Wednesday, 28 May 2008

Saving the planet - my way

I recently moved house - and borough - down south to Crystal Palace and was completely astonished to find that my local council, Croydon, has a recycling policy of fortnightly paper and glass collection and no food-waste collection - a shock after coming from Hackney, who collected both weekly. (And rubbish has to fit neatly into 2 bins with lids closed, handles facing outwards, and there's only one bulky waste collection per year... don't even get me started....) After the first two weeks, paper, boxes and wine bottle piling up (we did a lot of entertaining), I thought 'enough is enough'. We support the Love Food Hate Waste campaign and every time I tip leftovers into the bin, it makes my heart sink a little, so we have decided to take matters into our own hands and compost (The question remains why am i paying council tax...). If anyone has any handy tips on composting (in our last house we had to abandon our gallant attempt because of ants - and if anyone has any tips on repelling those, I am all ears), whether it be the right kind of container, what to compost, how long to leave it for.... then i would love to know. I'm also growing tomatoes, onions (advice please), sorrel and various herbs, so any grow-your-own vegetable tips are all grist to my mill, or rather contributions to the compost.
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3 comments:

  1. Savo8:34 pm, May 28, 2008

    Write to your local MP. My local one's Sarah Teather who's briliant at replying, particularly on things like recycling. Brent's rubbish at rubbish too, particualarly if you live in a flat, no cardboard, no food waste. Also have no garden to compost in though!
    writetothem.com
    lets you put in your postocde and tells you who's relevant to talk to in your area - worth a shot!

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  2. Kim McGowan3:04 pm, May 29, 2008

    things are the same over in Southwark too...we bought a compost bin made from recycled plastic from the council which was cheaper than in the shops, plus it comes with a handy kitchen caddy!

    Also, you can get a fancy composting kit that decomposes cooked foods check out http://therubbishdiet.blogspot.com/2008/03/composting-for-beginners.html who should have some tips....and was on womans hour!

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  3. Jo Dodsley4:27 pm, May 29, 2008

    that's interesting. I mentioned the lack of food waste recycling to the council when trying to eke more garden waste bags out of them and they said nothing. Do they have a duty to mention these things to their parishioners or are we supposed to do all the running?

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