My guest writer today is Olivia Golding, who is sharing how to better recycle your kitchen waste. We use a compost in our home but there are even more options available to you depending on where you live.  

Reuse your kitchen waste

You’ve probably noticed that environmental issues have crept steadily higher up the news agenda over the last 20 years or so. There are good reasons for this – for one thing, the need to tackle climate change grows more urgent by the year. Of course, the causes of man-made climate change are numerous. For one thing, industrial activity produces massive amounts of greenhouse gases. However, it’s worth remembering that households can and should do their bit. While all of us can look to be less wasteful, we can only make a difference if we work together. It might seem hopeless being more eco-friendly when others aren’t doing likewise, but it is worth the effort.

Here are a few ways you can recycle your kitchen waste:

1)    Your local authority may have given you a kitchen caddy when you can use to collect scraps of food waste. This will be collected and taken to a local facility to be composted. Fruit and vegetable peelings, egg shells, tea bags and filter papers can be composted. However, cooked food, fish, meat and dairy products cannot.

2)    If you don’t have a kitchen caddy, then any container will do. Covered buckets are best, though, as they help to keep the odor from escaping.

3)    You could also choose to install a compost bin in your back garden, which you can then use to make your own compost for your garden. It might seem a little unsightly at first, but there are steps you can take to disguise it and make its appearance a little less out of kilter with the rest of the garden.

4)    You could also recycle kitchen waste by using a wormery. These efficient units house worms which recycle waste into organic compost. They come in a variety of different sizes, and you can find starter kits at garden centers.

Worm compost

Can you spy the worms? Image Credit

5)    Your local council may be able to help you get a composter, often at a discount. Get in touch with them to see whether they can help you with the cost or provide any other useful advice.

6)    You could choose to take your kitchen waste to a composting site. Alternatively, you could allow your local council to do this for you. Again, get in touch with your local authority and ask for any further clarification.

7)    You can also re-use food waste for a variety of purposes. For instance, you could decorate egg shells by painting them, or you could make a wall of egg shells around your plants to help deter slugs and other insects.

8)    Leftover seeds, nuts and breadcrumbs are ideal for feeding birds. This is a great way of making use of some unwanted foods. Naturally, you’ll need to be careful just what you feed them. You can find out more simply by searching online.

9)    There are special composting bins available. A two-chambered bin allows you to start composting on one side, whilst placing fresh waste into the other.

10) Perhaps the most effective way of reducing food waste is being economical about what you buy and when. However, if you have food which is approaching its best-before date, then your best bet may be to donate it to a local food bank or homeless shelter where it will be gratefully received.

About the Author

This post was contributed by Olivia Golding. She’s an aspiring writer and has a keen interest in green living. She loves to cook and so prides herself on being minimal with food wastage, cooking large batches of meals for her grateful flatmates. It’s become such a big part of her life that she’s tried her hand at catering for gatherings in her local area, spreading the word of the benefits of green living (she almost has a cult following!). That’s why she’s always on the lookout for bargain catering equipment and solid recipes to maintain her newest adventure; so watch this space! She hopes you found this post super useful, and will take it on board to live a more sustainable life!

 

I’m welcoming Kristina from The Greening of Westford back again today to highlight a few things you can recycle that you may not be aware of. Everyone assumes I write a “recycling” blog when they hear my blog name, but it isn’t what I spend a lot of time highlighting. I appreciate Kristina sharing this list of random recyclable items!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  That old saying is in that order for a reason.  It’s better to reduce first, then reuse, then, when all else fails, recycle.  Jumping right in to reduce and reuse can be more difficult since it causes more changes to your normal routine.  With certain items, it just may not be an option.  Here are some easy items that can head to your recycling bin or local store instead of the trash.

Surprising Recycling Items

1)    Eye glasses   The Lions Club has collection boxes in many locations or ask a local eye glass shop or eye doctor.

2)    Brita Filters    Every Whole Foods recycles Brita filters through the Gimme 5 program.

3)    Cosmetic Tubes or jars   Origins Makeup Stores and counters will accept any brand of cosmetic tube, bottle or jar.

4)    Pizza Box    Some recyclers will accept pizza boxes without too much grease.  THIS IS VERY RECYCLER-dependent, so ask, it could ruin lots of other recyclables.  Even if you can’t recycle greasy boxes, you can usually still recycle the top part.

5)    Wine Corks    All Whole Foods locations collect natural wine corks in conjunction with Cork ReHarvest.

