zero waste week Archives - Eco Thrifty Living

Zero Waste Week – a beginners guide

Zoe — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 07:42:00 +0000

Zero Waste Week is an annual campaign which takes place in September every year. It aims to encourage people to reduce their waste. Zero waste is a great ambition and goal, but not yet a practical reality. That’s why we need campaigns like this to help us become more aware of the waste problem and to find solutions to it.

What is the problem with our waste?

In nature, there is no waste, as what isn’t useful to one creature will be useful to another. However we humans have created waste which can’t be used up naturally and causes imbalances in nature. Plus we are producing it in great quantities, at every stage along the production process of any item.

Our waste pollutes land, air and sea along the way to our homes. Then after disposal it continues to pollute. In landfill rubbish gives off methane a very potent greenhouse gas. When rubbish is incinerated it gives off CO2, which is another greenhouse gas. Watch the Story of Stuff video below, to find out more about the problems with waste

How can taking part in Zero Waste Week help to solve the waste problem in our homes?

Every year there is a different theme outlining positive actions that we can take to reduce waste in our homes.

Themes have included doing one more thing (2014) i.e. take one zero waste action, swapping disposables for reusables (2015) and keeping a food waste diary (2016) and tackling climate change (2019) .

I have taken part for years and have found that it totally changed my attitude towards my rubbish habit. We send a lot less to landfill these days. We are a family of 4 and we only need to put our bins out every few weeks.

Who founded Zero Waste Week?

Zero Waste Week was founded by Rachelle Strauss back in September 2008. She took on a challenge to send zero waste to landfill for a week and shared the challenge on a blog with her readers.

Her green journey started before that though. She was inspired to go green when she was pregnant and after being caught in a scary situation in flash floods with her daughter. To find out more read my interview with Rachelle here: Interview with Rachelle Strauss

When is zero waste week?

Zero waste week always takes place in the first full week of September. This year it runs from the 7th to 11th September 2020.

How can you take part?

Sign up to the campaign here: Zero Waste Week Sign up. Once you sign up, you will receive all the information you need to take part each year.
Join the Facebook Group: Zero Waste Week Heroes
Check out the Ambassador page to discover bloggers who write on Zero Waste related themes (spot me at the bottom!)

Is taking part in Zero Waste Week enough to solve our rubbish problem?

The waste we produce at our end, in our homes is significant. We need to cut out waste in every area and it does make sense to start with what we have control over. No-one else can do it for us!

That said, there are areas where it is difficult to reduce waste. Plus as I mentioned earlier that the rubbish problem starts well before a product reaches our homes, so changing our own habits enough?

The theory of boycotting wasteful products and seeking out ones that come with less waste, was that companies would change to meet demand. That is happening, companies are changing and new zero waste businesses are springing up all over the place. There are now hundreds of zero waste shops in the UK, stocking all kinds of locally and ethically made zero waste products!

Change has to start somewhere. Let’s start it in the areas we can control!

Find out about more eco awareness campaigns here: Environmental awareness days, weeks and months

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Are you ready to kick start your journey to less waste?

Zoe — Sat, 02 Sep 2017 20:14:04 +0000

September is often a time for new beginnings. There is that back to school (or work) feeling after the summer holidays are over. It’s a great time to set new goals and with zero waste week starting on Monday. Why not let it kick start you on a journey to less waste?

September is also a good time to start preparing for Christmas. Prints of my drawings are now in my Etsy shop. They are printed on bamboo paper and use recyclable packaging. They make a really great Christmas gift. Hint, hint, nudge, nudge

You can check out my shop here: Zoe’s Zen Art Etsy Shop. If you would like something customised feel free to get in touch with me here to discuss: zoeszart@gmail.com.

Last week in the Reduce your food waste Facebook group we prepared for zero waste week by keeping a food waste diary.

My food waste this week

The idea is to see if there are particular problem areas that needed dealing with. My food waste for the week included bananas and milk which I had tried to rescue by blending together. I then realised I had ruined the bananas because the milk was too far out of date and I wasn’t happy to use it.

One son managed to some spill oats and milk on the floor making his breakfast, my other son sneaked a potato skin into the compost when I wasn’t looking and I burnt a small amount of popcorn. Other than that, the things that went in the compost weren’t edible (or they were things I wouldn’t usually eat) e.g. avocado peel, banana peel and pepper innards, so we didn’t do too badly.

