Brown paper bags

Whatever happened to those little brown paper bags my mother used to wrap my sandwiches in?

Everything seems to come in polythene bags with handles like the ones you weigh your fruit and veg in at the supermarket.

I get the nice old-fashioned bags when I buy my apples and spuds at Cambridge Market, but can't think of anywhere else.

Not only do they get the bio brownie points (sorry, no pun intended) but you can write on the contents - very useful when sending child off with lunchbox.

It starts tomorrow!! (From Amanda Taylor)

Last day of May, and the Zero Waste Challenge begins tomorrow. My black bin was collected this morning, and from tomorrow, along with the rest of a small group of Cambridge city councillors, I am charged with putting as little waste as possible into my black wheelie bin over the month of June.

That means putting all our recyclables into our green bins, black tins&paper boxes and blue plastic bottles, but also trying to avoid buying or using products that cannot be recycled - I suspect that is going to be the hard bit.

As a parent of a toddler, I am amazed how many children's products, even the healthy ones, come in packaging that cannot be recycled - Capri Sun fruit juice, fruit smoothies, etc. Not to mention the other ephemeral paraphernalia that infants attract, such as stickers, straws, balloons etc.

Then there's all those free magazines and direct mail letters that come in cellophane, or which contain a mixture of paper and plastic non-recyclable stuff so that you can't throw it away without dissecting the contents. Even Cambridge City Council sends our mail in envelopes reinforced with Sellotape or with windows!

Wish me luck!