Let’s talk rubbish

This is such a wonderful topic for me. We all have rubbish, and we can generate it quite easily in this modern age. There is a coffee shop on every corner and shops you can pop into for a quick snack. But with more and more awareness being directed towards the state of our bins, and how it is impacting the environment around us, it is important that we try to reduce the amount thrown away.

rubbish FACts

While waste has always been a by product of life, it wasn’t until the Greeks recognised it officially. They opened the first rubbish tip (otherwise known as a municipal dump) in 400BC. It was an open site where people could throw their waste away.

200 years later, the first bin men appeared in Ancient Rome - two men were paid to travel the cobbled streets with a wagon collecting litter.

Littering is illegal in many countries, with fines which can be enforced on those seen littering. However more than 2 million pieces of litter are discarded every day in the UK alone and 48% of people admit to littering. Bearing in mind throwing banana skins and cigarette butts on the floor is considered littering, it isn’t a surprise that the figure is so high. For example, over 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are discarded globally each year which makes it the most common form of litter and also making sure that you are never far from a butt.

In America, landfill usage peaked in the 1980s, when approx 150 million tonnes of rubbish was sent to landfills each year.

Tip 1: Reduce and reuse

The first tip has to be about reducing the amount of waste brought in. These options should help with reducing, and you can do as many or as few as possible.

The more you realise how much waste you bring in, the more you will want to make small changes. Set yourself a challenge of reducing the number of bin bags you throw out in a month.

Other options to reduce waste:

• Buy loose and unpackaged fruit and vegetables wherever possible

• Opt for items covered in 1 layer of wrapping vs multiple layers

• Think first and reduce impulse buys - is it necessary to your life? Will you use it more than once? Maybe write the item on a list and leave it a couple of days / a week. Will it make you happy or solve a current problem you have? If it is something you need, it will still be a valid item on your list and waiting a few days will stop the knee jerk reaction of buying before thinking

• Reuse items around the house - for example make clothes from old T-shirts and reduce kitchen roll purchases

• Swap items with friends and family - maybe they are getting rid of an item of clothing you are looking for or a game or electronic item

• Shop second hand

• Bring beeswax or soy wax wraps to wrap items in

• Make your own lunches and travel snack

• Buy chocolate covered in foil and cardboard - check out my Easter blog post for more options

Tip 2: check your local recycling

Check what is recycled in your area and also what other items you can recycle. First Mile and Terracycle have schemes to collect hard to recycle items so even those clothes hangers or old keyboard or even those crisp packets can go somewhere and be turned into something new. Look at my topp recycling tips as well for more information about recycling.

Tip 3: cut it up

This is an important recommendation. Anything that is a bag (such as salad bags) or is in a circle - for example milk bottle rings, or the ring tabs within oat milk / coconut milk - or beer four or six pack rings (those annoying plastic rings that are unnecessary and keep them together) - please cut these all up before popping them in the bin. Plastic envelopes, crisp packets, chocolate wrappings and bubblewrap should either be reused where possible or cut up as well.

Think of it this way, if there is the potential for anything to get stuck in it, then please cut it up. It is not guaranteed that an item in our bins will end up in the place we hope it to be - some items may float off in a gust of wind - and there is a chance that wildlife will eat it or get tangled or stuck in it.

Tip 4: Compost

With reports showing that if all the food waste (growing, packaging, transporting etc) was grouped together to form a country, it would be the 3rd highest emitter of greenhouse gasses, food waste in the bin is something we need to address.

Between 33-50% of all food produced globally is never eaten, and the value of this wasted food is worth over $1 trillion. Food waste is really bad for the environment and food that doesn’t get eaten accounts for 25% of all fresh water consumption globally.

Not only are all of the resources that went into creating the uneaten food wasted (land, water, labour, energy, manufacturing, packaging, etc), but when food waste goes to landfill, it decomposes without access to oxygen and creates methane, which is 23x more deadly than carbon dioxide. Scary!

So if you have access to a council compost scheme, please use this. If you don’t and you have some garden space, why not get your own composter? You can get some off the ground if you are worried about rats etc. Or why not see if a local allotment has a composter as they would likely love your food scraps.