This week in the food waste group we are going to get as close to zero food waste as possible. Come and join us! I will be posting each day to see how everyone did. We can also share our food waste avoidance tips with each other.

You might not think keeping a food waste diary for one week would have much of an effect on you. However, I’ve found that keeping a food waste diary changed the way I thought about food in my kitchen. Now I hardly waste anything and we have saved ourselves so much money reducing our food waste!

Don’t forget to sign up to Zero Waste Week itself to get all the zchallenges and tips! Sign up here: Zero Waste Week

Good luck with reducing your waste – I hope it goes well!

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Are you up to the food waste diary challenge?

Zoe — Sat, 26 Aug 2017 07:09:22 +0000

Before I tell you about the challenge, I would really appreciate your help with my bamboo paper art prints that I am selling on Etsy. I am new to this and I have put together a quick survey on the prints and what I should be selling. The link to the survey is here: Zoe’s Zen Art Survey. Please take a few moments to complete it – filling it out will really make my day. Thank you so much! In case you missed my blog post about it last week – until l the end of September 2017 I will donate £2 to Zero Waste Week for every print sold. You can check out my Etsy store where I am selling them here: Zoe’s Zen Art Etsy Shop .

Food Waste Diary Challenge:

Zero Waste Week starts on 4th September this year and in preparation I’ve challenged the members of the Reduce Your Food Waste Facebook Group to keep a food waste diary next week. Each evening starting Monday and finishing Friday I will post in the group asking people to share what food has gone in the bin that day. The idea is to work out how much food is being thrown away in our homes and what it is. Then the week after, during zero waste week we will try and aim for a no food in the bin week.

It’s up to you to decide what counts as food waste. If you are regularly throwing food you would eat in the bin e.g. leftover pasta or bread, then just stick with recording the foods you would usually eat. If you are really good at using up the foods you would usually eat, then you could record everything including the foods you don’t usually eat e.g. fruit and vegetable peels and skins.

You can record your food waste diary however you like – you could write it down, take pictures of it or weigh it. Do whatever works for you. To join in with the food diary challenge, you can join the Facebook group here: Reduce your food waste Facebook group and to join in with Zero Waste Week, sign up here: Zero Waste Week. I look forward to seeing all your food waste diaries next week!

Pin it for later

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Art prints and raising money for #zerowasteweek

Zoe — Wed, 16 Aug 2017 09:48:00 +0000

If you have been following me on Facebook and Twitter, you might have noticed that I have started up a new project – Zoe’s Zen Art! You can buy my prints from my Esty shop here: Zoe’s Zen Art Etsy Shop

What does this have to do with being eco-friendly and saving money I hear you ask?

Well on the money side – it could be described as a side hustle and I have lots to say on the eco-side.

Firstly Zero Waste Week is coming up in September and for every print sold between now and the end of September 2017 I will donate £2 to Zero Waste Week. I have been an ambassador of Zero Waste Week for a few years now and it has massively inspired me. The lady who runs it – Rachelle Strauss has had an amazing impact on so many people and has been challenging us all to reduce our rubbish for years now. If you haven’t already signed up – do it now here: Zero Waste Week. Go on – you know you want to!

Secondly I have chosen eco-friendly and recycled materials where I can. The prints are printed on bamboo fine art paper which a more eco-friendly alternative to cotton, which fine art paper is often made from. Cotton is water and pesticide intensive to grow. The packaging that I send the prints out in is recycled and recyclable where possible.

My drawings are mostly abstract and when I make ‘mistakes’ I incorporate them into the picture where I can which helps to reduce waste as I don’t scrunch up the paper if the picture isn’t going quite the way I planned!

If you choose to buy a print you will be helping to support an independent artist and blogger as well as Zero Waste Week 2017.

Your support in buying these prints and helping to spread the word about them is really appreciated. Thank you!

Some of the pictures I have for sale (note – frame not included):

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Zero Waste Week Day 5!

Zoe — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 17:06:00 +0000

It’s the final day of Zero Waste Week today and so far so good!

There was a very wobbly moment this morning when it looked like my younger son wasn’t going to finish his breakfast, but then he asked for an apple and the rule in our house is that you have to finish what you are eating before eating something else. So he decided to finish his breakfast and eat an apple.

