No rubbish fortnight

[Andy Hamilton]

yep I managed to fail as well, I trew away a hand towel without thinking. I could have pocketed it and composted it. It made me think where do we draw the line on this one? I mean we all use toilet paper and although not going into landfill it must have to go trough a process to get it out of the water supply and then where does it go?

[Merry]

Yup - failed here too!
Forgot about the bathroom bin - bloomin` empty toothpaste tubes! What can you do with them?
Then we had a visit from some of our grandchildren. Not only did they dump empty tetra-pack drinks cartons in my kitchen bin without my knowing, but one of them fell and cut his knee meaning that I had yucky, bloody cotton wool to dispose of as well!
Oh well, tomorrow is another day

[Boots]

I'm not sure what happens with your toilet waste over there Andy, but here it degrades organically in the septic system. If you don't have one of them and are plumbed into public waste disposal it would do the same thing, and be processed through your waste filtration system, I imagine.

Ultimately, it becomes a sludge that is filtered off the recycled water, I think...

Just about all paper can be pulped to speed up break down and added to your compost. I think the retraining of the brain bit, will be the trickiest bit, but even if you lapse, you are still making a difference because you are thinking twice about it now. That is the big bit.

Bloody cotton wool can go in the compost or directly into the garden. Blood is an organic fluid (just consider it blood and bone fertiliser, minus the bone ) and the cotton wool will break down eventually and assist with water retention while it does.

Tetra packs can be used to make 'ice cones' here by freezing cordial in them, but maybe your weather doesn't call for icecones??? What about seedling starter pots? Or better still, ring the son/daughter and tell them what you are doing and ask them to come pick them up and dispose of them. Might make them think too.

Toothpaste Tubes??? Well - that is a definately something I would normally send to landfill. Though not very often as they last a while... Can't think of what to suggest with them to be honest, Merry. Only thing might be to try bi-carb - which sounds gross, but isn't so bad, is cheaper and your teeth really glow white when you use that.

I think you are both doing terrific and I salute you!!!

[Shirley]

Ok... failed again. We had meat from our local supplier - nice and ethical but packaged in plastic.

Tetrapak - depending on the size... a large one can be made into a bird nesting box (no idea how efficient it is but I saw the idea a while ago)

We went to the Finzean Christmas fair today - again, potential for failure as we each had a small plastic glass with mulled wine (I had mulled apple juice) - I didn't throw them away but I've brought them back home - not sure what I can use them for apart from maybe giving wee samples of juice when we share out our suma orders. We bought a rabbit (yes, we could shoot our own) and that was in a plastic bag... and a brace of pheasant.. in a plastic tray that will be reused for seedlings... and a plastic bag. Veggies were all loose.. and all locally grown - YAY.

Oh bum... I've just realised that I left the cup that I had my delicious pheasant broth in on the table... it was a good cup too... a paper cup with corrugated card around the outside... MUCH better than polystyrene.

[Wombat]

In most major cities Boots at least the ones on the coast like Sydney, all of the toilet paper and other stuff tends to get mulched up, aerobically digested then pumped out to sea!

Yep us too, Linda bought some new cushions for the back swing seat, guess where the old one went before I found out

Nev

[Millymollymandy]

I had to throw pork chop bones in the bin. OK, I needn't have eaten pork chops but the weather was foul and I just needed something meaty and wanted to have a first munch of my curly kale!

Most of the stuff going in our bin is plastic packaging. We can recycle Tetra Paks no probs here.

There's also the problem of window envelopes - I've stopped my husband throwing them straight into the recycling bag before ripping out the plastic bit.

We had a leaflet from our recycling centre reminding everyone of what you can and can't recycle. They also remind us that the more we make mistakes, the more, we, the consumer will pay in charges! Apparently some idiots are putting their recycling into the special biodegradable recycling bags that we are provided with - WRAPPED IN PLASTIC BIN BAGS!!!!!

[Shirley]

You could reuse the envelopes with a sticker over the top - Andy, could we set up a file with the Ish logo on it that could be printed onto labels - getting a bit of advertising for Ish at the same time as reusing envelopes??

[pskipper]

I mean we all use toilet paper and although not going into landfill it must have to go trough a process to get it out of the water supply and then where does it go?

Having had a field trip changed by the evil lecturer from whisky distillery to sewage works ....
The toilet paper becomes the sludge which they allow to settle. Most places (if not all) then compost the sludge and sell it to farmers, which is why one of the most common agricultural weeds in the UK is the tomato!

[PurpleDragon]

The toilet paper becomes the sludge which they allow to settle. Most places (if not all) then compost the sludge and sell it to farmers, which is why one of the most common agricultural weeds in the UK is the tomato!

Nice.
Thanks for that.
I'm eating my lunch, I'll have you know.
Barf.

[Shirley]

tomatoes?? PD??

[PurpleDragon]

Fortunately it is toasted fruit bread and a cuppa.

I dont actually like tomatoes 'in the raw' as it were. I stick them in my cooking. Or I did till my Great Frozen Tomato Disaster

[pskipper]

The gloopy stuff (technical term obviously) surrounding the pips is to protect them through the digestive tract so they then end up having been processed correctly and then are spread across the fields along with the fertilizer :)

[PurpleDragon]

Nice.

[pskipper]

Personally I prefer drying the seeds on paper :)

[PurpleDragon]

Before or after?