Jon Rolls Zero Waste Challenge

ZERO WASTE IS POSSIBLE...

2008-10-27T02:44:00.000-07:00

The results are in:

Total Waste: Down from 32.5 kg to 12.3 kg

Recycling: Up from 69% to 94%

Waste to landfill: Down from 10.25kg to 0.75 kg !!!!!!!

At the start of the week we wanted to reduce our waste to landfill by 50%....we smashed this target and reduced it by 93%

Day 6 & 7

2008-10-26T14:23:00.000-07:00

As I thought...the weekend has been tough! With all the family at home and consuming voraciously, plus two large Bernese Mountain dogs and a couple of in-laws! No offense R & R!

However, the bin is still pretty light...plastics is still the main contributor....but I'm almost certain that the final weigh in tomorrow will show significantly less waste overall. Our recycling has been less this week, which could be due to a number of reasons, but mostly because I think last weeks recycling included a build up over a longer period.

Interestingly, the Almost Mrs Average who has been following this blog and providing some welcome support, also indicated that she prepared for several weeks before her Zero Waste Week....if we were to do it again, we would definitely take a bit longer to prepare.

We've got BBC Spotlight coming again in the morning to find out how we've done, so keep your eyes peeled for the evening programme.

We'll be doing one last post tomorrow to update on final totals....and perhaps a follow up later in the week on the off chance that something interesting happens...

Thanks to everyone who has shown an interest....hopefully you've learnt something from all of this, even if it's just that we're slightly mad....

We've learnt a lot about ourselves...and we'll certainly be making some changes going forward. Whilst Zero Waste hasn't been achieved, we've made a huge impact on the waste we generate through our everyday consumption of resources....and the really interesting thing is that whilst others may mock the concept of Zero Waste, I actually think it is achievable....having said at the start of the challenge that it was an aspirational target that couldn't realistically be achieved, but that we should still aim for it....I now think that if you plan ahead, if you are really innovative, if you buy products with Zero Waste in mind, you reduce and reuse and you truly do recycle (and more importantly compost), then it is possible to get really close and maybe achieve Zero Waste. That's Zero Waste to landfill/incineration. You wont do it all the time, but maybe some of the time. And if everyone did that, well then we wouldn't be in the predicament that we're in. In Cornwall and across the UK.

Good luck to anyone else who's planning to give it a try...I think its something everybody should do once a year, a bit like detox after Christmas!! When I'm in charge of Cornwall, that will be my first law!!

For those waiting for us to fall off the wagon, I'm sure we will, we're not perfect, just trying to do our bit when we can.

Day 4 & 5

2008-10-24T23:52:00.001-07:00

Sorry bloggers for a lack of blog on day 4 and 5...a combination of sleep deprivation, extreme exhaustion and a stomach upset didn't help!!

Back in the land of the living now!!

BBC Radio Cornwall came yesterday morning for another look, I think they were quite surprised. We reckon that we've reduced from 10kg last week down to 1kg or less as t stands...

As the Mrs Average points out, to really make Zero Waste Week work, you need to have prepared a bit longer than 1 week in advance...one of the things we've found is that many of the good things we are doing this week, wont make a difference until after Zero Waste Week...we're still finishing off things that were bought before Zero Waste Week when we weren't necessarily being as careful as we should have! Oh well, its a learning curve.

One thing we need to get to grips with is buying in bulk to reduce packaging. In particular, where can we get flour in bulk? cereal loose? and things like that.

This weekend will be interesting, you always produce more when all the family is home consuming!

Finally, the real hit this week has been our conquering of night time nappies, whilst we've had the odd blip, we have managed to use them every night and its made a real difference...the home made wet wipes has also been easier than we thought....really pleased with that.

Day 3...tupperware, worms and polythene

2008-10-22T11:20:00.000-07:00

So the paper experiment at the butchers hasn't really worked...well, its OK for ham etc, but not for meat that has a tendency to bleed! So Vikki bought extra large Tupperware containers and Chris the butcher kindly put all our meat in the Tupperware....perfect!! He thought it was a fantastic idea and said that's how they used to do it....so what happened....we used to use reusable nappies and hand them down from generation to generation, we used to use reusable pop bottles and return them to the shop, we used to use the milkman.....