At lunch time I didn’t have time for a salad because I had a really busy day and I was getting ready for the Show Me the Money conference and awards tomorrow – buying train tickets and deciding what to wear. I’m still not sure yet – I was having one of those days looking in a wardrobe full of clothes and thinking I have nothing to wear! So instead of salad I had some marmite and cheese cracker sandwiches using up some of the free crackers I got via Olio with a little bit of veg on the side and nothing got left behind!

When I picked up the kids from school, one of the school mums was handing out beautiful baked breads, french sticks and rolls that were left over from a cafe or bakery (her husband has a cafe I think and it is either their bread or from a bakery or something nearby). We took a couple gladly and the kids munched on half each of one of them on their way home from school and this one below made it home!

For dinner I decided to make the kids food early – they had mashed potato / sweet potato with cheese and fruit for dessert. We are having dinner later – spring rolls, crispy duck and pancakes which we buy from a local specialist Chinese supermarket to have as an occasional treat. The potatoes needed using up as they are starting to go a bit soft and wrinkly and the duck has been in the freezer a while. So we are making do with what we have. I’m sorry but I’m not going to report back after our dinner as as I need an early night!

I want to say a massive thank you to Rachelle Strauss for all her hard work organising Zero Waste Week, her dedication and enthusiasm have been so inspirational to me and so many. I want to also thank her for starting up a great podcast series called ‘Be the change’. She is interviewing people who are making positive changes for the environment and you can listen in on her interview with me published today here Be The Change Radio – Zoe Morrison!

Zero Waste Week is going from strength to strength and it is a lot of fun to be a part of. If you missed out this year, don’t worry you can sign up to the newsletter and be on top of the game for next year! Also in the mean time you don’t have to wait for Zero Waste Week to start reducing your rubbish – take a look at the stuff you are throwing away and see if there are any easy changes you can make. You never know by next Zero Waste Week you might be volunteering to have a week without throwing anything away!

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Zero Waste Week 2016 Day 4!

Zoe — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 19:55:00 +0000

It’s day four of Zero Waste Week and I have to report some food went to waste today dun dun duh!

Breakfast was ok – we had the usual porridge and banana with the banana peels going in the compost.

A friend dropped off some eggs mid morning – I run a group where we take it in turns to go and buy organic free range eggs from a local farm in bulk. They are so much cheaper than the supermarket and it is great to support a local farm. However one had a crack in it and I wasn’t there when she brought them round – they had been left outside for a bit and I didn’t want to risk using it, so I chucked it on the compost heap. I didn’t remember to take a photo – so here is one of the missing egg.

At lunch time I had the most amazing salad. It was my first ever entirely home grown/ foraged salad substantial enough to eat without supplementing with other bits – thanks to Mr ETL for growing a lot of it! It was bitter and sweet with loads of incredibly tasty ingredients including, rocket, sweet woodruff, lemon balm, a extremely over ripe tomato which was very sweet, cucumber, onion, courgette, plum, blackberries and grated frozen horseradish. I also added some of the blackberries which we foraged for yesterday. If you have never grown tomatoes or courgettes and you like them, you have to try it – they are the tastiest ones you will ever eat! Unfortunately I got a bit distracted towards the end of my salad and some bits ended up not getting eaten and put on the compost heap…

Rocket with the plums, blackberries and tomatoes

The rest of the salad ingredients added

What was left at the end – including a tomato stalk.

That was only a tiny bit of salad though, my worst offence today was related to plums. When I was picking a couple for my lunch I noticed some rotting on the tree and some not looking so good on the ground as well – quite a lot of them! I’ve been leaving them on the tree to pick as and when, but I think now might be the time to pick the rest of them and put them in the fridge.

For dinner we had tuna pasta/ cauliflower rice. I used up the ends of various different packets of pasta and added some ground up mustard seeds to the tuna, which I noticed in my spice cupboard when I was having a clear out of it. I used half a cauliflower which I steamed over the pasta to save energy. I put the whole thing in the steamer including the leaves and the stem and when it was cooked I added some saffron, which smelled nice and tasted nice too (although it was a very mild flavour). The kids had some yoghurt with chopped up kiwi and plum for dessert and my older son had a satsuma – more peel in the compost…..

About to steam the cauliflower over the pasta!

