I had planned to cover Zero Waste Week and participate - it is this week until 1st February. However it is black bag day today and we have failed dismally here in Ruscombe - indeed for the first time in many months we've managed to nearly fill a black bag - usually we can barely find enough to fill a third of the bag but a clear out last weekend and some guests all mean we have a full bag - embarrassing to put out? Maybe one day it really will be for all....Photo: Gavin from the My Zero Waste website and their visit to the flagship programme in Bisley - an amazing collection of events
However I can report good news from the rest of the family where one of them participating in the challenge has, so far, only a few bits of plastic and a v small amount of food waste - not enough to even half fill a carrier bag. For another successful project where a family are seriously reducing their waste and have lots of ideas and discussion see over in the Forest of Dean:
http://myzerowaste.com/
Anyhow the Gloucestershire's Zero Waste Challenge aims to help us reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfill sites by challenging households to produce not a single item of waste during the week. More details here. It is a great initiative to highlight our waste and I am disappointed that I have not joined in this year - so can I also say that I am disappointed not to see others in the area doing the same - on my way to Stroud today there were still piles and piles of black bags...
3 comments:
What I don't understand is; where is the limit on land fill?
I mean, you could set aside a few square miles of land and just keep piling it on. We could be the very proud owners of an Everest of garbage...
Is not "zero waste" just kidding ourselves? We ARE consumers; no amount of wearing woolly hats can change that.
Or maybe I'm being too cynical...
But it's been on the news, this week, that a lot of recycling is just being stored, or going to landfill.
Many issues here - not sure I have time to address all as out to a meeting this evening - you are right the recession means that many items are going to landfill (or incineration) that should be being recycled - the UK has not developed the right incentives to encourage new businesses to use recycled materials - by taxing landfill the EU is trying to promote a more sustainable approach to waste management by providing an incentive to dispose of less waste and to recover more value from waste through recycling - and cut carbon emissions.
However there is much more the UK can be doing - we deserve the title we have been given of 'dirty man of Europe' - where is the tax on excess packaging? Where is the tax on new products? Take cars for example - a £100 extra on price of a new car would pay for disposal and recycling costs yet at the moment the local authority has to pay for cars dumped. The polluter should pay - all products should include costs of disposal in their price.
Also many products are being disposed in landfill that should not be - batteries, chemicals etc are leaking into ground water supplies then costing even more to remove....and on our small island infact suitable landfill sites are running out - no one wants them near them - especially as they are linked to health problems.
As for being consumers - yes but I think we can reverse the significant changes made over the last years - it was never about so much consumption!! Indeed if we are to tackle climate change we must reverse the changes...
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