AIBU to be annoyed at how smug this couple seem (DM warning)

[GreatBallsOfFluff]

here

I really do admire the effort that they have put in, and I'm all for being green and recycling as much as possible but there are just a few things in the article that really annoy me.

'After what we have achieved this year I don't know how much lower we can go with our rubbish disposal,' said Mrs Strauss.

and the bit about them speaking to the Council to suggest ways in which recycling facilities can be improved. I do try my best with recycling but I don't think I could ever get my landfill down to just one bag a year, and if I ever did get to that point then I would sit quietly proud of myself rather than shout about it to the world.

I think they are amazing.

I've honestly been like this about the mountains of rubbish piling up all over Britain.

We are utterly profligate with the planets resources - and I am including me in that statement. It's nothing short of obscene what people throw out.

actually just reading more of her blog now and it's really quite amazing. (and \link{http://myzerowaste.com/2010/10/grated-cheese\human too}

I just LOL'd (proper - made DS3 jump ) at

" I had a severe case of CBA; otherwise known as ?Can?t be Arsed?. It?s a terrible infliction which is incurable and currently has no known treatment. "

i would actually love to know how effective it really is. on previous mn discussions, people have linked to articles that 'prove' living in a city is better than the 'lone man in a log cabin' type existence, and that recycling is pretty ineffective.

i used to know someone whose job it was to research & educate people about 'green issues' & he was adamant that recycling was next to useless. His golden rule was Reduce, Re-use, Repair, Recycle.

ie, Reduce how much you buy in the first place, Re-use things for as long as possible, Repair them as much as possible, then Recycle them.

He said all this collection of recycling things, taking them to a plant, then processing them, almost (but not quite) negates the point. The best thing we can all do is just reduce how much we buy in the first place. And that includes petrol, so anyone driving around the farm shops is actually causing more of a problem - one trip to the supermarket is better for the environment!

I do think that it is admirable what they are trying to do (my snide comments earlier aside).

But I think that if we want to reduce waste then we have to go about it in an organised, nationwide fashion - it is no use individuals doing this. Admirable but will make very little difference on the whole.

I was always amazed at how little was recycled in UK. In Germany (sorry to keep banging on about them, but they are miles ahead - or kilometers ahead - of UK on this) we had bins for:

Restmüll - Waste

Gelbe Sack - all sorts of stuff that could be recycled: tins, foil, plastic packaging, bottles.

Bio - Organic waste

Papier - Paper and cardboard.

All of these bins were emptied by the council on a weekly or twice monthly basis. Putting items that should go in the Gelbe Sack into the normal waste resulted in a fine, or if constantly abused, non-collection of waste. They were rather strict about it.

But this is expensive and unlikely to be implemented in UK any time soon.

how effective it is?

Well surely it's effective in making sure there's less crap going into landfill sites??

I agree that doing more to reduce landfill is a great idea, but the fact that local councils can decide what can and can't be recycled is a little annoying.

For example I have to drive 3 miles to drop off any glass for recycling, and yet everything else down to a composter for my kitchen and outside is taken away by the council . Odd but there we go.

Baroq, are you going over to the Dark Side?

but is a buying vegetables (for example) from teh supermarket that have been flown from spain, holland, cyprus etc and lamb that was bred in the north of scotland (and then driven down to London) better for the environment that driving 5 miles up the road to the farm shop to buy the stuff they've grown themselves and then 10 miles to the butchers?

Of course depending on where you live you may have a farm shop with a butchery. You might not have to do much travelling at all to get what you need. One about 20 miles from us (never been there - just found it online seatching just now) has the following as their "main lines"

Home produced potatoes and seasonal vegetables
Home reared meats - including a selection of different flavour sausages
Free range eggs
Home made cakes
Locally produced fruits
Real dairy ice cream
Preserves
Beer and ales from Hoggleys Brewery
Hay and straw
Local crafts
Plants

(Hoggleys Brewery being a local brewery).

If you had the money you could probably get quite bit there to see you through a week.

sloggies - I've been trying to go to the dark side on and off for years .

