Rubbish Reducing
These families have made the effort – could you?
Families were challenged to reduce the amount of rubbish they threw away each week – by re-using and recycling. An X-Box was awarded to the family that produced the lowest number of bin bags / person / week.
Each family kept a ‘Bin Bag Chart’ and wrote down what they were re-using and recycling each week. Take a look at what they got up to – there are some fantastic and unusual ideas. What would you do? How many bin bags leave your house each week?
Winners:
1st - The Osborne Family
2nd- The
Bedford Family
Runners up:
The Edgeworth Family
The James Family
The Bailey Family
The Stroud Family
The Thomas Family
The Osborne Family - 1st prize – X – Box
Evan Osborne age: 9‘I live in Hermon with my mum, dad and sister Alex, age eleven. We recycle glass, cans, plastic, paper, cardboard and we compost lots of organic waste. My dad even recycles his urine on the compost heaps! Since we have been doing all this recycling we have cut our weekly rubbish down to two small carrier bags. Now there is less waste going into Carmarthenshire landfills and most of our rubbish can be used again.’
1 Me and Dad and Alex with our weekly rubbish.
2 Dad pouring his urine on the compost.
3 Me, mum and alex with bottles, cans, plastic, paper and cardboard recycling.
4 Our bottles and cans.
The Bedford Family - 2nd Prize Wildlife photographer of the Year Book and £20 in Lush tokens
Vitoria Bedford 15.
‘I recycle because I want to do my bit to try and save our planet, our landfill sites are very full, if we don’t recycle now future generations will have to pay environmentally and financially.’
1- My sister Emma and me with our weekly rubbish. Just one tiny rubbish bag!
2- We use old sweet containers for holding dog and bird food, ice cream containers for storage and film cases for holding pins and sequins. We also use washing tablets bags for holding buttons. Our magazines go to family or my school for the people who are sent to sick bay.
3- I have a wormery where we place leftover food to make compost, 3 bags of paper/cans/cardboard, plastic containers/bottles for plants and glass which we take to the local bottle bank.
4- I have a brown bin for gardening waste and we re-use our carrier bags at the local supermarket.
The Edgeworth Family
Sean Edeworth 11
‘I recycle because this planet is important to me and by recycling I feel I am helping to make a difference. Although, it may not seem like much, if everyone recycles, tins, paper, glass, plastic and vegetable peelings, together we can all make a big difference!
Start recycling today to save our planet for future generations! You
CAN make a difference!’
1 Dad, sister Madeleine, Me, Mum, Brother Jason with our bin bag. One weeks rubbish!
2 Me with 2 weeks recycling – paper, glass, tin and plastic. Paper, glass and tin are collected from outside our house every two weeks. We take the plastic to a recycling point.
3 Me with a days waste for the compost heap.
4 Large stores have collections for xmas cards in January. I save all the birthday cards for the year and recycle those with the xmas cards.
The James Family
Adrian James
‘We have taken recycling to heart for a number of reasons. Space to dump rubbish in landfill sites is running out fast, so the less we have to dump the better. Reusing and recycling means less use of raw materials and so less impact on the environment generally from the manufacturing process. The children are both keen on nature and the environment and know from their schoolwork about the importance of conserving natural resources for the sake of people, animals and plants. It takes no time at all to separate out items that are suitable for re-use or recycling from the rest of the household rubbish and so, especially in areas where the Council collects the recycling bags from the doorstep, there is no excuse!’
1 I had to put in two pictures of the family with the week’s binbag – one of us had to take the picture! The family is Adrian, Carol, Carys (12) and Hywel (11). We usually have between half and three-quarters of one black bag to put out each week.
2 We recycle newspapers, magazines, comics, leaflets, junk mail and any other paper (scrap attempts at homework?!)
3 Glass bottles and jars, plastic bottles and containers, plastic wrappers and carrier bags that have been re-used to destruction also go in the recycling bag. Textiles also get recycled when we have enough to fill a bag.
4 Our compost bin takes vegetable peelings, over-ripe or rotting fruit and vegetables, egg shells, teabags and egg boxes as well as grass cuttings and leaves from the garden.
The Bailey Family
Christopher, Rosemary & Evan Bailey
‘Recycling is an easy and effective way to help look after our world : all the family can join in – and it costs nothing!’
1 Christopher, Rosemary and Evan with one week’s rubbish being put out for the bin lorry. Instead of bin bags we re-use carrier bags. By putting out only what we can’t easily recycle we have reduced the amount to 4 carrier bags a week!
2 We recycle glass, paper, plastic and now even card by taking it to the recycling bins by the village hall…….unless, of course, it is suitable for Evan to take in to the village school for use in junk modelling!
3 Woody garden waste is put in the brown bin that the council empty fortnightly. Some branches can be kept and re-used to support tall plants in the borders the next summer.
4 We have separate bin in the kitchen for fruit and vegetable waste to go on our compost heap. In 2003, it was so mild that discarded pips grew into plants that survived in the compost heap until October. We picked the green tomatoes and ‘recycled’ them into tasty chutney!
The Stroud Family
Charlotte Stroud (4) This is obviously written by Mummy.
‘Our world is suffering at our hands. It's the responsibility of every single one of us to consciously think about the products we consume, what we can do to maximise their use and minimise waste and to encourage others to do the same. Leaving it to someone else is not an option’
We are delighted that we have managed to reduce the binbag by about half its size (of course some weeks are worse than others!). This has been directly as a result of the competition, and we hope we can maintain this.
Here's Charlotte and I reusing some of the materials lying around the house. We're trying to make a Flamenco dancer! Her body is an old plastic water bottle. Also in the picture is a photo frame made out of cardboard and lentils.
Here's Gwyn and Charlotte at the local recycling point. We now regularly recycle glass, aluminium cans, newspapers (although we've been doing this for years), together with plastic bottles and recyclable packaging. Cardboard packages and garden waste are taken to the larger depot every few weeks.
This is Charlotte surrounded by recycled loo rolls. We are making an effort to use more recycled products around the house, obviously dependent on cost and quality.
The Thomas Family
Danielle Thomas (11).
‘I recycle because I want to help save the Earth from dying out and to stop the mountains from getting covered in rubbish. I think you should make the effort because with your help there will be less rubbish on the mountains and our planet will be much cleaner.
So come on and help save the Earth!’
Our rubbish each week
Mobile phones and batteries being recycled
Re-using gift cards for new labels
