Our dustbin’s on a diet!
I’ve been following her Rubbish Diet and have been amazed at the progress she has made. This woman put ONE PLASTER in her bin on one week and hasn’t had to have it emptied for an incredible TEN weeks!
You’ll know from past posts that I have dipped my toe into the land of zero waste, but quickly bought it out again when faced with a dirty cat food can in my hand on a rainy night.
My choice - go out into the rain with aforesaid smelly can, get cold, wet and tread in a puddle with a pair of crocs on, or chuck the can in the conveniently placed kitchen bin and forget about it………..
Aaaaaaanyway, the Gorgeous woman herself has taken me under her wing and under her watchful guidance, she’s putting me on a diet. Our dustbin is showing signs of wear after all the junk its been fed.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, here at Chez Green we’re stepping up to our very own Zero Waste Challenge and we’ve launched a site dedicated to just this venture.
Please come along and have a read. You can find the home page here (how cool is our domain name?) and follow our blog here. Stick us in your RSS feed and come dance with me…… I need some moral support over there, so I’m relying on you all to come over and leave a comment. You know how it is with a new site; we need you to create that homely ‘lived in’ feel with us. It’s a cyber party, but you have to recycle your cans and bottles 
You can have your say, take part in our polls (which are incredibly cool - they kind of rotate as you go to different pages), lift the lid on this month’s Dustbin Demon (go on - have a guess what it is) and take your own monthly challenge (It’s easy peasy lemon squeezy this month, so join in now before it hots up a little).
In the future we’ll be giving away goodies in a monthly competition, just because we’re nice like that.
Yes, some of the stuff on there might have been written before over here and bore you to tears, and I’m working on the site as I write here (gotta love God’s gift of multi tasking with lots of browser windows) tidying around, obsessing about the tiny details that no one else will notice and generally sweeping up around my back passage (we’re friends right; you don’t mind do you?) but after that I promise to write some new original, unique and funky adventurous stuff which will have you gasping in amazement, and glued to your PC or something like that………
9 responses so far ↓
1 Almost Mrs Average // Jun 2, 2008 at 3:36 am
Yaa-ay! I can see your bin looking slimmer already Mrs Green. Good luck and I am already enjoying your new abode xx
2 russell // Jun 2, 2008 at 4:57 am
Excellent! Love the new site. I am happy to say our bin does not get used very much at all but I am sure there is still room for improvement. I would also like to cut down on how much we recycle. Yes, you heard me right! I would like to see us re-use more before recycling!
3 Mrs Green // Jun 2, 2008 at 9:28 am
Hello hello my darlings,
Thanks for the votes of confidence. You have to be honest and tell me if the new site gets ‘too heavy’ with its message. It’s a real balance between getting across the seriousness of the situation without frightening people off or overwhelming them with information.
Russell, I am SO with you about recycling LESS. I really hear what you are saying. I wrote about this a few years ago; about how we shouldn’t need to recycle because we shouldn’t be producing waste in the first place…………but we’d have to adopt some really traditional ways to achieve that. The three Rs are reduce, reuse, recycle in THAT ORDER!
I see recycling as a stop gap, a temporary solution to a major problem. I’m just trying to take it one step at a time, although I do have one friend who has taken the pledge to be totally zero waste in the truest meaning of the phrase - he’s foraging and eating fresh, local and seasonal food. But he’s single with no kids so that does have an impact on success levels I think
Kudos to him though; I think we can learn alot from that pledge!
Mrs Gx
4 John Costigane // Jun 4, 2008 at 9:08 am
Hi All,
The future of industry is away from the “end waste to landfill” type to a sustainable cycle where “waste” is returned to industry for reuse. In this system there is no landfill. Consumers can still make purchases but packaging will be recycled or composted. Recycling will always be part of the sustainable system.
John.
5 Mrs Green // Jun 4, 2008 at 2:24 pm
That’s an interesting take john and one which makes me breathe a small sigh of relief. The ideal I talk about where there is NO waste produced feels so unattainable. The way you describe seems much more reachable.
Is this the meaning of closed loop? I keep hearing this phrase but I’m not sure I understand it.
Mrs G x
6 John Costigane // Jun 4, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Hi Mrs Green,
The sustainable system has a closed loop, meaning that there is no exit for waste. In the current sytem -
supplier - superstore - consumer - landfill , waste will be produced until the end of time. This sytem is unsustainable. By taking a Zero Waste stand, along with Karen, myself and others, you are breaking the chain of waste. Consumers have the power to force the pace of change. The more who join in the better.
Regards,
John.
7 Mrs Green // Jun 4, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Ah, ok - I understand John; thanks
Mrs g x
8 Green Pal // Jul 9, 2008 at 5:41 pm
I just discover this site: GreenBagsGiveaway.com, they are giving away reusable bags. Its not those dull-looking green bags. I just received my bags from them, they are so stylish that all my friends are asking me where I bought it.
Well, who says that going green can’t be stylish and cheap!!!
9 John Costigane // Jul 15, 2008 at 5:55 am
Hi Mrs Green,
These stylish bags are excellent. The more people see them in everyday use, the better the penetration into the shopping world at large. I’ve got enough bags already but I am sure most others could use 1 or more. How are you doing with the “return to sender” effort? I find it is a great way to push forward the junk mail debate.
Hope all the family are enjoying some fine weather.
John.
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