Where are the maggots?

Catching up, rather apologetically, with what others have been doing and writing, it seems that for one reason or another I have done little to change what comes into the house, but have had a good look at what would be going into the bin in an normal month.
I have collected it in the back porch, sorted it and photographed it.

The big plastic bag at the back is the DIY debris.
The big white bag is food packaging, the blue carrier bag is office waste (mainly plastic bags from magazines) and the Waitrose bag is miscellaneous household.

But where, I ask, are the maggots?
This month included more meat packaging than normal because we too had an end of term BBQ for my husband's tutees, complete with Waitrose burgers and sausages. I have used meat from the freezer bought from Aldi long before the Zero Waste Challenge, all in plastic boxes. The simple answer seems to be to rinse the packaging at the end of the washing up, and there is nothing to attract the flies.

I have had my baby granddaughter to stay without her mother, so I have had special little plastic bags of breastmilk in my freezer. These have proved very useful, washed and dried, for freezing portions of raspberries from the allotment, but some of them are damaged, and have to go in the black bin. Fortunately my daughter has decided to go for reusable nappies, so I have not had to store any used disposables in the porch for a month! Phew!

DIY Debris

We are redecorating. Our youngest daughter is making wedding plans, and we are turning her bedroom into a guest room. The trouble is we are no good at this sort of thing and it is taking us ages. It is also raising issues about recycling that we see on a much larger scale in skips all over the city.

Because of the zero waste challenge I am painstakingly separating the bits of old coving (expanded poystyrene) from the wallpaper (green bin), the old screws (recyclable?) from the old rawlplugs (landfill). But what about painted wood? This is a question for 'Ask Victoria', but I do wonder if it can be used in woodburning stoves without polluting the air. We only have a few batons, but there are tons of the stuff being produced every time people move house or redecorate.

This has also lead me to think about how we can enable small building firms to recycle their rubbish. It is very labour intensive. Time is money for them, after all, and we cannot expect them to do what I am doing.

Friday June 1st - Bin Collection

My black bin is collected for the last time this month!

From now on I will be trying to recycle or reuse everything that might otherwise have gone into my black bin.

Things made out of metal, plastic or other synthetic materials are going to be a problem.

I will have to shop with more care, avoiding carrier bags and packaging as much as possible.

We are going to have to ask a lot of questions...................

INCOMING POST

Like most households, we get a lot of post, and most of it can be recycled as long as we take a few minutes to sort it ...............

Paper goes in the black crate

Envelopes go in the green bin

But what about those wretched window envelopes?

I usually tear them in half and put the window half in the black bin, and think I'm doing rather well, but from now on I shall have to separate the window itself.

And what about magazines that come in plastic covers ? Some say they are biodegradable, but does that mean I can put them in my green bin? I need to ask somebody.

The day before...

Thursday May 31st

I put the last bag of ordinary rubbish in my black bin. It is not a lot, and we are quite pleased with ourselves that our bin is usually less than half full as it is tonight.

The zero waste challenge begins tomorrow..........