I do (when I can afford it) try and buy local produce (otherwise I buy fairtrade if available). I'dl love to use more "natural" cleaners and the like and it was one of my aims for this year - to do much better at that sort of thing

MmeLindt our council collects all this stuff. I agree you could get your shopping as above if money no object.

Sometimes cleaning stuff that is natural is just not as effective (I know not always, but I got fed up of wasting money to find out ). I just can't do with the Fair Trade tea bags I have tried. I will use this stuff, but not if I really don't get on with it.

I knew they looked familiar. What the hell are they doing going through my bins collecting 3,000 crisp packets?

Oh I went through a phase years ago where I used natural stuff and it worked perfectly well - I just got lazy (and have since forgotten what I used to use ).

lol Brecon - they didn't - see my link above

Riven Do you send DD's syringes and feeding tubes to the medical waste in the yellow bags? Thats what we do with DS1 all his medical stuff, pads/syringes/tubes ect goes in a yellow bag to the councils waste disposal place. It took me years to realise I could do this though the council didn't offer the information! I spent ages sticking it all in the normal bin creating bags and bags if rubbish!

I recycle everything I can but i have the biggest 'red' bin and it is still full before its empties every 2 weeks! I don't compost as I don't have a usable garden!

Baroqin
Of course every little helps and all that. But to make a real difference, I think that effective recycling needs to be rolled out nationwide, and be compulsory, not voluntary.

Lol at you going over to the dark side.

oh absolutely agree that to make a really big difference it needs to be a nationwide thing. And councils have to recycle properly.

However in the meantime families like the Strauss's doing that (and ending up in the public eye) will hopefully encourage others to do more off their own backs (obviously not many are going to do it on the scale they have but if they think a bit more about what they're buying/what they do wit their rubbish) in can only help.

I am a great believer in "every little helps and is all adds up" - and if just 5 families resolve to make one less bag of rubbish in the landfill after seeing stories like (a week) - that's 260 bags less a year!! Certainly there'll be 52 less here (I hope) as I'm going to make more of an effort this year.

It does add up if more people get on board of their own accord

oh and I really am going over to the dark side - I'm ordering a mooncup

Well done. I have had a mooncup for YEARS now and really love it. Would never go back to tampons and pads.

I love that I now live in the countryside where I can recycle my appropriate food waste to compost, I love that my council are now providing a service that means we can do this with food that can't be composted (or are about to anyway!) BUT I don't get the glass thing! Especially as the pub in the village has its own special full on lorry sent out to pick up the glass, so the lorry is going right outside the door of everyone in the village ffs! I know they pay more for it being business waste but what a waste of fuel for the pickup. I suppose I could take our glass over there but we don't have the best relationship so they would probably charge me
Oh well!

beyond me why mn people habitually link dm.and then get all harrumphy and well i never about the content

why do you feel compelled to link dm and then complain about it

Something struck me this morning post hoovering - do they have a hoover with a bag or a bagless hoover - if so then they would have more than one rubbish bag per year if they were using it! Those dysons get full quite quickly and I hoover at least once a day during the winter. would that count as rubbish? If so I find it would be impossible for us to do - I reckon I could cut down to one wheelybin a month if really really pushed.

I used to read this blog which was along the same lines

Morning ladies,

Good to see this story being discussed; I thought I'd dip a toe into the waters and come along to answer some of your questions. First off can I say that when there is a story about you in the national papers, as Jux has mentioned, you are at the mercy of the journalists. Some of them are fantastic and quote you word for word, some get facts wrong due to their tight deadlines and others are downright sloppy, putting words into your mouth, making assumptions and basically making up their own mind what the story is ;)

So, to go through some of the stuff that has been discussed:

@GreatBallsOfFluff "if I ever did get to that point then I would sit quietly proud of myself rather than shout about it to the world."

I hear you on this, and to be honest I don't really speak to friends, family or neighbours about it. I don't preach about what I do, but when the opportunity comes to help spread the word I'll do it because I'm passionate. Can I point out too that my website which I pour hours of my time into each week and speaking to radio, TV and papers is all done for free and in most instance the press come to me; not the other way around...

@geezmyfeetarecold "Oh well. At least they have a hobby."

