1 evening to go!

Zero Waste Week is almost upon us!

With the Beeb arriving at 8am tomorrow for our weigh in, the pressure is really on...today has been one of preparation...the wormery (left) has been re-invigorated (great fun for kids, no smells and great plant fertiliser), fresh bread baked for the morning, wet wipes made from old towels and sheets, recycling collected and sorted, all bins emptied and a final tesco shop for essentials.

The results are now in, sounds like X Factor!, we'll call it Z Factor!

So our weekly waste prior to Zero Waste Week looks like this: The good news: We recycle 69% of our waste (please note, this is not a scientific study, but probably more accurate than some government reports that cost tax payers millions!).

The bad news: If you took our total waste for the week, and made it into an annual figure, although we would be below the national average of 500kg per person, we still would produce nearly 2 tonnes of waste....that's frightening.

There's good and bad in this story...if every household recycled nearly 70% of its waste, the UK landfill tax bill would be much lower, we would lead the European recycling league tables and there would be no need for incineration....the bad, we're still consuming in excess of what is sustainable....total waste (recycling and landfill put together) has been increasing for decades, apart from the odd annual decrease, there seems no let up in our thirst for material gain.

The challenge that we all have is to decouple economic growth, from increasing waste generation and resource consumption. If we can do that, then we have a chance of avoiding many environmental and economic disasters...

OK, so this is getting a bit heavy...but it's a Sunday evening and I've had a glass of wine or two (bottle will be recycled but wine has a big carbon footprint! must do better) Our production of waste is completely linked to issues such as energy consumption and water usage.

Oil prices have now fallen, but don't be fooled by this temporary blip....with our natural resources in decline, global food production under pressure and climate changes, we simply can't go on consuming more and more.

We've got to find a balance...so the lesson in all of this is....if we can recycle 70% without a huge effort and impact on our lifestyle, then by reducing the remaining 30% through careful purchasing and minimisation, our impact on the environment could be so much greater....if 50% of households made that change then the UK would be a very different place.

Sorry if this has sounded like a rant, but this whole exercise, which started as a bit of fun (and still is) is starting to really make us think.

If any of the issues in this blog have affected you, please contact me at the address above for free counselling.

You may also be interested in the following:

http://www.eco-tube.com/v/KNOW/The_Story_of_Stuff.aspx

http://www.eco-tube.com/v/ENERGY/Peak_Oil_-_How_Will_You_Ride_the_Slide.aspx

I'll try and stay off the heavy stuff for the rest of the week....I've almost forgotten the objective, to show people what's possible, and that it doesn't have to be a major effort to make a difference...