What is your personal mantra for reducing waste?
This week we joined the conservation with Ethical Hour and Zero Waste Week on Twitter to inspire and support people on their journey towards zero waste but it’s not over yet! Zero Waste Week was founded by Rae Strauss who has been inspiring people for over 10 years. She was named 'Point of Light' by Prime Minster, Theresa May on 3rd September 2018 and is responsible for bringing together millions of followers to join the cause.
Dr. Rose Deakin, Founder of The Crop Club has always focused the growing kits towards food we waste the most and yet are easy to grow in small spaces.
At The Crop Club we have discussed ways in which we would like to permanently cut out some waste in our household:
1- Replacing cling film with beeswax wraps,
2- Buying from butchers and bakers to avoid any plastic packaging on meat and bread,
3- Being creative with left overs, we turned our previous night’s dinner into a dip by adding natural yoghurt to it!
4- We have committed to planning our meals each week to cut our food waste too.
5- Rose spent a week eating only what was in the cupboards or growing in the garden which led to some interetsing creations!
Why not try getting your hands on a compost bin or wormery for your food scraps; they come in all shapes and sizes. Your local council will usually be offering special deals so contact them to order one.
One of our top tweets was about the 3 most thrown out foods where we received 8257 impressions and our top media tweet received 6000 impressions. Would you have guessed these three?
Did you know nearly a quarter of Brits (24 per cent) confessed that the main reason they waste food is because they forget what they have in their fridge, while 35 per cent admitted they do not plan their meals and only 26 per cent write an itemised shopping list. (1)
Don’t know where to start? Start by placing reusable bags everywhere! That’s what I do; I have them in rucksacks, in my car, by the front door, reminding me wherever I am to use them! Just talking to people about the issues will get more people thinking and start to change people’s mindset and behaviour. It’s not that long ago that recycling wasn’t commonplace and yet now it’s a social norm in the UK.
There have been many discussions this week about how difficult it can be to go fully zero waste and fears it alienates people, but don’t be disheartened. Zero Waste is a huge target but focus on reducing to ensure you can reach achievable goals. There are more Zero Waste shops popping up all over the country, maybe you have one near you? Plus, supermarkets are changing, albeit it slowly! Morrisons will allow you to use your own boxes at their counters and others will soon follow.
One of our most popular tweets was asking people what non recyclable product bugs them. One such product that bugs Rose are pop up banners, often used just once and available so cheap now people often throw them away after the event they bought them for. Once printed if a company changes their logo or message they are rendered useless. The Crop Club saves unwanted banners from their landfill destiny and with a couple of coats of blackboard paint they become reusable. Upcycling and rescuing products can be fun and often requires just a little creativity and ingenuity.
Our mantra is: Waste is just a resource for which you haven't found a use yet...or found someone who can find a use for it!’
Megan and Rose
Check out Zero Waste Week for more ideas. There are many places to buy products to help you, one store is Anything But Plastic or find your local zero waste shop.
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