At some point, somebody, somewhere, must have forced us all to stop being sensible and make us completely lose touch with reality. We all love convenience, but not at the expense of the environment...and common sense!

I blame Leo Baekeland, a Belgium chemist who apparently invented synthetic plastic in 1909. Was that the start of our consumer society....and when we suddenly decided that everything disposable was beautiful.

Enough of that...the worms arrived today, 500g of them, not as many as I thought but hopefully they'll help do the job...also bought them a nice little duvet made of coir! This keeps them warm in the winter...

Finally, following the excellent advice from Almost Mrs Average (http://therubbishdiet.blogspot.com/), about polythene recycling, I dived in the bin tonight and retrieved 2g of polythene which I'm saving to send to the polyprint plant. Now I'm expecting a few carbon conscious comments here...."surely that has more impact on the environment through the transport emissions"...well, its a good point, but I have 2 answers to that, factually correct or not:

The post van/train/lorry would be on the road anyway and I'm ensuring it's at capacity. It would be worse if I used a courier for an individual trip from home to recycling plant, but I'm not, I'm tapping into an existing transport network that would be running irrespective of my parcel.
I'm voting with my polythene...by sending it off to the recycling plant I'm making a point, albeit a quiet one, that I'm not prepared to send it to landfill. Hopefully, if enough people do it, the cost/benefit will start to stack up and other entrepreneurs will see that there is an opportunity and set up a service...or local government will subsidise it to avoid landfill tax fines.

Unfortunately, plastic recycling is often difficult to justify because it is a low weight, high volume material. So the only other way we can make a difference is to refuse the products in the first place and phase its use out that way...we'll continue to do that and through reusable containers and careful purchasing, I think this is one area we're really going to improve on.

Day 2

2008-10-22T01:05:00.001-07:00

Well, after the excitement of Day 1 and the BBC I couldn't face blogging last night...so bright and early here I am...not huge progress yesterday, however, thanks must go to the small army of zero waste supporters popping up all over the country who have been sending in messages of good luck and great idea for recycling tetrapak and polythene (see: http://www.polyprint.co.uk/recycling.html). If you follow the comments on the blog you'll see these great tips.

The family seem to have become minor local celebrities, which although is quite exciting for them, is heaping pressure on us! Every where we go in the village people say 'good on you' which is lovely...let's hope it makes a real difference and rubs off on people. When I agreed to do all this I didn't realise the extra pressure it would bring, its not come at the best of times if I'm perfectly honest...raising a young family is hard enough, but when you're on crutches for 4 weeks and your littlest is potty training it makes things a bit more complex...having said that, there are thousands of families out there really struggling, particularly as the economy worsens, so we're hoping this will prove what is possible and that its relevant to every family, irrespective of circumstances. Hopefully we can prove that it doesn't have to be hard work and that it can save money in the long run too.

As expected, we're not going to be completely waste free this week...various items we have finished this week will have to be disposed of and there's no point trying to hide that. In retrospect we probably should have run things for a month before Zero Waste Week and then actually done Zero Waste Month!! That would have ironed out all the anomalies...I think next week will be better than this week because it will benefit from the careful purchasing of this week.

At the end of the week we are going to photo and list everything that couldn't be recycled or reused and ask for suggestions on how to improve it next time....should be interesting!!

Finally, the great bread idea!! By the end of the week we should have something edible!! Archie calls my bread 'brick toast' and it takes him so much longer to get through it poor fella!!

End of day 1...

2008-10-20T14:26:00.000-07:00

What a great way to start Zero waste Week....

BBC TV Coverage on Spotlight...great piece, just a shame about the interviewee! http://www.bbc.co.uk/spotlight/

BBC Radio Cornwall

Pirate FM

and plenty of local interest....the butcher, Charlie Harris & Daughter (http://www.thelocalbutcher.co.uk/contact.html) really came up trumps, not only allowing us to film in their shop, but they have also said, if the greaseproof paper works, ie keeps the meat fresh in the fridge, then they will phase out plastic and offer an alternative to customers...now that's what this is all about....no sooner as I had ordered my sausages in paper, then the next lady in the queue did the same!!

