According to the Love Food Hate Waste campaign (run by WRAP) we throw away 7.2 million tonnes of food from our homes every year in the UK. It's not just about good food going to waste either; this waste costs the average family with children around £680 a year, or £50 a month, and has serious environmental implications too. If we all stop wasting food that could have been eaten, the CO2 impact would be the equivalent of taking 1 in 5 cars off the road.
During our Zero Waste Week in November I decided to focus on using up things in my kitchen – things that have been sat at the back of the cupboard/fridge/freezer for a long time. Things like lentils, half used peanut butter, sundried tomatoes, a jar of Thai green curry paste. I decided to set myself a challenge to use up all this stuff rather than buying new items.
I started out by getting everything out on the worktop and creating my very own leftovers meal planner. You might be surprised to hear that peanut butter and marmalade are excellent ingredients for a stir-fry. Dried coconut compliments stewed apple excellently. The juice from tuna and salmon (MSC certified of course) shouldn’t be wasted because it works really well in pasta sauce or as stock for a fish stew. And very old, soft digestive biscuits make for a delicious apple crumble topping.
Some of my leftover creations were more successful than others but by and large its been a few weeks of inspired and delicious cooking - it just goes to show that all you need to be sustainable is creativity.
Visit www.lovefoodhatewaste.com for leftover recipe ideas...
Last week was a week of firsts for me – my first Zero Waste Week, my first litter pick and my first Thanksgiving!
Focusing on Zero Waste week, I pledged to bring in ‘leftover lunches’ and soon discovered that Love Food Hate Waste has made an impression. Planning my meals for the week I now have very little leftover after each meal that I wouldn’t be using for another day. Great for my shopping bill, but I ran out of food!
My second pledge, to start composting for my sister’s garden has been a lot more successful, and has given me food for thought about my non-recyclable waste which goes to landfill. Checking the labels for packaging which can be recycled is quite revealing and makes you think about what you are buying, but also makes you realised that it’s nigh on impossible to eliminate all waste going to landfill. However, this week I have discovered the joys of finding ways to reuse my waste. From simple things like holding onto plastics for food wrapping, using mushroom boxes as compost caddies and putting spice jars back into circulation, to the far more crafty making Christmas decorations from egg cartons, cutlery holders from milk bottles and even bird houses from soup cartons!
I enjoyed my week of firsts, even the litter pick and the competition to find the weirdest item – I guess a bike seat by a bike path isn’t that weird, but I was still proud of my find, and Thursday I was thankful for a fantastic Thanksgiving spread, and even more thankful for leftover veg, yorkshires and gravy on Friday.
Zero Waste Week is an annual city-wide event celebrating Peterborough’s legacy as the first UK city to gain Defra ‘Zero Waste Place’ accreditation. After the success of our award-winning project, over 3,200 tonnes of waste was diverted from landfill and over 1,500 tonnes of CO2 saved.
PECT has a week of activities for staff to take part in, from staff pledges to reduce waste at work and at home and a staff litter pick in the city centre, to a bring and share lunch with lots of homemade goodies and no wasteful packaging. Zero Waste Week is really a lot of fun. It’s a great excuse to share a meal, come up with innovative waste reduction ideas, and focus on purchasing and the packaging associated with it.”
Today's activity was a litter pick. Staff chose from four heavy traffic areas and pledged at least a half hour to pick. Enterprise kindly lent us gloves, bags and litter pickers. My group went along the underpass to the train station and the path leading to the station. To be honest, it wasn't that riddled with rubbish. We did still manage to partly fill 5 bags. And though it's a little cold, and the job is grubby, we felt great afterwards.
Tomorrow holds an opportunity to learn best practice from the regions high flyers. Investors in the Environment members – IKEA Distribution Centre, Queensgate Shopping Centre, Anne Corder Recruitment and Bakkavor Freshcook have all achieved top level green accreditation and want to share their facts and know how. One business is Zero Waste to landfill, one is a paperless office, the others have some of best green credentials that we have seen in a long time. Together they are the Super 4. On the day we will hear a great range of stories from a great range of different business sectors.
