Recycle more and make your own compost: good eco things to do year-round
Recycle more and make your own compost: good eco things to do year-round
If you know you're a bit lazy about recycling your household waste, and you still haven't started composting your peelings and food waste, come on, get a grip! or a counter top caddy more to the point. And grow your own herbs, ditch the bleach and generally clamp down on waste
We are recycling in the UK but still not enough of us are using our recycling boxes / wheelie bins for their intended purpose. And nowhere near enough of us are recycling our food waste which is invaluable for local councils to make compost for their parks and green spaces. So the message to us all is RECYCLE MORE! We can also grow out own herbs and veg, upcycle worn furniture and get electrical stuff mended instead of buying new.
Do you or your kids ever put a tin can or a magazine in your 'main' bin instead in the recycling box? Hardly the crime of the century but....local councils urge us to make sure then when we your when we bin it, we bin in it in the right bin.
For me, the biggest garden miracle is the compost heap: the perfect place for the useful disposal of organic household and garden waste. Did you know that up to half of all household waste can be composted? not only veg trimmings and teabags/leaves and coffee grains, but vacuum-cleaner dust, cereal boxes, shredded paper and wood ash. Alternative disposal would be landfill or incineration, both of which produce CO2.
What I love is that not only is it a convenient system for getting rid of waste, it produces free compost, a rich and valuable source of mineral nutrients plants need to grow.I'm no gardening expert and I don't want to teach any grandmothers to suck eggs, but if you grimace at the thought of a container in your kitchen full of scraps, well... let me take you through the cycle.
We put fruit and veg peelings, teabags, coffee grinds, along with loo rolls, egg boxes and torn up cereal boxes into a compost caddy by the sink. When full, can I say that it's NOT a putreying stinking mass, and I tip it onto the compost heap. Onto this same heap go grass mowings, garden cuttings and prunings (except if they're very woody). The heap fills up quite quickly, especially during the growing season… but this is when the miracle occurs.
Because when your back is turned, the ecosystem gets to work: millipedes, slugs, snails and woodlice shred and digest the plant materials as they decay, creating a greater surface area for funghi and bacteria to work on.
We put fruit and veg peelings, teabags, coffee grinds, along with loo rolls, egg boxes and torn up cereal boxes into a compost caddy by the sink. When full, can I say that it's NOT a putreying stinking mass, and I tip it onto the compost heap. Onto this same heap go grass mowings, garden cuttings and prunings (except if they're very woody). The heap fills up quite quickly, especially during the growing season… but this is when the miracle occurs.
Because when your back is turned, the ecosystem gets to work: millipedes, slugs, snails and woodlice shred and digest the plant materials as they decay, creating a greater surface area for funghi and bacteria to work on.What I love is that not only is it a convenient system for getting rid of waste, it produces free compost, a rich and valuable source of mineral nutrients plants need to grow.I'm no gardening expert and I don't want to teach any grandmothers to suck eggs, but if you grimace at the thought of a container in your kitchen full of scraps, well... let me take you through the cycle.
We put fruit and veg peelings, teabags, coffee grinds, along with loo rolls, egg boxes and torn up cereal boxes into a compost caddy by the sink. When full, can I say that it's NOT a putreying stinking mass, and I tip it onto the compost heap. Onto this same heap go grass mowings, garden cuttings and prunings (except if they're very woody). The heap fills up quite quickly, especially during the growing season… but this is when the miracle occurs.
Because when your back is turned, the ecosystem gets to work: millipedes, slugs, snails and woodlice shred and digest the plant materials as they decay, creating a greater surface area for funghi and bacteria to work on.Worms and fly larvae burrow through the heap, eating and aerating it as they go. In the process, the heap dramatically reduces in size, so when you return to add further waste a couple of weeks later, a once full heap is now only half-full. You fill it again, turn your back for a couple of weeks, and the same miraculous result occurs.
We're lucky enough to have space in our garden for two 6 x 4ft heaps, each of which rises to about 5ft. Over the space of a year, the first heap gets properly full. At this point, usually in the autumn, the second heap, which has been abandoned for the best part of a year, apart from occasional turning, is ready to have the compost dug out and spread over the flower beds as a mulch. This suppresses weeds, helps retain soil moisture and feeds plants with nitrogen and phosphorous.
Eco good habits to get into and to train your kids of whatever age to follow suit:
1/ Cut down on use of bleach and other chemical-filled cleaning products. Switch to more eco friendly products such as Ecover, Green Scents or supermarkets' own brand eco cleaners. Oh and get a steam cleaner for floors and showers. We can't recommend our Karcher steam cleaner highly enough.
2/ Lots of us reach for the bleach when it comes to the loo but the Loo Blade - designed by Scotland and made in Germany - is terrific. It doesn't make me want to retch in the way that loo brushes do..
3/ Don't overbuy food. Use up what you've got before doing another supermarket shop; or if you have food you can't eat, download the Olio app and you'll find local people happy to take it off your hands. Olio is a briliant idea.
4/ Buy less stuff and you'll feel virtuous, believe me. And a less cluttered home an ensure which is great.
5/ Energy - use less. I have grown to love my 5-minute shower timer, which looks like an egg timer and is attached to the shower wall with a suction pad. Lights...well don't leave them on when you leave a room.. Kettles..yes, the boil enough for how ever many cups of tea you're making. And is your loft insulated? Go on, go and check and if it's not, can I recommend sheep's wool insulation from Thermafleece.
6/ Grow your own veg and fruit in pots and grow herbs in your kitchen. Water with water you've collected either in a water butt or from your shower if you have one of those useful window vacs. And have lots of pot plants indoors for better air quality.
7/ Use the car less, walk more and consider joining a car sharing pool if you live in a big city.
8/ Repainting? Graphenstone paint from Spain is very eco friendly and hard wearning because it contains graphene.
9/ And for quick cleaning with no electricity consumption, can I recommend something called The Wisp, a one-handed broom and dustpan that really does gather up all the stuff you sweep into it.
10/ Do take your bamboo travel cup into your local coffee shop because you won't be using an essentially unrecyclable plastic-lined paper cup and more coffee shops are giving a discount - eg Pret A Manger's discount is 25 pence off the price of a cappuccino.
11/ And likewise carry a water bottle with you and do your darndest not to buy plastic bottles of water.
12/ We no longer have a tumble dryer and we don't miss it. We have a washing line and an airer in the bathroom and clothes dry just fine.
Er..there are no doubt lots more things we could be doing to be more eco down here in Kent, but we're very proud of ourselves for having got to grips with the above!