I prefer to call it a passion ;)

@MmeLindt "Gosh, they are jolly worthy aren't the they?"

I really hope we don't come across as that. People who know me through the site or in real life tell me I'm very down to earth. But to be honest, down to earth, normal or 'nice' people just don't make it into the papers - the media like a bit of a freak show or someone to hate so they turn us into those people..

"Doesn't mention if they cycle to the various farm shops and butchers to buy their food, I do hope they are not driving."

We drive, we live in a village and the butchers and farm shop are not within cycling distance.

@horsemadgal "3000 crisp packets in a month??"
and @MmeLindt "That poor girl has to go around school collecting crisp packets, I bet. "

We set up a collection point in our local supermarket for crisp packets.

@belgo "I wonder how much energy is used in collecting and sending off crisp packets to the other side of the world to be sanitized and made into something else?"

It's part of a charity called the Philippine Community Fund. The containers are going back to the Philippines empty and the charity have been given 2 per year free - they can fill them with medical supplies, school desks, text books etc and we can use crisp packets as 'packing material'. So in effect, we are helping save resources.

@shhhgobacktosleep "I would imagine that the bulk of the products made with the transported and sanitised crisp packets are bought by tourists ( carbon footprint alert) who eventually bring them home and over time ditch them to become landfill in their own country. Transporting landfill round the globe first is not very green"

Some are bought by tourists, yes, but what we are eager to do is get a high street chain to stock them in the UK; this would enable the charity to raise more money.

@sloggies "Am I just being a pedant, or did I only see about 3 razors - surely there must have been more than that, or did he have a beard until just before the photo? I wonder how she manages with leg hair etc?"

My husband uses an electric shaver, the razor blades are mine. I don't bother to shave my legs in the winter - I wear thick tights or trousers, so I only bother in the summer and don't get through that many.

@frozenfestiveflo "what happens to unspeakable things like sanitary products?" and iloveyankees "As soon as I read it I wondered what she done with her 'sanitary' products if she uses them . Please tell me she hasn't found a way of recycling them (puke)"

I use washable pads; I appreciate they are not for everybody :)

@ Pootles2010 "God i bet their house is full of crap."

No; I'm big into decluttering and if you've seen any of our TV work it's all shot in our house which I guess is just normal. Our garage has lots of pieces of wood, but my hubby has an annoying habit of his 'one day' stash actually coming in useful

@BaroqinAroundTheChristmasTree "I guess if they have the money to do it."

I've totted up savings over the past year and reckon we've saved around £2000 from making our own food, not wasting food, not buying disposable crap etc but I appreciate what people say about not having choices except to shop in supermarkets; I'm aware I'm lucky that we have local stores and farm shops etc

@Riven "Like to see what they make of old feeding tubes and syringes"

Another thing I'm acutely aware of is my family are blessed with good health and I never take this for granted; I don't know what your circumstances are but I wish you well. If I had feeding tubes and syringes to dispose of then of course they would be landfilled or I guess you can take them for disposal at a hospital as medical waste??

@kickassangel you raise some really important points and these are not things we take lightly ourselves. We definitely follow the 3 R's in that order, reducing where we can and our personal goal is to keep reducing recycling as well, because, as you say, it might not be all it's cracked up to be. We definitely use it as a last resort where possible.

@MmeLindt "I think that if we want to reduce waste then we have to go about it in an organised, nationwide fashion - it is no use individuals doing this. Admirable but will make very little difference on the whole."

I completely agree hence the info about us helping our local council and other families; we also spread the message through our website if people are interested. You're right - one person cannot make a difference, but if we can inspire, say everyone in the UK to recycle just ONE more tin can, that's 60 million cans staying out of landfill; which is similar to the point BaroqinAroundTheChristmasTree made. We're all for the collective impact of actions and are aware we can't make any significant changes ourselves.

@figgyrolls "Do they have a hoover with a bag or a bagless hoover - if so then they would have more than one rubbish bag per year if they were using it!"

We have wooden floors downstairs and natural fibre carpets upstairs so everything in our vacuum and swept up off the floor can be composted.

I hope this answers some questions for you - if you have any more, please ask!