Waste

The challenge

Read the pdf document below to find out what the Eco Family got up to in December:

Eco Family diary

Firstly, happy new year to you all from me and my girls!

The end of year challenge was exciting because we as a family are interested and strongly believe in doing our bit for the environment by reducing, reusing and recycling.

The challenge

For the month we were asked to think about how we could reduce our waste, in terms of what we bring into the home, how we could reuse and what we could recycle. At present my family are doing a lot with domestic recycling. We have three types of bins outside the house which the council strongly encourages us to put in use, specifically for each recycling purpose; namely brown bin for garden waste, blue bin for food waste and green bin for packaging waste. We use our bins on a regular basis and our collection service is very reliable. However, I still think we could do more to reduce the amount of packaging etc that comes into the home as we still dispose an awful lot of refuse on a weekly basis, especially for a small size family of three.

Examples of re-using

We discussed as a family at the beginning of the month that we would focus our challenge to bring less into the home to avoid clutter and unnecessary disposal. We thought by trying this out we could in the long term save some money too. This involved reusing anything we could to save us buying again when we didn’t need to. An example was chocolate spread jars that were turned into small drinking glasses after their uses, and tubs turned into food storages. Food waste was also reduced by turning any unused vegetables by throwing into a stock when making a casserole or roast and bananas were made into a healthy banana cake which were all tasty.

I think reusing is a very important factor as it reduces our carbon footprint , saves us money and gives us a sense of achievement when knowing we can make other uses out of something simple. Especially as my family are on a low income, we need to keep ahead of how we can save money and make a little go a long way, so we are always interested in trying to see how we can.

Trip to the Green Living Centre, Islington

I also visited Green Living Centre in Islington on 21st December to get ideas etc and to talk to members of staff on sustainability advice in my home. I got lots of information and spoke to a member of staff by the name of Lucy who we spoke at great lengths and who was very informative. I came away with lots of useful information which I will put in use as a family. The centre is family orientated and is an excellent place for educational learning for the little ones and adults too. They certainly gave me advice on my water filter cartridges and tetra packaging, which my borough unfortunately doesn’t recycle at present, so is left for the refuge collection, which I would rather prefer went as recycling in order to avoid using the landfills.

You too can visit the Green Living Centre. Visit Islington Council's webpage for details of how to get there.

Overall the challenge was interesting and fulfilling because we as a family still got to learn how we can do even more, and will continue to go further in our challenge, and importantly share our ideas to other friends and family and of course – you!

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