It's not too late to take part or too early to prepare for next year. For more information Zero Waste Week, contact
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So it's that time of year again; the weekend when cupid curls his finger around the twine and takes aim. In some cases, lets hope he strikes the bullseye and melds people in a bubble of happiness. In other cases, lets hope the little mite misses just a tad and actually severs the bonds that hold the more unsuitable couples together. I for one will bid a fond farewell to the unfortunate duo who seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that Poundland is a building soceity, and that by investing their jobseekers allowance there they are safeguarding their litter's future.
But nay, my whinge this week isn't about the great unwashed, rather about the absolute waste of everything that Valentine's Day has become. For starters, it has its origin in Christianity - some Pope or other decided it would be a good idea at some point - so if you're an atheist or a non-believer or of some other faith, there is a confusing issue to start with. Nowadays this celebration of love seems to be owned by a number of high-street card shops, lingerie outlets, chocolatiers and city-break touting travel agents. And I, constantly suspicious of what 'the man' is doing to distract the proletariate, am convinced the placement of Valentine's Day six weeks after Christmas is a conspiracy theory. Most people have just been paid for the first time following the glutonous spending in late December, and the coffers are back in the black. Put Valentine's on 14th January and it's a dead duck - nobody could afford the petrol to the garage to buy a cheap posy of wilting daffs, let alone an elaborate bouquet of roses. Seems to me old Pope Gelasius I knew what he was doing - probably links in to the Da Vinci Code somehow but I'll leave that to Dan Brown...
Anyway, back on to the waste side of things, lets look at the classic Valo gifts one by one...
Chocolates - Milk, yes. Milk means cows. Cows mean methane. Methane, like carbon dioxide, is a greenhouse gas but is twenty-five times more potent than it's more famous cousin. I'm not going to get started on the over-packaging, or the food miles or the fact that they make you fat. Alternative suggestion - locally-sourced produce, or a nice pint of organic milk.
Flowers - According to the Guardian, 55 million roses are traded around the world on the 14th. That means that 55 million roses are put in the bin on the 21st. If you work from the estimate that each rose stem grown in Holland produces 3kg of carbon dioxide emissions, when you hand over that beautiful dozen to your loved one, why not also pass her a bag and a half of building sand, just to demonstrate the carbon effects of this oh so common gesture. Alternative suggestion - some kind of origami flower, or just one rose?
Cards - We all know the scores here don't we; "You had me at hello..", "Love you baby..." and "You're the only one for me... (until next year when we've split up because you were seeing the guy from work behind my back for three months and I only found out because you text the wrong person by mistake one night!)" The global postal industry's carbon emissions are three times that of the much-maligned aviation industry, with 12 million cards delivered by the Royal Mail alone on Valentine's Day. Alternative suggestion - send an e-card, make a card or at the very least give the card to your loved one as opposed to putting in the post. Or don't bother with a card and just tell her how you feel, you cold, awkward thing...
I could go on... jewellery and gold mines and exploitation of workers in developing nations, clothes to replace ones that are pefectly wearable, beauty products that contain palm oils that contribute to the distruction of the rainforests.
How do I ever buy anything you might wonder, if I look behind every product to such a degree?
The answer is simple, I don't. I keep my money in my mattress and only use things I find on the street. This year I'm giving gifts of half eaten chicken tikka kebab, shoe and damaged wooden pallet, all wrapped in an old tarpaulin and sealed down with spent Hubba Bubba. Somehow I don't think I'll have to worry about it next year...
In the run up to Zero Waste Week (22nd November), PECT staff are bringing and sharing, both their lunch and their rubbish!
After sharing a home made package free lunch, we'll get educated on how to reduce waste in the workplace and at home. I know, I know, we're an environment charity, we should know all of this! But it is difficult to keep on top of what can and can't be recycled, and why. There are also local restrictions that can be hard to keep up with, alternatives for those items that can't be recycled in Peterborough, and heck, we all like a bring and share followed by a bit of education.