Cauliflower saffron rice with cauliflower leaves and stalk!

My older sons ‘leftovers’ from dinner – some kiwi peel and a bit of satsuma

I’m noticing a trend of not using up my fruit / veg peelings, but I don’t want to make stock as it takes hours and then you have to use it or freeze it and that could take up a lot of space in the fridge or freezer! I know that you can polish shoes with banana peel, but there is only so much shoe polishing I want to spend time doing (i.e. none), so I’m all out of ideas for how to use up peel…Anyone have any great ideas out there that don’t take up much time, space or energy?

Hope you all had a great 4th day of zero waste week and that tomorrow there will be less food waste in my house for the grand finale of ZWW 2016!

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Zero Waste Week 2016 Day 3

Zoe — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 19:35:00 +0000

It’s day 3 of zero waste week 2016, the theme being food waste this year!

Last night I got invited to host #MondayMoneyUK by Andy from @UKMoneybloggers on Twitter. It was the busiest hour on Twitter I’ve ever experienced, but it was fun – thanks to Andy for organising it! I asked 5 questions along a zero waste week theme and lots of great tips were shared! Check out a round up of what went on here #MondayMoneyUK – Zero Waste Week Twitter chat

Today I was feeling pretty chuffed with how much progress we have made when it comes to reducing our food waste compared to last time we did a food waste diary and we again had very minimal food in the compost heap! In fact the only food that went in the compost was some banana peel, the end of a carrot, the bottom of a cucumber, a bit of tomato that wasn’t so nice (looks alright on the side I took a pic of, but it wasn’t on the other side), some fish bits and bones and some potato peel (yes I know I could have used it for something, any suggestions?).

For breakfast we had porridge and banana – no waste except the banana peel.

For lunch I made myself a salad using up rocket, tomatoes and some of the massive courgette from our garden as well as other veg from the fridge.

Food waste from lunch

I also made some rolls for the kids, some of which I added cheese on top! I’ve never made cheesy rolls before, but they turned out ok luckily. I froze the ones that didn’t get eaten so that they won’t go off before they can get used!

We went out blackberry picking in the afternoon and came back with these beauties, well actually they weren’t the best I’ve ever seen, but I’m not complaining about having some free food!

We also came back with this beautiful passion flower which we found overhanging from someone’s garden into an alleyway. The kids decided to put it in a flower press, so we managed to avoid wasting it phew

We had some delicious apple juice lollies when we got back from blackberry picking. We got given the apple juice from my uncle and his girlfriend who we visited when we were over in Brittany recently – thanks guys! They have loads of apple trees and each year they juice the apples to drink all year round!

For dinner we had some mackeral which had been in the freezer for a while and I had forgotten about, some chopped up potatoes and sweet potatoes and some peas. I also had some more of the massive courgette, which tasted absolutely amazing steamed with the fish! As I said before I did put the potato peel and fish bones and bits the kids didn’t like in the compost at the end of the meal.

For dessert we had banana icecream (frozen blended over ripe banana) – some mixed with cocoa, some mixed with blackberries and some plain. I also added some frozen milk to the mix! I froze the milk when we went away and couldn’t use it all up and the bananas got frozen because they were a bit too ripe to eat! Strangely there wasn’t even a tiny bit of this left…

Following on from yesterday I found out that plum pit nuts are not edible so don’t try them and that chopping off a bit of cinammon stick and putting it in hot water makes a really delicious tea! I’m going to put the rest of my cinammon sticks and my licorice root in my tea cupboard now!

Hope you are all enjoying zero waste week – how is it going for you?

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Zero Waste Week 2016 Day 2

Zoe — Tue, 06 Sep 2016 18:43:00 +0000

Trying to keep the kids entertained this morning we cycled to our nearest recycling point to do some textile and shoes recycling!

Hardly any food has gone to waste in our house today – woohoo!

For breakfast we had soaked oats and bananas and the banana peels got composted. I know there is stuff you can do with them, but there wasn’t anything I actually wanted to do with them!

