Waste Challenge - Results Unveiled!

Drum roll please.....

....and the results of the first week of the bokashi existing in our waste challenge are...

Pre-Bokashi

23rd Nov    10kg

30th Nov     8.5kg (of which 4kg was disposable night nappies!)

7th Dec       7kg

(there was a bit of a gap of weighing in the middle of December, due to being away and the general madness of the Christmas week)

With Bokashi

4th Jan         6.5kg (of which 4kg was disposable night nappies)

To have a clearer picture we'll obviously need a few more weeks of results, and equally should probably have had more 'pre-bokashi' weeks when we weren't changing other habits.

But the really interesting thing has been generally thinking more about where the things we'd normally pop in the general waste bin could go to.  So here are where lots of bits are now going, and I'm hoping we'll get even lighter general waste going forward!

How we 'recycle'

• paper, tin, plastic bottles - the recycle bin
• glass - the glass bank
• shredded paper - the compost
• egg cartons - the compost or junk modelling
• plastic trays, yoghurt pots etc - nursery for junk modelling
• foil - a local church that collects (via a friend who does a trip there every so often)
• milk bottle lids - the office to a charity that collects them
• broken or unused 'things' - freegle, charity shops (and if that fails, the general waste)
• fabric/shoes - clothes/fabric bank, if no good for friends or charity shops.

Things that we haven't found a way to recycle (yet!)

Lurking at the back of the cleaning cupboard!

• tissues (we seem to have a lot of these with four snotty winter noses in the house)
• plastic wrappers that annoyingly covers most food from supermarkets! (a bit reason for getting fruit & veg boxes delievered each week is that everything is loose in a box that you return or can recycle)
• disposable nappies (although I'm considering trying both kids in the daytime terry nappies for a few nights - the reason we'd changed previously is that the wet when they are little can get them to wake more frequently, but would like to see if that's the reality now they're a bit older)
• chemicals/cleaning products that we don't want (I recently cleared out the cleaning cupboard (with some irony - see the photo!), and some things we've been given randomly over the years, haven't used, but wanted rid of...I tried freegling some, but to no avail...so sadly ended up in the bin).
• oil/fat (at the council recycle centre they now have an oil bank, however, a) I have to drive to the other end of the island to get to it b) we don't collect very much and it went really mouldy in the jar c) the bank was locked shut when I get there, so they said just to leave it on the floor next to it...did it ever make it into the bin, or just into the general household skips?)

So we're going to keep at it, and I am going to look into whether the council pays a tax on the weight of waste that is disposed, as on the basis that our small kitchen compost caddy is definitely heavier each week than our whole kitchen general waste bin, there may be a cost saving argument for introducing food waste collecting (plenty of other areas do it).  Although looking at the number of black bin bags that our neighbours put out each week, the habit shift required to make it viable would be enormous (not a reason not to do it, if it's the right thing though!).