If you're a business that is taking part in Zero Waste Week, you're invited to join us for the education bit.
When: Thursday 18th November (get prepared for ZWW)
Time: 1.45 - 2.30
Where: Here at the PECT office - The Green House, 4-6 Cowgate
15 minutes
Andrew Goode from Donarbon Waste contractors will be covering:
Targets for recycling and waste
Relevant legislation and how it effects us?
How waste and recycling systems work
What CAN and CANNOT be recycled and WHY?
15 minutes
Stuart Foster from ReCOUP plastics will be covering:
How ReCOUP work
The recycling of useful plastics and systems
What CAN and CANNOT be recycled and WHY?
15 minutes
Bring with you any samples of waste/packaging that you have questions or queries on as we will be having a 15 minute discussion at the end.
Please RSVP by email confirming your attendance ASAP to
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Has anyone else heard the jingle on that advert? I think it's for 'EDF Energy' or someone, but it doesn't matter to be honest. The end line, sung high-pitched like the name of toilet roll or kitchen floor cleaner so often is on adverts (because we as consumers are more likely to buy things we are told about by people impersonating Barry Gibb)... Where was I? Yes. The end line goes, "it's not that easy being gree-een," as some renewable-powered superhero flies off in to the distance, presumably to save Louis Lane from a wonky turbine.
I don't like the advert, and I don't get the message in relation to a gas-guzzling, coal-burning, oil-sucking energy provider, and I don't like the overall idea. It IS easy being green - you just have to make the right choices.
Yesterday, I made the wrong choice.
Stocking up at Jamie Oliver's favourite supermarket, I whazzed some spring onions in the basket, mashed some broccoli on top and flipped in some egg-fried noodle and some soy sauces. (Prize on offer for what I had for tea - or 'dinner' if you herald from below the M62!). Last but not least though, two pints of semi-skimmed for the morning muesli.
But whoooah. Whooah nelly. Whooah there. What is that? Red top milk - yes. Blue top milk - fine. Green top milk - that's ma' boy. But milk... in a bag? Milk. In a bag?
For those of you reading this thinking it all sounds a bit Brian Potter (i.e. Garlic Bread? Garlic... bread?), that's exactly what it was. I was flummoxed. Mind-boggled. My flab was gasted. If I was Coronation Street's Ashley Peacock, I would have said something along the lines of, "Eh... 'ar Clure... 'ave you sin' this? They've put milk in't bag now. By 'eck Clure it's potty."
Hold do you hold it? How do you pour it? Where is the lid? How do I put it down on the counter? How do I rest it in the door of the fridge? The mind boggled... It was 38p cheaper though, so I rolled up the sleeves, wiped the sweat of confusion from my brow, and squinted closer - nervously.
I'll spare you the gory details, but my CSI-style investigation found one key fact. The milk was indeed in bags, but the idea is that the bag is placed into a jug-like receptacle. This holds the bag secure, pierces it, and allows the cow juice to flow freely on to the intended surface/food stuff with the classic pour motion most commonly associated with kettles, tea-pots and watering-cans.
Why, you ask?
The bag uses 75% less packaging. It is recycable as it is made of the same polymer plastic as carrier bags (all good supermarkets have a carrier bag recycling point), and the boxes the bags are transported in are recyclable cardboard. Oh, and did I mention it's 38p (about 30%) cheaper for a two-pinter?
Yes, the jug-type receptacle (a 'Jug-It') costs £1.98, but this means you make your money back and start saving money after you've bought five bags of milk! Save 38p two or three times a week and you've got yourself a few nights out, some fancy shoes or you could buy a bike on eBay and pedal to work. Then you start cutting more of your CO2 emissions and save money on petrol to boot... Clever, eh? See what I did there?
So back to me making the wrong choice...
