I am becoming a bit disillusioned about some peoples views on the benefits of and commitment towards recycling following some recent press and media reports on the lack of market for recycled produce, i.e. stacks of paper being stockpiling in warehouses around the country.

However, people are beginning to think “what is the point of sorting my waste if it is just being stockpiled”. Well I will tell you the point, if it was not sorted then those large piles of paper, etc that you are seeing will end up in landfill and wasted, this is not what we want. I would encourage you all to keep recycling and to put pressure on your local authorities to continue recycling schemes which they may currently feel is uneconomical in financial terms, but as we all know it is not just money that matters in the world today.

What I would suggest in the meantime is a bit more micro household recycling and reuse. Just simple little things. Reuse plastic bottles rather than buying yet another bottle of water, use both sides of paper when printing, put waste paper in your compost bin, use shredded paper as pet bedding, and so on. This is much more efficient and productive than sending it to the local authority in the present economic climate. You may even see an improvement to your own ‘bottom line’ as a result!!!

As someone who has ’sufferred’ from buying/receiving Primark clothing it comes as no suprise to read the latest news this week, that poor quality clothing is leading to an increase in textile produce ending up in landfill: Throwaway Fashion

Perhaps I am in the fortunate position of being able to afford better quality/longer lasting clothing and I do acknowledge that certainly in this economic climate others may not be so fortunate.  However continuation of the buy it cheap, time and time again is not sustainable -either environmentally or economically.  Again I can say I am fortunate in that I am a man and less inclined to follow fashion or need so many different outfits!

These cheap man made products after a few washes/wears begin to deteriorate and people are less inclined to send them to the charity shop or hand them on (i.e. reuse), they are therefore sent to lanfill.  30% of waste being textiles is really quite unaccepatble to me from an environmental and ethical perspective (I’ll not get into that just yet as that is a whole other story)

I would therefore encourage everybody to:

• try where possible to buy longer lasting/better quality clothing and buy less!  Production of clothing is an environmentally/energy intensive process.
• wash clothes without using harmful chemicals (try soapnuts http://yourenviro.com/2008/11/soap-nuts-environment/)
• Reuse old torn clothing as dusters, rags to clean with.
• Send old clothes to charity organisations to send to developing nations - do not worry they will not mind about the lower quality.
• And please please do not send it for landfill.

As I have just finsihed my daily yogurt I have come to the conclusion that this must stop - I am just creating far too many pots. Up until now I have found several avenues for reuse - starting seedlings, storage pots, etc. However I no longer have any other uses for them. The local authority, as is the case with many, do not take them for recycling as they are commonly made out of polystyrene and not eligible for plastic recycling.

So I am looking for a little help here - does anyone have any other usage suggestions for them? I am thinking they could possibly be used for some artwork but not sure what yet.

In the meantime I am going to have to revert to buying bigger pots and splitting them for each day to cut down on landfill waste.