Everything, including the kitchen sink

It's now eight weeks since my black bin was last emptied, and almost five weeks since we started the Zero Waste Challenge.

My last week of the challenge certainly stepped up a gear, I had four lodgers arrive. Imagine their surprise when they discovered that they had stepped into the challenge too. In that week they generated a whole handful of plastic wrapping to go in the black bin. Everything else, they diligently recycled or composted.

My, or should I now say "our", total for the month is: 3 plastic bags full of plastic wrapping that is not yet recycled in my part of town (apparently it is if a visit to Waitrose is convenient); and, a kitchen sink.

Having an unwanted kitchen sink is the typical problem of having things that we don't need, but are in good working condition (in fact this sink, after many years is 'as new' apart from the tap, which is a little aged).

Perhaps most people's response to this challenge is to put it in a skip (or perhaps let the builder do that), take it to the 'dump', or, if small, put it in the black bin. Nowadays, though, many of us recognise that someone else might be able to make use of it, and hunt out a charity, such as Emmaus, who will take, and often collect furniture.

My solution has been to re-give it, via a site that I was involved in creating, called Fridge Mountain (named in honour of all those fridges that got piled up a few years ago, most of which were working!).

Having done quite a bit of building work recently, it's been perfect. Someone who came and took away the wood from my old roof has built a chicken shed, and another person who turned up with a bicycle with a clever trailer, took away a pile of off-cuts for her wood burning stove.



And lastly, a word has to go to the people at the opposite end of the scale, my former neighbours, who left recently. In one day, they produced 6 black bags of rubbish, most of which was bottles, cans and compostable food.

They managed to produce around 30kg of 'waste' in one day, where the results of my challenge was 1kg in 3o days!

I think the only answer has to be to follow the Zero Waste Challenge with the Zero Waste Barbeque, complete with kegs of local beer...

All the best,

Neale