However, the dark side of day 1 is that things have already gone in the bin...one or two plastic tubs that were finished today (butter) that were left overs from previous shops, and some plastic film from a magazine subscription...gardeners world of all things. But what can you do...other things I know that are going to be a problem:

Yogurt pots - the kids love yoghurt's
Innocent Smoothies - the dreaded Tetrapak - could send it to Scotland for recycling but that kind of defeats the sustainability argument from a carbon footprint point of view
Cream pots

So, we're going to have to find alternatives....tips gratefully received...day 2 is looming so that's it for another day on Zero waste Street!!

We're off!!

2008-10-20T03:54:00.000-07:00

What a start to the day...BBC Spotlight were with us for 2 hours filming what's going on...they loooked at a range of things from our Green Joanna, to our wormery and the wahable wet wipes we've made at home! The boys were filmed lugging all their recycling up the drive and it finished off with a visit to the local butcher who has said that if our meat keeps well enough in the fridge in paper bags, that they'll consider offering it to all customers. This is what Zero Waste is all about, community spirit...we'll try and get some Green Joanna leaflets for the butcher so it goes hand in hand with the paper bags.

Watch out for BBC spotlight at 1.30pm today and 6-6.30pm this evening...you can watch online or on freeview from anywhere in the country! http://www.bbc.co.uk/cornwall/

Oh, and do have a look at the County Council website, their supporting Zero Waste Week in a big way through their campaign, Recycle for Cornwall. See: http://www.recycleforcornwall.org.uk/

1 evening to go!

2008-10-19T12:12:00.000-07:00

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...

2 days to go...

2008-10-18T08:29:00.000-07:00

getting nervous now...have we set ourselves up for a fall!

Following the radio interview on Thursday, BBC News are now interested and coming to see us on Monday morning as we have our first weigh in...this is when we'll be taking the black bag waste from the week before Zero Waste Week and seeing what we normally throw out...a week later we'll see what difference we've made!

So the pressures mounting...I'm really worried that we wont get the right message across...the whole point of doing this is to show that an average family of 4 can make a real difference to their waste by doing some simple things...OK, so as the boss of an environmental organisation you could say that we're not a normal family and that we should be leading the way already...but reality is that we do our best, but it could be better. Yes we recycle, compost, reuse and try and buy products that are recycled and recyclable...but if you see our black bag today you'll notice that there's a lot we can do to improve...hidden nasty's like the odd pull up for our son can really make the difference...although we've been avid users of washable nappies throughout their childhoods, its getting more and more difficult as they potty train and as our lives become more hectic...but that's no excuse and during ZWW (Zero Waste Week) we'll be ditching the disposable completely...a new government report was published yesterday, under the cover of darkness because it highlights the errors in a previous report conducted by the government that slated washable nappies....this new report is much more positive and shows parents that if you use washables sensibly, you can lower their carbon footprint by over 40%, that makes them significantly better than disposables...and as a user of them, you have a choice over what impact they have on the environment...with a disposable nappy you don't because the impact is largely in its creation...see www.crnp.org.uk for more on washable nappies.

I've just bought some new worms for our wormery as well...our food digester (http://www.greencone.com/home.asp?lang=1) has started to slow down over the winter so I figured a new injection of 500 worms (http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/) would help us get rid of all our kitchen waste, and that's meat and dairy as well....food waste can be up to 60% of your waste to landfill so composting and using wormeries makes a huge difference, and the kids love it! Right, dinner beckons, meat from the butcher (no packaging), vegetables from the farm shop (no packaging) and smoothies made from real fruit this afternoon...no packaging but lots of mess!!

3 days to go...

2008-10-17T00:22:00.000-07:00

The Man form BBC came...we must have looked pretty odd standing in the garden by the composter, as we discussed the merits of degradable packaging into a microphone...what was even odder was the sound effects we had to produce for him for background...toilet flushing, rifling around in recycling boxes...and the best one of all, we tried to get one of the chickens to cluck for the microphone, but Tilly must have been feeling shy!! not even a murmur!!

Despite that, the challenge is well and truly underway...we've committed to getting our rubbish down to half a black bag by the end of Zero waste Week...hopefully with the BBC team coming back on the final day to see us weigh everything...now I know we should be producing Zero, and believe you me, we'll be trying...but there's no point in kidding ourselves and presenting an unrealistic picture to the public.....this is about what everyone can do, realistically in their every day lives, so I think we need to be realistic about our target...if we can achieve half a bag as a family of 4 I think that will be quite an achievement, think what an effect it would make if every family of four in Cornwall followed suit!

