Waste...

[swee'pea99]

In cars, mostly, in single inefficient journeys

Used to have a housemate who was so right on she couldn't bring herself to throw away newspapers - piled 'em up on the landing 'for recycling'. Of course she was too much of a scatterbrained hippy to do anything as organised as take them to the recycling depot (this was before the days of collections).

Anyway, they piled up & up and up until we got really fed up with them, so The Man told her to get rid of them. Of course she couldn't throw them away...so she put them all in the boot of her car 'to take them to the recycling'. And there they stayed, for months on end. In fact it wouldn't surprise me if she's not still driving around with half a ton of newsprint in the boot now...

 

[Hover Fly]

Of course, it's all a balancing act. The thing about glass is that we deal very badly with it in this country - apart from the milk bottles that go back to the dairy and are washed, we collect it, smash it up, melt it down and remake it - using energy and losing quality each time. Civilised countries like Sweden collect bottles whole, wash them and reuse them.

Have you ever thought about the green glass from wine bottles? Hardly any* is used in the non-wine producing countries so the bottle possibly does a triangular journey, which could be China (where a lot of the bottles are made nowadays)-Australia (or Chile or S. Africa)-Britain or Sweden etc., then back to China, to be remade into bottles. All this transport is one of the reason bottles are so much thinner than they used to be, to save on transport costs and make it easier to melt down.

*Though I noticed that Jennings are using green beer bottles recently.

 

[Davidc]

*Though I noticed that Jennings are using green beer bottles recently.

There have always been green and brown glass beer bottles from most brewers.

Beer bottles, along with corona and other soft drink bottles all used to be glass and were reused.

Rumour has it that children used to sneak over the fences at the back of shops, take the empty bottles out of their crates, pass them over the fence to their mates, and then hide them. A few days later they'd take them to another shop and claim the deposits back ....

The shops (and offies) retailiated eventually by only taking back bottles with the labels on, and using their rubber stamps to show they'd taken them in already.

 

[gbb]

There have always been green and brown glass beer bottles from most brewers.

Beer bottles, along with corona and other soft drink bottles all used to be glass and were reused.

Rumour has it that children used to sneak over the fences at the back of shops, take the empty bottles out of their crates, pass them over the fence to their mates, and then hide them. A few days later they'd take them to another shop and claim the deposits back ....

The shops (and offies) retailiated eventually by only taking back bottles with the labels on, and using their rubber stamps to show they'd taken them in already.

Been there, done that as a kid in the early 70s

 

[Paulus]

Been there, done that as a kid in the early 70s

Been there and done that. during the 60's when I was a whipper snapper that was a famous ploy. i'm sure the shopkeepers knew what was going on, but the shilling or so we came away with per day was well worth it.

 

[Davidc]

Been there, done that as a kid in the early 70s

I of course was far too saintly, angelic, and well behaved to get involved with anything like that.

 

[vernon]

Rumour has it that children used to sneak over the fences at the back of shops, take the empty bottles out of their crates, pass them over the fence to their mates, and then hide them. A few days later they'd take them to another shop and claim the deposits back ....

The shops (and offies) retailiated eventually by only taking back bottles with the labels on, and using their rubber stamps to show they'd taken them in already.

It's not a rumour. My associates and I recycled the backyard stock of many an off license to fund our nascent attraction to alcoholic beverages.

 

[Arch]

Been there and done that. during the 60's when I was a whipper snapper that was a famous ploy. i'm sure the shopkeepers knew what was going on, but the shilling or so we came away with per day was well worth it.

Apparently a householder yesterday had a go at one of my colleagues because he wouldn't take plastic window envelopes (the plastic contaminates our paper stock), and said she resented making an effort so that we could make a profit (we sell the stuff onto waste merchants, and that, along with the council contract, covers our wages/costs etc. Just). We were discussing working out how much we get per envelope and writing her a cheque for that fraction of a fraction of a penny. Or telling her the price per tonne, so she can sell it herself, as long as she has a skipfull the size of a double decker bus...

I know that in some places in Canada and the US, people supplement a (very minimal) living by collecting aluminium cans out of bins to sell to metal merchants, and of course in the developing world, sorting through rubbish tips is all the income some people have. Makes our profligate lifestyles seem all the worse...

 

[Davidc]

It's not a rumour. My associates and I recycled the backyard stock of many an off license to fund our nascent attraction to alcoholic beverages.

I'm not sure I like the sound of recycled alcoholic beverages

 

[snorri]

Mrs Ian doesn't and not only that is quite happy to throw them in the main rubbish bin rather the the recycling bin.. for which she gets a slapped botty..

If you keep rewarding her she will keep doing it.

 

[gbb]

Very timely this thread. So we've just been shopping and as usual clean out the fridge to accept this weeks load.
I've just thrown out some brown mushrooms, a couple of half cans of beans etc, some older eggs, half a pack of dodgy looking ham etc etc...it amounts to 1/2 a carrier bag.
I've just put about a carrier bag of stuff in the fridge, thrown 1/2 a bag away
I always knew we didnt make the best of whats in there....

Funnily enough i mentioned the washpowder earlier. We were beginning to get low on our hoard that was a really good buy. Got to the end of the aisles...theres Persil Non Bio, 70 wash box for £8 brought two of them.

So whats non bio then ? Is it better ? being a man...i dont know the difference

 

[TheDoctor]

[unleashes his inner gurley]
Biological powder has enzymes in it that help to break down some types of protein-based stains - blood, sweat, food, that sort of thing. Sadly, they also help to break down silk and wool, and that's why you get both.
Bio for synthetics and cottons, non-bio for delicate stuff.
[/unleashes his inner gurley]

 

[XmisterIS]

[quote name='swee'pea99']There's a whole generation of us. I call it being 'a child of a child of the blitz'. I grew up in a house of balls of string made up of 18" lengths knotted together, and christmas wrappings carefully folded up and put away for re-use. I am lightening up a little bit tho' - I can throw away a squeezy bottle of ketchup that still has smears inside, and I would never go to the extent of cutting up toothpaste tubes. But broadly speaking, yes, I loathe waste - and food waste most of all.[/QUOTE]

That was always the tradition in my family; to give each other presents wrapped in old wrapping paper! I never realised it came from the war. My GF was most put out when I gave her her Christmas presents wrapped in re-used birthday paper; and I didn't help by saying, "Well, it's what we do in my family".

 

[biggs682]

we try not to waste stuff , i have even hid some food thats just gone past use by date from the partner so it does not go to waste , but my ex use to throw what ever was left in fridge from previous shop in the bin no matter what

 

[Baggy]

I'm a child of a child of the Blitz, so another one who grew up having "waste not, want not" drummed into me. As part of a project at work we were recently given some stats about food waste - based on food that is thrown away because it's past it's "sell by" date, including apples in packets...

It shocked me!

Estimates of things thrown away per day:

• 1 million slices of ham
• 4.4 million whole apples
• 700,000 unopened packets of chocolate and sweets
• 260,000 unopened packets of cheese
• 5.1 million potatoes
• 7 million slices of bread
• 1.3 million yoghurts and yoghurt drinks
• 1.2 million sausages
• half of all salad