I Am Trying to Be More Green

Not Very Succesfully.

By: avatarunknown

Written on May 9th, 2012

Our local council has an initiative to cut waste to landfill. Along with the reasonably priced compost bins, they are offering a discount on waste disposers fitted into your kitchen sink - to deal with the stuff you cannot compost. What a great idea. With fortnightly waste collections, that bit of chicken skin and fish bones get a bit high in the summer. There are some vegetables that do not compost successfully. Win-win scenario. Less waste for the council to collect. Our bins dont pong. So, when we improved our kitchen, we fitted the waste disposer. Got our money from the council and everything should have been hunky-dory.
Only, it cant deal with chicken skin, or fish bones, or any really fibrous vegetable matter, such as banana skins.
So now, because its more convenient, we are using clean water and electricity to get rid of orangepeel and teabags, both of which would have previously been composted. while the chicken skin etc still end up ponging in the bin.
Perhaps the council approved model, was based on cost, not efficiency. Whatever the reasoning, this "green" investment has not helped the planet.

By: avatarunknown

Age: 51-55 , Female

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10 responses

londonwestman1

Perhaps it's not just a money thing. I remember distinctly spending about twenty minutes lying under the sink with possibly the richest guy I've ever met in the flashest, most penthouse apartment I've ever seen, trying to extract something pretty innocuous from his waste disposal unit.

Oct 27, 2012
2 likes
avatarunknown

Ah, Well, the dishwasher was second hand, I thought it was neccessary when my husband invited fourteen people for Christmas lunch !! Sometimes i forget its there. We certainly dont use it every day.

Jul 10, 2012
1 like
AlmostAristotle

Our council had a clever new policy too. It was to BAN DOORMATS! from outside the front doors of any flats that had a communal area, ie. a hallway, or foyer type area.

I missed the letter informing us of this, if indeed one was ever sent and so, on deadline day, I was surprised to find my doormat had vanished.

It is now cluttering up some council storage facility for which of course we tennants/residents have to pay.out of our council tax. from where I can retrieve it upon payment of a fine.

It wasn't a bloody illegally parked car!!!

Jun 4, 2012
2 likes
- avatarunknown
  is the fine more than the cost of a new doormat? To be placed Inside the door.
  
  Jun 5, 2012
  1 like
- AlmostAristotle
  Inside the door wouldn't work, there simply isn't any clearance.
  Plus the mat, when it was outside, helped to reduce the angle my chair tipped forward when going outside.
  
  Jul 9, 2012
  1 like
absofabo

That is too bad, nice try council huh?

May 26, 2012
1 like
AutumnSwan

I put the peanut butter jars out for the squirrels clean for me. It's funny to watch and in 24 hours have every speck of peanut butter ******** from the jar.

My sink garbage disposal is nice, but doesn't like onion skins, cabbage and other very fibrous veggies; those go out on the compost pile. The disposal will only grind up meat products if they're cooked (a few second in the microwave cooks up the raw skin and fat). The bulk of our recycling however, if some junk mail. Each week we have about half a paper grocery bag filled with junk mail and catalogs.

Every two weeks, a massive size truck comes and empties the recycling bins, but I can't help but wonder how much gas that gas guzzling truck uses to collect trash to be recycled. It seems it's more "green" to buy less, and encourage companies to use less packaging.

May 10, 2012
2 likes
hillbillycrone

I don't have a dishwasher either ~~are we the last ones without this modern wonder? :-O I rather enjoy washing dishes. (but I wouldn't wash peanut butter jars out, I bet that took 20 minutes!) If you get a puppy....they like to lick them clean! :-) there is an idea.

May 9, 2012
1 like
SeaBuckthorn

I sympathise! We are asked to recycle cans, bottles, jars etc - and to rinse them out or "pop them in the dishwasher." We don't have a dishwasher and after washing out a peanut butter jar with copious amounts of detergent and hot water, I am left wondering how "green" all of this is.

May 9, 2012
3 likes
- AlmostAristotle
  I don't ave a dishwasher, or a mobile phone.
  I like washing up.
  
  Jul 10, 2012
  1 like

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