I bought a 'Jug It' device and a bag of milk. I'll make my £2 back inside three weeks, and it's the right thing to do.
But the wrong choice was deciding to open the bag with a knife before placing it in the jug. Don't do this. Milk volcano.
Please follow the instructions on the side of the packet...
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve witnessed first-hand the steps Peterborough is taking in order to make a positive impact on the environment, and the experience has been a breath of fresh air.
Large businesses have a reputation for being environmentally unsound, and who can blame them – it’s not easy to manage gigantic sums of money, hundreds of outlets and thousands of employees whilst keeping an eye on the small details like what cardboard goes in the bins at a small branch. Despite this it’s becoming increasingly apparent that environmentally-friendly business practices are possible in the largest of chains.
Early this month I visited Queensgate to chat with their environmental officer and witness the lengths they have gone to make a difference. What I saw there was inspirational – a large majority of the shopping centre’s major firms are making efforts to reduce their carbon footprint. Most stores within Queensgate separate their waste streams into eight categories, which are dealt with in appropriate manners. Cardboard is crushed together by a massive machine called a baler, which crushes boxes into compact cubes which can be sent off in bulk to be recycled, saving petrol from multiple road trips. The same goes for polythene wrapping, which is crushed and sent to recycling plants. Even the skips Queensgate use are locally sourced and rigorously monitored. Another great initiative is one taken on by McDonalds who send their oil off to be re-used. It gets converted into bio-fuel, which is far less damaging to the environment than regular fuels.
It comes as no surprise that Queensgate have received so many awards. With accolades such as Green accreditation from Investors in the Environment to Retail Recycler of the Year at the National Recycling Awards the staff at Queensgate should be proud of themselves. But as I found out last week, it’s not just large companies which can make an environmental difference.
Last Wednesday I visited Best Deal 4 Baby, a Community Interest Company which helps new mums with everything they could need to raise their children in a sustainable manner. From their massive collection of affordable baby clothes and equipment to their excellent day courses, Best Deal 4 Baby has a lot to offer. But from an environmental standpoint this is just the tip of the iceberg. Recently the company relocated its premises and decided to make the process as green as possible. For a start over 90% of their furnishings were re-used, with many examples being donated and saved from landfill. Everything from carpet tiles, doors and even computers were locally sourced. Their toilet cubicle doors were once wooden pallets – after being cut to shape and secured to the stalls with hinges they look terrific! One of the greatest things I took from my visit was the sense of solidarity in the team, who seemed more like a family than co-workers.
These examples prove that with a little effort and forethought it is possible for businesses to conduct sustainable business practice. There’s just no excuse for sending recyclable or reusable materials to landfill when there are so many services designed to support environmental conduct.
What we do with our waste streams is becoming a greater concern with our current economic climate and the welfare of the planet as a whole. As landfill sites become a less viable solution we have to ask ourselves how much of that waste could have been put to better use. Items made of wood and plastic derivatives can generally be recycled, while organic material can be composted or mulched rather than decomposing in landfill and producing harmful greenhouse gases.
In many cases there are even better uses for a great deal of this material, with many small businesses and companies desperate for items which are simply thrown away. Re-using unwanted materials is better than recycling as it cuts the cost of landfill tax, saves the energy consumed by recycling and saves a great deal of money compared to buying new.
This is where the Eastex Materials Exchange comes in, acting as a go-between for people with unwanted materials and people who need them. Anything from office furniture, wooden pallets and even pot pourri has been found a happy new home. Essentially Eastex acts like Freecycle but on a larger scale – whereas Freecycle would re-home one chair Eastex would do the same for one hundred.
Have a think about what you throw away – you may be surprised to learn over 70% of the average waste stream is re-usable. So log on, sign up and get re-using!
We all know that situation, the end of your contract is coming up, technology has moved on and the phone you bought 18 or 24 months ago is scratched and beaten up. Words and phrases like touch screen, iPhone, email and internet access on the move scream out of shop windows and internet sites, all to make a functional item a stylish, desirable, must have essential.