6)    Yoga Mats    Recycle Your Mat will recycle your used up yoga mat.  You can find a location near you or ship your mat.

7)    Plastic bags     Even if you bring your reusable bags everywhere, you probably still end up with a few. All #2 and #4 plastic bags/wrappers can be recycled at many grocery stores. This includes all grocery/store bags, produce bags, bread bags, toilet paper/paper towel wrapping, and bags for grapes, carrots, and cauliflower. Look for the #2 or #4 chasing arrows recycling symbol printed on the bag or wrapper. It’s on more than you might think!  The bags must be clean and dry.

A little known fact:  Trash pickup costs towns/cities big bucks!  If you live in a city or town that pays any portion of your trash/recycling pickup, get in touch with them.  They are very eager to encourage recycling where they can to reduce this budget and will be a huge wealth of information on reducing your trash in your specific area.

Do you know any more surprising items to recycle?

About the Author

Kristina Greene is the founder and editor of The Greening Of Westford blog.  She focuses on practical eco-friendly actions anyone can do to save time, money, aggravation, oh, and the planet!  Connect with her through her blog, facebook and twitter.

As people start planting flowers and vegetables in their gardens, there is a plethora of leftover plastic flower pots to deal with. My friend Andrea shared this clever project, recycling her plastic flower containers into cute containers for her girl’s room. All you need is some Mod Podge glue, cute fabric and some spray adhesive and you’ve got yourself some cute new containers for a bedroom, kitchen or home office.

Recycled Flower Pot Container

The first steps are to clean out the flower pots thoroughly with dish soap. Dry well.

Recycle Flower Pot Project

Pick up some cotton fabric at your local store.

Mod Podge and Fabric Project

Cut the fabric to fit around your pot. Spray adhesive in a well ventilated space and then wrap the fabric around the pot. Once dry, paint the pot with Mod Podge glue to finish the look. (Alternatively, you can skip the spray adhesive and just use the Mod Podge only.)

Mod Podge Flower Pot Project

Let the pots dry thoroughly before using.

Match the containers to your kid’s room, or pick some fun fabric to dress up your home office. The options are endless.

Recycled Flower Pot Containers for Girls Room

Do you have a fun recycling project to share? Send me an email with the details and you may be featured here!

I find myself perplexed sometimes when I hear the latest eco-news. Sometimes it scares me, other times it confuses me. This week there were so many articles I found interesting I thought I would share a few plus some advice.

What you should know about Tervis cups?

This article shares which Tervis cups are BPA free, and which are not. The popular tumblers have been BPA free since 1/1/11. I received a set of Tervis cups when I got married in 2005 so I think they will be moved to the top shelf so we don’t use them often. In the article, a representative from Tervis responds in the comment section discussing when each type of cup made the switch. I’m pretty skeptical of most plastics these days so I’m slowly converting all cups over to glass. Even the kids are using glass; Duralex Cupswork great. They have been dropped numerous times and haven’t broken.

Are you going to drink artificially sweetened milk?

Buying milk is already complicated. Organic, hormone-free, raw  milk, local, and conventional. These are just some of the choices we have to make. This week, a petition filed by the dairy industry is under review with the FDA to let them add artificial sweeteners to milk and other milk based products (yogurt, cheese, etc) and avoid having to label them. If you don’t let your kids have aspartame, which is  a rule for my house, it will be really difficult to figure it out. The sweeteners will be listed as “optional ingredients” and require no special labeling.  A few months ago, we switched to buying our milk from the local dairy farm. (We use Thatcher Farm.) I like that we are supporting a local business, the milk is super fresh, plus our glass bottles get reused.

Thatcher Farm Milk Glass Bottles Food Fight You Tube video

This little video takes aim at the world of processed food and beyond. It’s a story of urban gangsters fighting grocery store crimes. Makes me appreciate how easy it is for me to get access to healthy and fresh produce.

Turtleback making a switch to biodegradable plastic

Although some news is scary, other times it’s positive. One company making plastic drink holders for the beach is making an effort to switch to a biodegradable plastic. I wouldn’t call this an essential beach item by any means, but at least if people are going to buy them, they won’t end up in the ocean forever.

Are we really avoiding BPA?

This is one of those articles that is frustrating, but raises some issues. Even if you eat an organic diet, you still may end up with high levels of BPA/endocrine disruptors in your bloodstream. The two big culprits here are milk and spices. Two possible ways to fix it~ buy milk in glass bottles and switch spices to glass containers. Spices just look prettier in glass jars anyways.