July 30th, 2010
Recycling is being made easier for you and your households every day. The council collect your waste every week with glass, plastic, tins and paper also being taken. And there are the many of you who recycle your clothes, shoes, books and linens.
Now, there is another option to do every bit we can to recycle and re-use products and materials. Dorset Reclaim, who started in 1998, have been tirelessly working to encourage local people to re-use, recycle and reduce the amount of waste going to landfill. At Dorset Reclaim they offer a free collection service for most domestic items, and collect anything that helps to make a house into a home, from furniture,and electrical items to carpets and curtains, crockery and cutlery.
Dorset Reclaim have prevented 17,500 tonnes of waste going to landfill by helping to distribute good quality furniture, electrical and household goods to low income families. Items can be collected from the Dorset Reclaim warehouse or delivered for a small fee.
Dorset Reclaim is a registered charity project working throughout Dorset and East Hampshire areas. Buy donating unwanted furniture, household and electrical goods you are not only minimising your carbon footprint, helping the environment but there are many local families who will benefit from your unwanted items.
To help with the project or to donate any items click HEREor check out there depots in Bournemouth, Poole and Dorchester.
Tags: Carbon Footprint, Dorset, Dorset Reclaim, landfill, re-use, Recycling | Posted in Uncategorized
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January 4th, 2010
The Strauss family from Gloucestershire challenged themselves to only have their dustbin emptied once in 2009!
Exercising great care and discipline they examined everything they bought to ensure as much packaging as possible was recyclable. In doing so, they managed to cut their waste down to less than 100g (3.5oz) a week.
The website was born out of this mission and contains tips from readers on how and what can be recycled. Check out the site at myzerowaste.com
In 2010, the Strauss’s hope to create zero waste to landfill. Impressive!
Tags: landfill, myzerowaste.com, Recycling | Posted in Life Change, Recycling
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November 10th, 2009
Go green with a wormery. Compost leftover food scraps, newspapers, even the contents of your vacuum bag – worms love it! The invertebrate’s waste products create fantastic compost, known as vermicompost, which is full of nutrients and beneficial to both indoor and outdoor plants.
Waste is a huge problem in this country, households’ dispose of around a third of the food they buy. Over 6 tonnes of food is thrown away each year, ending up in landfill sites therefore contributing a large percentage to the methane emissions that pollute our atmosphere. A wormery is a simple and eco-friendly solution.
The wormery comes in the form of a plastic or wooden box. The type of worms used (generally Red Tiger and Dendrobaena worms) live on decaying matter, as opposed to the common earth worm which burrow underground. A wormery comes in varying shapes and sizes, but shallow trays seem to be the most favoured – surface area rather than depth is recommended. This type of environment allows the waste to compost down quicker allowing the worms to feed and breed quicker.
Prices start from around £30 for a basic model and go up to £80 for an ‘executive’ version. Give it a go, it’s good for the environment and the kids will love it!
Tags: eco-friendly, green, landfill, methane, wormeries, wormery | Posted in Climate Change, Self sufficiency, Sustainability, environment
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August 10th, 2009
As if there wasn’t enough guilt associated with being a parent, now we have the added dilemma of whether or not to do the ‘green’ thing with nappies, but sadly we don’t seem know what that is!
Many environmentally conscious parents do the perceived ‘right thing’ by use towelling nappies, but according to a recent report by the Environment Agency, ‘using cloth nappies has no significant advantage where reducing the environmental impact of disposable nappies is concerned.’
Indisputably, cloth nappies reduce landfill; disposable nappies in the UK contribute 400,000 tonnes of waste a year! However when you compare this to the energy and water required to wash reusable nappies, their ‘green’ qualifications disappear completely.
So the obvious solution would be ‘green’ disposable nappies, is there such a thing? Well apparently there is – Seventh Generation Chlorine Free Nappies. They have been designed to be thinner, than but just as efficient as traditional nappies. The environmental advantage of chlorine-free nappies is that they reduce the amount of dioxins that pollute the air, water and soil, which has to be a good thing.
If anyone has any other suggestions we’d love to hear them…
Tags: disposible nappies, energy resources, green nappies, landfill, reusable, towelling nappies | Posted in Climate Change, Life Change
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