What else can i do to reduce my waste?

Enii

I compost veg. waste and grass cuttings.

I recycle glass and plastic at my local bring bank.

I recycle paper, cardboard, tetra pak and tin in my green bin.

Still I have to put my bin out every 5 weeks or so (there is 2 of us in house).

Any ideas how I can further reduce my waste going in the standard bin?

Greenman

Enii wrote:

I compost veg. waste and grass cuttings.

I recycle glass and plastic at my local bring bank.

I recycle paper, cardboard, tetra pak and tin in my green bin.

Still I have to put my bin out every 5 weeks or so (there is 2 of us in house).

Any ideas how I can further reduce my waste going in the standard bin?

So whats left for your bin???

BTW I think you are doing very well!!!

xonencentral

Make briquttes from the paper and burn them in your fire/solid fuel stove for hot water, etc.

Carbon Neutral....

saibhne

Yep what else is left in your bin? I do the same as you mention and what I'm left with mostly is plastic packaging. The only way I know how to eliminate that is not to buy it in the first place - quite a hard thing to do in this day and age. Mostly anything else can be recycled if you want to put the effort in...
if you're in Dublin try dublinwaste.ie they have a good resource for finding the nearest centre that will recycle items other than the norm.

Enii

Yeah it is mainly plastic packaging left in my bin or leftover food stuffs. I think I will have to llok at what I am buying and try to reduce my waste at that point. Thanks for all the answers tho.

Greenman

Enii wrote:

Yeah it is mainly plastic packaging left in my bin or leftover food stuffs. I think I will have to llok at what I am buying and try to reduce my waste at that point. Thanks for all the answers tho.

It seems in Ireland they are rather fussy on the different plastics that can be recycled, I've been sorting things over 8 years now and I mix all the plastics together here (Belgium) and never heard a thing about it!!!
Its the white stirafoam that won't recycle except the wife uses it on the inside bottom of plant pots to pack them out.

Recycling was mentioned today and yesterday on the Con Murphy show RTE Radio 1 9-10am.

CJhaughey

Why don't you get a green cone and compost all the food and vegetable waste this should save a lot of space.

Enii

How much does the green cone cost? And does it turn food waste into compost?

I already have a compost bin for my vegetable waste.

CJhaughey

You can compost anything in a compost bin, but food waste is discouraged because the process of decomposition is much slower as the weather gets colder , green cones have an insulated body and break food down much faster.
I am not sure how much they cost. but I have heard that they are very good.

Superman

CJhaughey wrote:

You can compost anything in a compost bin, but food waste is discouraged....

Yeah it's also cause rats can nest in it if theres fresh food sitting about, or so i was told.

Fair play for all that recycling.
I thought a good idea would be to somehow heat the plastic waste so it shrinks and you can put stuff out less often

alternatively call Diarmud Gavan and ask him what to do!

CJhaughey

Superman wrote:

I thought a good idea would be to somehow heat the plastic waste so it shrinks and you can put stuff out less often

You mean burning?

MorningStar

I do the same amount of recycling and kind of wonder what else I can do. The biggest thing is be more fuel effcient. Things like switching off the TV rather than leave it on standby etc... Saving water even though we aren't charged is a good thing too apparently. Instead of just letting you rainwater go down the drain use it for thinks like toilets or outside cleaning etc.
Not saying I do it but I might get some of it into my life as much as possible.

Keeks

CJhaughey wrote:

I am not sure how much they cost. but I have heard that they are very good.

€165. See http://www.greencone.ie/ for details

saibhne

I've had a green cone for the past 2 years - totally reccommend it. I use it in conjunction with a normal compost bin -mostly kitchen waste (including meat) in the green cone and garden waste in the compost bin.
The green cone works in conjunction with an organic catalyst you sprinkle on the waste, they call it an accelerator as it speeds up the decomposition process. The end result is some kind of compost material - not sure how effective it is as I haven't had the need to empty the cone till now, 2 years on - (although, I would say that I am a fairly light user)
I bought it in the Ecoshop just past Bray for around the 165 Euro mark - http://www.ecoshop.ie

Enii

MorningStar wrote:

I do the same amount of recycling and kind of wonder what else I can do. The biggest thing is be more fuel effcient. Things like switching off the TV rather than leave it on standby etc... Saving water even though we aren't charged is a good thing too apparently. Instead of just letting you rainwater go down the drain use it for thinks like toilets or outside cleaning etc.
Not saying I do it but I might get some of it into my life as much as possible.

I also try to be as energy efficient as poss. Turn off lights when not in the room, turn down the heat a degree or two.

What really bugs me is my husband fills the kettle up full when he is making one cup of tea for himself. It's so pointless.......and it takes ages to boil!

