The jam jar waste challenge

CAN YOU GET YOUR MONTHLY HOUSEHOLD WASTE DOWN TO THE SIZE OF A JAM JAR?

Apparently it is possible through recycling, repurposing, buying food products in bulk or in recyclable packaging, composting, etc. But it is NOT going to be possible for me as I have dog waste to get rid of daily and I'm not going to be digging a hole deep enough for a dustbin with the bottom cut out to be sunk into the ground as a compostable toilet or carry it through the house to flush down the toilet. I also have a cat and a litter tray, the next time I need new litter I will purchase the brand that can go in the compost bin (obviously the cat waste can't be disposed of in this manner)

It is rare for me to have any food waste, especially since entering lock down as I've been concerned about the number of trips I make to the supermarkets so I meal plan for each day and I've been worried the refuse collection may have stopped at the beginning and didn't want items in the bin that may not be collected and the smell etc.

Despite keeping magazines for crafting, decoupage, making elephants and giraffes out of milk bottles and toilet rolls, repurposing tin cans as flower planters, using cardboard to make decorations for the windows and newspapers for papier mache chickens and using up old paint from the shed, I find I still manage to throw away half a bin bag each week of rubbish for the landfill (including the dog poo).

I have make up remover cloths rather than using cotton wool, I haven't found an alternative for removing nail varnish or cotton wool buds, but like the straws, I no longer use plastic ones.

I use my own shopping bags, have cloth bags for buying loose produce in the supermarket, the sticky price labels can't be recycled though.

I have a compost bin in the garden for flowers, uncooked food waste and paper towels and a green waste bin collected fortnightly by the local council along with the recycling bin.

So how did I get on?

Well it was a big fail for me this week as I sent carpets from 4 bedrooms, stairs and landing, a bath side and end panel and roofing felt to landfill. I did save some carpet to use in the sheds and some roofing felt. I also had to throw away Bob's football and the contents of two vacuum cleaners. this can go in the compost bin normally but contained carpet and paint flake waste.

So apart from the above, repurposing, composting and recycling, this is all I threw in the black sack this week. The contents fitted into an ice cream tub, in a week, not a jam jar in a month. But I'm carrying on with it from now on and I'll update you and let you know how I do.

My list of what was in the tub.

With the click and collect and online deliveries the amount of plastic waste I have has increased with plastic bags used for fruit and veg and carrier bags to put the shopping in, sometimes only one item per bag.

How much stuff do you throw away each week? Do you recycle as much as you can? Repurpose/reuse? Compost? Any tips you'd like to share with me?

What I've been doing during lockdown - Crafting

Last week I blogged about the gardening, this week it's all the craft activities I've been doing around the house.

I've got so many bits and pieces on the go, I'm starting to wonder if lockdown will be long enough to allow me to finish, especially as I'm also redecorating our family home after 9 years of tenants.

All the items I've made will be kindly donated/offloaded onto the Things, my great nephew, our grandchild and a friends twins.

I've turned child 5's old bedroom into a craft room

Used milk bottle cartoons to make Elephants

Used up old tins of paint in the shed, toilet rolls and sticks from the garden to make giraffes

Washed and painted stones from the garden

Recycled cans into plant holders to brighten up the garden

Made pom poms to turn into a rug for our grandchild

Attempted a jigsaw puzzle with help from the cat

Hung bunting up around the house I made a few years ago

Hatched a flamingo, that a friend gave me last year

Had a complete fail with papier mache

Had a felting kit gifted to me from a friend that I'm having fun with

Every week I post magazines and sweets to my mum, with a large stamped address envelope, so she can fill it with crafting items such as wool and ribbons and all she has to do is post it in the letter box near her home.

Have you been doing any crafts? I have limited abilities and limited resources, but I've had a lot of fun and it's amazing what you can do/make with things you have lying around the house.

I wish I had my sewing machine and over locker with me in the UK and my stash of material to make some more bunting, a new bed for the dog and get the curtains ready for when our furniture arrives at some point in the future.

Letting the side slip with reducing plastic and food airmiles

I've been in the UK for a week, repossessing our family home. Tenants have just left everything they didn't want and it's now my responsibility to remove everything, sadly it will all go to landfill. I wasn't in the mood, nor did I have time to sort through the full bins they left outside and all the waste from the house was swiftly removed by the removal firm who have piled it up by the side of the house until I rent a skip.

Back in Dubai, extremely tired after a night flight and the stress of the week and having to take the cat for her travel injections, I did a quick shop.

Whilst I had my reusable bags in my car, I didn't have my food nets or an old plastic bag to pack my meat in separately from the rest of the chilled foods.

No apologies for buying a plastic container with pre sliced carrots in at double the price. I suffer with chronic pain and having spent the week removing 101+ screws and nails from the walls of the house, I am suffering and can't hold a pen at the moment, let alone peel and chop carrots.

Having brought back with me in my case some Gluten Free cakes (I'm wheat free) that I can't buy over here, it made me look at the air miles my food has travelled.

I don't normally shop in Waitrose in the UK or Dubai as I find it too expensive, but we have little choice here other than Carrefour and I couldn't take the cat with me to a mall, so Waitrose it was while she was at the vets nearby.

Some foods have travelled quite some distance, others were at least packaged in the UAE, but I have no idea where they are from originally and some foods are actually grown and made locally. I should really make more of an effort to purchase locally grown/made foods and with my husband working in the food industry over here, he should be able to tell me more.

Risotto rice from???? Packaged in the UK

New Zealand

Produced in the UK for the UAE market

Pate from the Czech republic

Beetroot from ???? Packaged in the UK

Ecuador

Smoked salmon from ???? Packaged in the UAE

Yogurt made in the UAE

Vine tomatoes grown in the UAE, sadly in plastic packaging

Do you know where your food comes from and how many air miles it takes to reach your plate?

