End of day 1...

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!!

Tesco's arrives...

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

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...