Waste...

[Fnaar]

Not a sausage wasted ()
Really, there's seldom anything left on plates in the House of Fnaar, and if there is, the dog has it. All containers totally emptied, rinsed, drained, recycled.

 

[Apeman]

People should buy less when they by simply using a shopping list of items they actually need. Too often shoppers are conned into buying food that is on BOGOF/2for price of 1/buy 1 get second half price. This is a simple marketing ploy by major retailers to get money out of your pocket. They know that on a BOGOF the chances are that the second(food) item will probably spoil before you get to use it so you have to return to buy more. That incurs waste in your pocket,in the bin and fuel to get there and back. And I havent started on packaging yet!!!!

 

[Rhythm Thief]

And I havent started on packaging yet!!!!

One of the things I've noticed since I started shopping around the town - rather than in supermarkets - is that there's far less packaging involved in our shopping these days. Every shopping trip involves grabbing a rucksack and walking uptown - no carrier bags. Meat comes from the butchers, where the only packaging is a small plastic bag. Veg come from the local greengrocers - either straight into the rucksack or in paper bags, which can be composted. Bread we make ourselves. Everything else - plastic milk bottles, beer bottles, catfood tins - we can recycle.

 

[bikepete]

It was a litlle bit of devils advocate but in response to the comment about people leaving half a meal in a restaurant, which incidentally I will openly admit to doing often enough as many restaurants idea of portion size is IMHO totally OTT.

Over the last year or so Gromit and I have realised that it's fine to be totally shameless in asking for leftover restaurant food to be packed up as a take-away/doggy-bag. The cook probably appreciates it not being wasted and any trouble for the staff gets rewarded by a good cash tip.

We were out one time for a curry with a group of about 10 people and almost everyone had about half a plateful left and there was loads of rice etc, too. Nobody else wanted a doggy-bag so we ended up with the lot - fed us for several days :-)

 

[thomas]

I binned a nearly full jar of coldslaw at the beginning of term....but then I was quite badly ill so I'll let myself off that.

I hate throwing food away and am pretty good about using stuff up. I think most semesters I throw away something which I'd rather not (so coldslaw this semester, half a pack of mince last semester)....but the odd mistake for 3 months isn't too bad compared to most.

 

[Arch]

Not helped by having a local authority which doesn't collect for recycling: Cardboard; Plastic Bottles; Used batteries; Plastic film; Garden waste*.

*Garden waste is collected if you pay a large fee.

I know, it's frustrating, and I'm on the inside so to speak - we are a small concern who are contracted to the council, we take what we can, economically (and with low emissions, using trikes and an electric vehicle). But we have limited storage and carrying space, so we hae to concentrate on the dense easily saleable stuff, glass, paper, tins.

We have hopes to expand what we take, it all hinges on the economics of baling machines and extra skips and so on. Plastic bottles are a real bugbear (we collect from some areas at present). They are so light, but if not crushed, such a huge volume - a big industrial skip in less than a week. And do most people crush them? No. Or so little that you don't notice. Then they screw the lids back on, so you can't even crush them easily as you collect. And of course, there's the cupoftea's-worth of rancid milk left in the bottom if you do take the lid off.

Still, as oil gets more expensive, plastic will become more valuable...

I'm glad to see I'm not alone in the miserly scraping stuff out stakes!

 

[Yellow Fang]

People are supposed to rinse out tins and bottles and jars, but many don't.

I didn't know. I assumed that all this rubbish would have to be washed at the recycling plant anyway. I thought that to get the paper off the tin cans, they'd have to be soaked. Furthermore, I thought their use of water would be more efficient than people at home rinsing the tins and bottles out themselves.

 

[BrumJim]

Ultra-frugal tips:
1: When you have finished with your milk bottles, swill them with water, then poor out into your pot plants. It's good for them!!
2: Finished juice cartons? Pop out the folded-over corners at the bottom and the top, then cut off one corner. You should get another teaspoon of juice out of them this way.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

We've been told not to crush our plastic bottles or tins, since it means that the automatic sorting machines get them confused with cardboard. It goes against the grain putting them in uncrushed, it means we fill our recycling bags very quickly.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Ultra-frugal tips:
1: When you have finished with your milk bottles, swill them with water, then poor out into your pot plants. It's good for them!!
2: Finished juice cartons? Pop out the folded-over corners at the bottom and the top, then cut off one corner. You should get another teaspoon of juice out of them this way.

You can use both plastic milk bottles and tetra pak juice cartons as firelighters, if you have an open fire or a woodburner. I wouldn't use milk bottles myself, but a mate of mine swears that they burn cleanly and don't gunge up her stove.

 

[BrumJim]

I didn't know. I assumed that all this rubbish would have to be washed at the recycling plant anyway. I thought that to get the paper off the tin cans, they'd have to be soaked. Furthermore, I thought their use of water would be more efficient than people at home rinsing the tins and bottles out themselves.

We use left-over washing up water to rinse out our tins and soak the label off.
(Another ultra-frugal tip there...)

 

[trustysteed]

i'm all for recycling, saving money etc but some of you are overly anal about it, aren't you?

 

[beanzontoast]

For example, she absolutely hates it when people leave half a meal behind in a restaurant, as do I. She's of the school of thought that says, "you asked for it, you eat it!"

Something I've noticed is that at those carvery places, people seem to pile their plates up when they are initially being served (well, they've paid for it) instead of taking the option of going back for extra veggies later in the meal if they are still hungry.

 

[trustysteed]

Something I've noticed is that at those carvery places, people seem to pile their plates up when they are initially being served (well, they've paid for it) instead of taking the option of going back for extra veggies later in the meal if they are still hungry.

extra veggies? it's a carvery ffs!

 

[beanzontoast]

extra veggies? it's a carvery ffs!

It's pretty common that the meat element is 'given' and the veggies you help yourself to, I think.