At lunch time I tried to get my kids to eat the leftover slice of pizza from yesterday (read more here: Zero Waste Week 2016 Day 1), but I only remembered after having made them two sandwiches each and after nibble they decided they couldn’t eat any more, so it went in the compost. I nearly chucked some carrot peelings in the compost, but then recovered myself by putting them on my salad instead. Not sure why I peeled them really! I had some extremely ripe nectarines and tomatoes in the fridge, that had been left there for over a week (I forgot about them when I wrote my blog post yesterday) which also went on my salad and were so incredibly sweet! A bit of the tomato that didn’t look so good went in the compost along with a bit of courgette peel from a rather large courgette that we have grown in our garden! I later realised the peel tastes really nice and didn’t compost it after that!

Food waste from lunch

Massive home grown courgette and odd socks

I made curry for dinner and used up some sausages from the freezer (no I am not a vegan or a vegetarian, but I did manage to make 4 sausages look like a lot of meat by chopping them up into small pieces). I also chopped up some cauliflower leaves and stir fried them with the sausages and some homegrown veg before adding the curry sauce, which was half a jar left over from a previous curry over a week ago!

Cauliflower leaves being chopped for the curry

I did burn the rice a bit because my kids got into an argument at a crucial time, but luckily my husband felt it added flavour! A little bit of the rice- the worst of it – did go into the compost though.

For dessert we had some rescue plums i.e. the ones that had already fallen off our plum tree – don’t worry I washed them thoroughly with some bicarbonate of soda!

There was nothing to scrape off any of the plates at breakfast, lunch and dinner because everyone ate everything and then some (apart from the cold pizza slice)!

I had a bit of a look through my herb and spice cupboard to see if anything needed using up and I have a lot of herbs and spices that I rarely use, but there were some that I never use and if you have any recipe suggestions for what to do with these herbs and spices please let me know – I need your help!

I also have a question about plum nuts (the nut inside the pits) – are they edible? Anyone know?

That was it for our Zero Waste Week day 2! How is it going for you?

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Zero Waste Week 2016 Day 1

Zoe — Mon, 05 Sep 2016 20:51:00 +0000

I pledged I would do a use it up meal plan and keep a food waste diary during zero waste week. I kickstarted the week with a use it up pizza! I made some pizza dough and covered the bases with some pesto that had been lingering in my fridge for a few weeks. I also added some chicken that had been left over from a roast that I had shredded and frozen. There was one piece of pizza left over which I have put in the fridge for the kids to eat cold tomorrow!

I don’t really have a whole load of food to run down, especially not fresh food as I’ve been away a lot these holidays so the fridge has been pretty bare. I’m going to have a look at some of my dried foods though tomorrow e.g. herbs, spices, flour and things like that to see what if anything needs using up.

I did find some food waste today having a root around in the fridge – some slimy plums and some mustard that was a couple of years past it’s best before date and didn’t smell quite right – mustard should last a long time, but I’m not prepared to take any risks! There wasn’t any other waste all day though – I think my kids are going through a growth spurt as they are eating everything on their plates and then wanting more! We got the mustard in a French supermarket a few years ago because I loved the fact the container was a cup! Would have been better if I had actually made good use of the mustard though

I’m hoping there won’t be any food waste tomorrow, but let’s see! How is your zero waste week going? What have you pledged and have you had any food waste? If you haven’t signed up yet sign up here to Zero Waste Week and watch out for my next food waste avoidance blog post tomorrow!

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Zero Waste Week 2016

Zoe — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 06:59:00 +0000

It’s nearly time for Zero Waste Week 2016 which this year runs from the 5th September to the 9th! The theme for 2016 is all about food and not wasting it! The idea is that you sign up, make a pledge and join in!

I rather enthusiastically pledged back in May that I would do a use it up meal plan and keep a food waste diary during zero waste week. I think I am pretty good at not wasting food ever since I did my first food waste diary inspired by Zero Waste Week back in August 2013, but I’m not keeping a close eye on it, so will be intrigued to see how much food is being wasted or not as the case may be!

I really recommend joining in with this one – the average family stands to save themselves around £700 a year if you aren’t of top of the food waste situation yet and even if you are there is always room for improvement! It’s good for the environment too as food can give off methane in landfill and it is fun! I discovered some of my favourite recipes while saving food from being wasted, like raspberry avocado sorbet – so delicious (honestly)!

I will be blogging throughout the week and I would love to hear your pledges and what you are getting up to! Plus if you have any food waste related questions feel free to ask – I can’t promise that I can answer, but I can have a try! Good luck everyone and hope you have a great zero waste week!

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