Now it's public....

2008-10-16T07:11:00.000-07:00

BBC Radio Cornwall are coming tonight to interview us....ahhh!! The truth will out....oh well, that's what Zero Waste Week is all about isn't it...highlighting the problem and then trying to come up with solutions...the boys are going to be so excited....I'll have to make sure they learn their Bob the Builder script: "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle"!! Listen live on Monday morning, the breakfast show: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cornwall/local_radio/

Day 2...

2008-10-14T14:24:00.000-07:00

not much to report today....milk bottles are being saved for our fancy shed planting idea...more to follow! (see Gardeners World this month!)

Had a meeting with a chap today about loyalty cards that promote local buying...the idea is if you buy local you get a rebate....I wanted to add the option of rewarding sustainable products and services...I think its going to be a tough sell, but just imagine if you could give someone points for buying organic, using the bus or recycling....then you redeem those points and can get money off or prizes...the sustainability reward card concept isn't new and they've been running something similar in Holland for a while...(see http://www.nuspaarpas.nl/www_en/html/info.htm) I think we've got to be innovative if we're going to change consumption patterns...hopefully we'll be able to find a town who's keen to pilot it and personalities brave enough to champion the concept...we'll do our best!

Tesco's arrives...

2008-10-13T12:08:00.000-07:00

The man from Tesco came...he was intrigued and a bit baffled when I asked him to take his plastic bags back to the depot...bit I was relieved to hear that they do get bulked up and go back on a lorry for recycling....just a shame they used it to wrap the dishwasher salt that was already wrapped in plastic that we cannot recycle!!

Apart from that, most things were either recyclable or compostable...apart from the notorious tetra pack smoothies and orange juice....plus some organic courgettes from Spain (food miles, now there's another debate, see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/food_matters/foodmiles.shtml#what_are_food_miles) wrapped in plastic film on a polystyrene tray! That's something to improve on next week.

So with our big shop for the week out of the way, we are set up to monitor normal Rolls activity prior to Zero Waste Week....already we can see ways to minimise our impact and we've still got 7 days to go!

10 minutes later:

Hold the post!! Hats off to Tesco, my wife has just realised the courgette packaging is in fact compostable...yes, the whole lot, including plastic film, which is presumably starch based and not an oil based plastic, I fancy this is because its the organic range, maybe some peer pressure on Tesco will make them do it to all vegetable packaging?? why not write to their Greener Living Editor and ask them: editor.greenerliving@ehsbrann.com ...so all in all, hurrah...although it will be interesting to see the compost it creates in 9 months time!

Zero Waste Challenge

2008-10-13T07:32:00.000-07:00

7 days to go!!

Running a Cornish environmental organisation that published a Zero Waste Strategy several years ago, before it was a sexy news story, I felt I had to take up the challenge myself and prove, one way or another, that it really is possible to achieve Zero Waste....I'm not expecting my family and I to achieve it (oh, and the chickens) but over the next 2 weeks the Rolls household will be having a bloo*y good go!! analysing the waste we produce on a normal day to day basis...in an attempt to see how much we can reduce it by!!

One of the things we often encounter at work is the phenomenon of the "We recycle everything" person....well, as avid recyclers and composters at home ourselves, we're going to put that to the test....because frankly, I don't believe it....I know that we ourselves could do much much more to reduce our waste, so from now on I'm always going to say to them..."Prove it!" and over the next 2 weeks, we aim to prove just how much of an impact an average family really can have on their environment...by showing you what we do and how we can improve, hopefully you will feel its not a hassle and something that we can all do to make a difference...something like that anyway!

Tonight's Tesco home delivery is arriving, minus plastic bags, as we get extra tesco green points for not having the obligatory 30 bags per product!

In preparation for next week Vikki has been in to our local butcher and asked if we can have our meet wrapped in paper instead of plastic....grease proof was the trade off! Which can be composted.....

At the end of the week we'll weigh our waste to see what difference we've made during Zero Waste Week.

Watch this space for updates....both photo and video! oh, and have a look at: http://www.storyofstuff.com/ a great little video about waste and resources...