We don’t generate much rubbish or recycling, as we don’t buy that much stuff in packaging. Most of our recycling seems to be made up of milk cartons. But what we do generate does seem unavoidable. I carry bags, most of the shopkeepers here have the hang of not putting things in plastic.. I hand pick any fruit I buy and put it loose in my bag.. but still there are items.. that flimsy bag the mince came in from the butchers.. but really.. it’s nothing compared to the waste a link back in the food and manufacturing line.
Our 400 gallon juice container arrived in this country full of orange juice – to be repackaged in smaller cartons and sold on. The containers themselves are not reused. They are waste. Luckily some enterprising souls are selling them on to the likes of us as water butts.. but far more are arriving than will be needed..
Then, we are lucky to know someone in industry – they get deliveries in pallet form, and the pallets are a problem to them, as they are not returnable. If they are in good shape, they can be sold, for not much, but the broken ones are a problem – and we are the solution! – we accept deliveries of pallets.. it means we have to help unload, and as there is no lorry sized access to our property, that’s all by hand, but we are not complaining, as its all firewood to us. Well, that’s if we don’t makes something out of that wood ( - cries of ‘but there’s good wood in that’ are often uttered by himself).
You will notice in the picture, a couple of IBCs – we mentioned we were going to buy some, and it turns out that the factory get rid of them.. at no cost or gain. They are a bit of a nusiance, as although someone will take them away for free, they have to save up a quantity first. They were very happy to let us have a couple ( we have rainwater toilet flushing plans for sometime we have lots of spare time (ho ho) in the future). Again, goods arrive in these, but don’t go back. huh? These two contained sodium silicate, or waterglass, which is not that noxious, and used in foundries.
And lastly, the blue boxes, shown here housing our courgette mountain. These are used to contain fruit and veg. A local greengrocers puts them outside his shop every day for people to take, and we are building up a supply and even giving them to others. They will be perfect to store the apple harvest. So useful – stackable, aired. We also got a lidded polystyrene box that spinach came in, which we hope to grow mushrooms in.
The shopkeeper has told us he is happy for us to have as many as we want, as otherwise he has to throw them away. Again.. why don’t they go back?
We are making good use of all these items, and will continue to do so, but even we have a limit (apart from maybe the pallets, as they will be turned into heat). It’s easy to be smug about carrying a bag, recycling that orange juice carton, and buying loose veg from the greengrocer, but what did they arrive in when they came to the shop? and what happens to that packaging? It’s a sort of hidden layer..a much bigger throwing away sin, that we are responsible for by making that purchase.
It’s so annoying that try as we might to make a difference, suppliers just aren’t doing enough to help. I’m wondering whether I could make use of some fruit/veg baskets… not sure but will give it some thought.
Water butt and pallet envy!!!! How we could make use of those juice containers, if only they could be got to France. Here you can buy new ones but they are well over 100euros. And pallets – fantastic things that can be made into a million and one useful things and at the end of their useful life burned for warmth. How can either be seen as waste??
yeh secondhand juice containers are not cheap here either..but we have never run out of water yet (and iwth the current weather no chance of that…)
as for te pallets – well in this case they import materials on them and the lorries go back with a higher value load than pallets…. our gain.. – and we only get the broken ones!
I use those blue mushroom crates to grow a succession of salad crops in. The cut and come again type. I try to start them in the greenhouse in December which means we can be eating fresh greens as early as January and once we have tired out that tray, it goes in to the chook pen where the girls decimate the rest including the root system. What they leave then goes into the compost. Their small size means I can lug them about and we get a nice range of salad crops. I did start by lining them with some left over weed membrane, but now I use newspaper – which also can be lobbed into the compost.
oh that’s a good idea.. I might copy that!