms), the moisture seeps through and gathers in the bottom compartment as fertiliser. There’s a tap on the front so getting it out isn’t a problem and apparently it’s excellent for both indoor and outdoor plants.

I bought mine from this eBay seller at the bargain price of £30 including P&P. He also has a website here. They come in different sizes and styles from the smallest that are suitable for one person to huge ones for big families. I have a 60 litre version which, I’m told, is appropriate for my needs. It even comes complete with dendrobaena worms, worm food and their bedding so they'll be nice and comfy as they get used to their new environment.

I have a composter but I never use it because it’s at the end of the garden and I really don’t like having to walk through mud to get to it. It also breaks down veeeeery slowly so is mostly full up. The wormery, however, is now sited on a round table that was otherwise doing nothing, right beside my back door. I have an empty ice-cream pot (big 3 litre one) standing on the worktop that I shall put peelings etc in during the day and then every evening I’ll empty it into the wormery. Easy peasy!

Because they’re odour free (so I’m told – I’ll come back to this subject once mine’s been running a while), even those living in flats could have one as long as they have a balcony. And I believe there are even indoor types available, although I haven’t looked for them.

Hopefully I’ll see a decrease in the amount of rubbish that goes into the bin now and I should soon have some lovely compost to use in my pots and fertiliser to feed the plants with. Can’t go wrong really, can I? Or can I? I’ll let you know how it goes.

Sharon J xx

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