Gandhi

Have you thought about buying food with less packaging on it? I tend to stay away from the highly packaged processed foods, pre-made frozen meals, cans etc. and buy mainly fresh fruit and vegetables. It certainly cuts down on the plastics.

You are doing great if you only have to put out your bin every five weeks, though.

bonkey

Enii wrote:

Yeah it is mainly plastic packaging left in my bin or leftover food stuffs. I think I will have to llok at what I am buying and try to reduce my waste at that point. Thanks for all the answers tho.

Also try to cut down on the amount of food you're cooking, if you're producing anything like a consistent amount of leftovers.

I know this sounds silly, but you'd be amazed how many people often cook enough of at least one part of the meal to feed an additional person. The rational is usually "in case someone is really hungry", but if you're throwing out 6 "hungry" portions in a week or something....you can try and change your cooking habits. It mightn't work. It mightn't be applicable. I know that my girlfriend always used to do too much starch (potato/pasta/rice) where I would always do too much veg. We now cut down, or cook a bit more of everything so one of us can take leftovers for lunch. As a result, almost the only food-waste we have is from preparation.

Just a thought.

jc

WILKEL

I have been using the green cone since mid may this year and found it great throught the summer but towards the end of August it got infested with fruit flies so much so that i could not use it any more as thousands were escaping each time I opened it and the amount of flies inside the house increased also.
Anybody have any ideas on how to prevent this for next year ? (I have stopped using it for the moment):)
bye the way I bought mine (subsidised) of Mayo Co. Council for €40.00.:)

CJhaughey

I may be wrong but what you have Wilkel is a Compost bin, not a Greencone(tm).
The Greencone has an insulated structure that allows the waste to break down very quickly, and while your bin is conical in shape and green in colour it is probably not a greencone.

Enii

bonkey wrote:

Also try to cut down on the amount of food you're cooking, if you're producing anything like a consistent amount of leftovers.

I know this sounds silly, but you'd be amazed how many people often cook enough of at least one part of the meal to feed an additional person. The rational is usually "in case someone is really hungry", but if you're throwing out 6 "hungry" portions in a week or something....you can try and change your cooking habits. It mightn't work. It mightn't be applicable. I know that my girlfriend always used to do too much starch (potato/pasta/rice) where I would always do too much veg. We now cut down, or cook a bit more of everything so one of us can take leftovers for lunch. As a result, almost the only food-waste we have is from preparation.

Just a thought.

jc

Thanks for reply with the above. Actually that is one thing we never do. Basically we seem to have got the hang of cooking the right amt. of food - and any scraps we have left over goes to the dog.

WILKEL

CJhaughey wrote:

I may be wrong but what you have Wilkel is a Compost bin, not a Greencone(tm).
The Greencone has an insulated structure that allows the waste to break down very quickly, and while your bin is conical in shape and green in colour it is probably not a greencone.

Thanks for that CJ - But it is actually a green cone - not a compost bin - it came with full greencone instructions.
Mayo County Council had a few left at the end of the summer - the last time that I know that some one got one there.

saibhne

WILKEL wrote:

I have been using the green cone since mid may this year and found it great throught the summer but towards the end of August it got infested with fruit flies so much so that i could not use it any more as thousands were escaping each time I opened it and the amount of flies inside the house increased also.
Anybody have any ideas on how to prevent this for next year ? (I have stopped using it for the moment):)
bye the way I bought mine (subsidised) of Mayo Co. Council for €40.00.:)

The same thing happened to me, the simple answer was to leave the top open (the top is a safety precaution and not integral to the operation of the composter). Now the flies can fly in and out when they want but don't build up inside - worked a treat.

Keeks

An other way to get rid of some waste food is to add Bird tables and baskets. Small birds will take care of any small uncooked foods and breads. larger birds will take care of the larger foods such a potato skins. Just make sure you place your tables so that they won't attract rats. And clean them often.

As for flies inthe compost/greencone bins, this in inevitable. There are serveral solutions to this without haveing to leave the top open.

Add a fly killer block tothe top is the most effective.

Also if you leave a layer of newpaper of cardboard at the top, this will prevent the flies laying eggs in the food waste.

Another solution I've heard is to microwave or freeze the foos waste before putting in the bins. the idea behind this is to kill the fly eggs that may have been in the food waste before hand.

Cabaal

Keeks wrote:

€165. See http://www.greencone.ie/ for details

Great stuff, I've been looking into something to replace the brown bin I use except all the compost bins I looked at are not supposed to be used with meet, the greencone solves my problem

WILKEL wrote:

bye the way I bought mine (subsidised) of Mayo Co. Council for €40.00.:)

How did you go about this?
I'm supplied with a brown bin but I'd much rather take care of the waste myself in my garden.

Also I'd like to look into getting a greencone for my parents as their trying to improve on reclycing