What a waste

The washingqueen thinks I've lost it. She caught me weighing bin bags the other day and then freaked when I put a large bucket by the sink and told her it was for collecting food waste for a worm bin. I don't think my behaviour is unreasonable given the global and local problems of household waste but perhaps two months of trying to think more greenly is starting to show.

According to DEFRA households in England managed to recycle just 23% of their waste in 2004/5. This is a figure to be ashamed of, even though it represents a four fold improvement in our collective performance over just four years. But it is still one of the worst rates in Europe where households in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands manage up to 64%.

But the UK government has big ambitions for us and has set a bold target - to reach 25% by 2005/6. Surely we can do better than that? Recycle Now reckons 60% should be achievable for most UK households.

Anyway I figured if the government has a household waste strategy and targets then why shouldn't we? Hence the weighing in. And the results? In a fortnight our household generated 41kg of waste, 11kg (27%) of which was recycled kerbside (bottles, glass, paper), another 6.5kg (16%) of which we recycled ourselves (cardboard and plastic) by taking to a recycling centre, giving a bottom line of 43% recycled. I felt quite good about that for a while until I put it the other way around i.e 57% not recycled.

So we're going to try and reverse those figures, and my number one target is food waste. Hence the bucket. Our kerbside scheme prohibits food waste, so we're going to compost it. Now that's a bit of a challenge given that we've only got a small, yard like garden with tiny flower beds and no lawn but then that's no different to millions of urban dwellings. And there are people out there promoting interesting solutions for urban composting. So, I've got my leaflet from CAT on the latest cold composting techniques, ordered myself a subsidised compost bin through Recycle Now and organised a starter kit of worms from Wiggly Wigglers to kick start the heap.

The boys are looking forward to a parcel of worms arriving. I'm not sure what the washingqueen will make of it when it arrives addressed to her but I'm not going to let her wriggle out of this one.