The mobile phone marketers are trying to part you with your money, it's their job. But as phones get more technical they cost more, over recent contracts my phone has gradually crept up in cost and now the basic iphone or equivalent is £30 and upwards.
As a "job seeker", volunteering here at PECT, I am cash poor and time rich so I have time to weigh up my options, before applying for yet another career opportunity. Rather than believe the hype, I decided to be creative.
With a pinch of salt I sat down and said not what do I desire but what do I need? This was the list:
Lower bills - always useful
A phone that I can use to text, phone, take spontaneous photos and access emails (in that order)
A phone that is not as scratched and old looking as my current one
Ease of use (I use Nokia phones for familiarity - I tried a Motorola once but couldn't get on with it)
Something that looks professional for work
A phone has all my contacts on it or that is easy to transfer from my old one
Preferably on Orange because I like the idea of two cinema tickets for the price of one. (Yes that's a piece of marketing that I am a sucker for)
Something that is personally mine.
My Nokia 6300 still works(Click for image), it already has all of these features and my conacts are already in the memory, so why do I need to change? It's a current model that's a little scuffed!
While working for Caterpillar (aka Perkins in yellow clothing) I came accross the term remanufacturing. For Caterpillar this means taking in a bulldozer or engine at the end of its working life, breaking it down for parts and restoring those parts to as good as new to resell them. The great thing is that because you don't have to mine and smelt the metal and the majority of the work is simply replacing the damaged bits. Caterpillar calculates that the energy saved is about 60%. They have a whole division for this and it makes them money or they wouldn't do it. Click here for how they do it.
Maybe I could remanufacture my phone, so it is as good as new!
If i can do it and change to a SIM only contract for the same service (£10 per month 200 minutes and unlimited texts) I can save £5 a month.
E-bay to the rescue!
New metal case and screen £3.79 - there are loads to choose from - each making my choice a little more personal.
Another £3.89 gets me a new leather wallet to protect the screen in my pocket.
I also discovered that Nokia also have a repair and recylcle section of their website where I can upgrade my software and with the freepost recycle schemesend any unwanted accessories directly Click here.
So I've stopped wasting my money, stopped my phone becoming landfill, Upgraded my phone's software and smartened up the product I have.
I'm quite enjoying being green - it appeals to my practical side.
I have my own Greeniversity course on Thursday 17th December called 'ECO CHRISTMAS CRAFTS'.
See below for details... and go and register at Greeniversity to take part in the course!
FREE LEARNING... Good times!!!
ECO CHRISTMAS CRAFTS
Make and take home a lovely selection of Christmas decorations for yourself, friends, or your family, home made out of fantastic quality re-used material sourced from the Eastex Materials Exchange.
STARS
Make beautiful origami stars in different colours and sizes. Ideal for Christmas tree decorations, Christmas mobiles, wreaths, jewellery and more, made from re-used paper.
SANTA'S
Cute little Santa's. Ideal for hanging on the Christmas tree, or on the wall. Made from Re-used Curtain rings, wool and beads.
PAPER BASKETS
2 toned woven paper baskets brilliant for holding sweets and hanging on the tree, making a mobile or pinning up on a collage. Made from recycled / re-used paper.
Date: 17th December. Time: 5:30pm - 7:30pm Location: Main meeting room, The Greenhouse, 4-6 Cowgate, Peterborough, PE1 1NA. Contact: Kim Coley on 07814 393099,
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Website:www.greeniversity.org.uk
16:39:40
Are you participating in Zero Waste Week?
Today's activity was a litter pick. Staff chose from four heavy traffic areas and pledged at least a half hour to pick. Enterprise kindly lent us gloves, bags and litter pickers. My group went along the underpass to the train station and the path leading to the station. To be honest, it wasn't that riddled with rubbish. We did still manage to partly fill 5 bags. And though it's a little cold, and the job is grubby, we felt great afterwards.