Unfortunately living in a desert not much is grown here and whilst products can be made and packaged here, produce still has to be flown in.

Did you know Marks and Spencer actually import British milk to the UAE?

Coffee shop Christmas disposable cups - why i don't use them

Yes I love Christmas and all things Christmas related and I love coffee shops. But what I don't love is the disposable cups designed for takeaway drinks.

I use my own coffee cup for take aways, regardless of the coffee shop I use.

Most chains have a Christmas reusable cup out now, but I don't need to buy a new one, the one I have is perfectly adequate.

I have an issue with coffee shops in Dubai regardless of the chain. Every time I request a coffee to drink in, they automatically reach for a disposable cup.

This was obviously drunk here by a previous customer.

I've learnt to place my order as follows (size) (type of drink) and automatically add 'in a ceramic mug and don't warm it'

In the UK I always get asked 'to drink in or take away' but Dubai doesn't work like that. I think it saves on the staff having to wash up as it's easier to scoop disposable cups up and put them in the bin.

I stop regularly at the local petrol station for a latte, using my own cup. I often pick up a banana at the same time.

Whilst I ordered my coffee, asked for a banana, went to the counter and paid, then back to collect my coffee, this had happened.

Not only was my banana in a plastic bag, it was then placed in a plastic bag.

Sometimes I just give up.........

Secondhand September and Zero Waste Week

So I'm doing my bit in regards to single use plastic and using up all the plastic in my house. using my own bags in the supermarket and I've purchased washable food nets and ditched the cling wrap for reusable covers. I have my coffee mug for when I go out and carry a reusable water bottle.

Nothing that can be used gets thrown away here, ever. Cardboard boxes and toilet rolls get used to make seed trays, even shopping bags when their handles or sides can no longer be repaired are reused.

Sometimes I have no control over what waste comes into my house in the form of packing and often when I do a large food shop I find that despite my requests not to pack in plastic, that while I'm unloading the trolley a few bags have sneaked in.

We had a tonne of personal and work paperwork that needed shredding, the last lot I cut up by hand, but this time we purchased a shredder to ensure all personal details were destroyed. All blank sheets have been saved to use for printing, writing shopping lists, drawing plans for the garden on etc. Once shredded I used the plastic packaging and the box to put the shredded paper in.

I will attempt to find a paper recycling bin somewhere in Dubai that isn't already over flowing, but recycling is not an easy option here.

We've been having a bit of a sort out, reusing old sheets in the car for the dog and covering outdoor furniture to protect it from the harsh summer sun. Our steam mop and fan both broke at the same time and needed replacing, the old ones were put outside by the bin as people will often take to use for spares and repairs, however you try finding someone that can repair or actually has the spares.

All this is being donated to a friend from Sri Lanka who organises and arranges aid for those back home.

Hubby had a sort out of his wardrobe under duress, there's a suit in there over 20 years old, he hasn't worn for 15 years. These clothes will be put out the front of the house for the local workmen, gardeners, car washers, dog walkers to help themselves too. There's a pile of my clothing in a suitcase waiting to be distributed to a care home in South Africa later this year.

I'm in the UK next week, we have a flat in a small Welsh town, it's full of charity shops. I shop in these when I'm home before I go into the main stores. I'll also be using eBay to purchase pre loved goods for Christmas and birthdays.

Our son gets married later this month, I've completed my Mother of the Groom outfit with a fascinator from the British Heart Foundation.

I've returned and borrowed books from the local dog park, been using the washing up water for the plants and grass, selecting low temps on the washing machine as the cold water runs at 30c anyway, buying products in bulk to reduce packaging and save on finances and using the air con sparingly and turning the temperature up a notch or two.

I'm doing what I can and where I can to recycle, reduce waste and re purpose unwanted goods. Every bit we do, helps more than you realise.

Going Green in Australia.

They call these Bin Chickens, they scavenge through the bins in Sydney. The Australian White Ibis.

Living overseas and travelling regularly to new places, I'm always interested in how things work in different countries.

There are quite a lot of similarities in Australia with the UK and Dubai and a lot of differences also.

In the UK and Australia you pay for plastic bags, in Dubai, they just bag everything up for you.

McDonalds in the UK have banned plastic straws, they're freely available in Dubai and Australia.

Most coffee shops here offer a 50c discount if you bring your own take away cup, this doesn't happen in Dubai and I think nearly every coffee shop offers a discount in the UK. A couple of coffee shops in Australia have signs stating the cup must been clean for them to fill it and in one place there was a charge of $2 to wash your cup.

I've noticed a few places offering recyclable cutlery and most places the tap water is not for drinking, so there are water fountains available to refill drinks bottles. We can't work out if the signs were to say you need a minimum of 1 litre per person for the hike or only refill 1 litre of water.

However despite drinking water being freely available and visible signs encouraging you to recycle, there were a lot of people walking around with shop bought bottles of water. In Australia in a restaurant or cafe, you are given tap water automatically. In the UK you have to ask for tap water, in Dubai they only serve bottled water.

I noticed sun composting bins in Sydney and Melbourne.

There were  bins everywhere from Bondi Beach below

to a light house at Cape Otway

and in every car park we parked in.

And if you can't find a bin, then you're reminded just to take your rubbish home.

A long weekend in Sydney

Our trip from Sydney to Phillips Island

Phillips Island

Phillips Island to Port Fairy

Port Fairy to Melbourne via the Grampians

A week in Melbourne

Flora and Fauna in Australia

Accommodation in Australia

Going Green in Australia

Australia 2019