From the 1-7th of September I took part in zerowaste week. The general aim of this week is to send nothing to landfill however I am nothing if not pedantic. Zerowaste means just that! So I sent nothing to be recycled either!

What is Zero Waste Week

Zero Waste Week is an opportunity to reduce landfill waste & save money.

It is in its seventh year and runs from the 1st to the 7th of September

here’s a link to the zero waste website

My pledge

This year the theme is “One More Thing” My “one more thing” is the recycle bin! I will only create compostable rubbish.

Which means I will put put nothing in my black bin or my green bin. I will send nothing to landfill AND nothing to be recycled. That means no plastic, no tins, no glass and no paper.

I only want to make waste that I can dispose of myself. The two methods of waste manageent available to me are composting and burning.

But I will not compost or burn anything that could be recycled.

The rubbish I will create will be  compostable  and food related- potato peelings and the like and that’s not waste but plant food!

The Others 

Of course its not just me  doing it- there are loads of bloggers doing all kinds of stuff. You can find them herded together in one easy to access place here: http://www.netvibes.com/myzerowaste#Ambassadors

2014

My goal was to create only compostable waste. I DID IT!

For one week, I didn’t put any rubbish in the landfill bin NOR in the recycling bin.

The only waste created was vegetable peelings. We used one ready packaged item, flour for the chapattis. All other food we bought loose in reusable packaging – either plastic tubs or cloths produce bags.

It wasn’t a week of bread and water either. We had everything from smoked salmon to bacon, chocolate to fresh ground coffee.

You can see our daily menu here and our packaging free food options here

We went without milk, cheese and yogurt. If we had been at home we could have had milk in a glass bottle from out milk man, made our own yoghurt and bought cheese unwrapped from the market. You can check out our Dairy options here.

Because we are traveling in a van we have been unable to do this.

Tins were out so we had to cook without tinned tomatos. I didnt actually think this was possible but it is.

We also went without glass jars and bottles. No mayo, mustard, ketchup or honey. We had some van made van jam which was easy to do. I think my next challenge will be to learn how to make sauce.

We also went without wine – bottles of that is. There are some wine refill places in the UK but none where we were – sigh!

We have bought most of the stuff from small local shops so we don’t even have many till receipts! And we managed to avoid the horrid stickers on fruit but I admit we choose carefully and picked off the  unmarked bananas. Which leads me to ask – is it only supermarkets that sticker up fruit?

As for toothpaste, suntan lotion, moisturizer and the like, we make our own. You can find out how we stay so pretty plastic free here.

Ahhh the delights of Ullapool. Stocked up with lovely food all bought loose and in reusable packaging. Check out the treats…..

Day 3
Start the day with black tea with or without powdered milk – which we continue to drink throughout.

Zerowaste breakfast

• Croissants and melon from Tesco
• Coffee

Lunch

Smoked salmon and avocado sandwiches  served with cucumber followed by flap jack pudding

Dinner

• bangers and mash

You might be wondering what I do for toothpaste and the like? Well I make my own and have stocked up for the holiday. I store it in reusable jars.

Day $

Start the day with black tea with or without powdered milk – which we continue to drink throughout.

Zerowaste breakfast

• Omlette – very egg based diet this is turning out to be
• Coffee

Got  lucky today bought a lovely cauliflower naked and unwrapped, an avocado and that rarest of veges, an unwrapped cucumber. Plus a decent loaf of bread.
Lunch

• Cucumber and tomato salad with lemon juice
• Mashed avacado salad

Open sandwiches

Dinner

• Vege sauce (from day 1) with mashed spuds

You can a recipe for zero waste salad dressing here

Start the day with black tea with or without powdered milk – which we continue to drink throughout.

Zerowaste breakfast

• Eggy bread – eggs from the roadside bread rolls bought loose from the Spar.
• Coffee

Lunch

• Van soup made from a medly of veg – carrots leeks parsnips potatoes thickened with lentils.

Dinner

• Vege stew

I managed to get all of the above loose and unpackaged and I used in my reusable bags when I bought them.

Landfill/ Recyclable Waste Created  None