To achieve Zero Waste, we MUST keep focusing on the target

The future of waste is something that's been on my mind lately, not least because tomorrow I will be attending my first board of trustees meeting of the Zero Waste Alliance UK.  I've also got several exciting projects coming up over the next few weeks, which will highlight how our culture is changing.My mind goes back to 2008, when I volunteered to take part in my first Zero Waste Week challenge. Despite my enthusiasm, I thought I must have had a screw loose for trying it.  I worried that people would think I was a weirdo and as for the reducing waste so drastically, I didn't think it...

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My very first relationship with.... COMPOST!

As we're slap bang in the middle of Compost Awareness Week (6-12 May), I thought I'd delve into the archives of my memory cells and rustle up a few notes on my long standing relationship with compost.For me, composting has been a normal part of life since my childhood in the Seventies. I have early memories of accompanying my grandmother on the trek from her kitchen to the compost heap, which was located in the chicken run.Well it felt like a trek.  I was just five years old, and it was a large garden.My sister and I spent a lot of time at my grandparents' home and as we grew up, one of our...

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Swish, shwop, swap or drop, or make do and mend?

With a solid infrastructure of car boot sales, clothing agencies, charity shops, recycling points, give & take days, passing onto friends or a night out swishing, there are many solutions to getting rid of unwanted clothes today.  You'd think our society would have this thing sorted wouldn't you?Wrong!According to TRAID (Textile Recycling for Aid & International Development), over 1.4 million tonnes of clothing still end up landfill each year, much of which could be worn again.Now this makes me bloody angry!When you consider all of the labour, the resources, the energy and the effort...

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