Earlier in the week I found a letter on Elly’s Doorstep… well I suppose it was half way through the letter box.
Junk Mail.
I am well used to it. It comes in many guises…
You have won… open the envelope to discover it is a fib, and it is a request to spend money on some rubbish.
The Occupier… usually a note telling that the power or water will be off for a few hours on a certain day for what ever reason.
The Householder…. Real junk mail selling exactly what you don’t want.
Letter addressed to my late husband….. Usually a platinum or gold credit card offer from some bank or other. I once returned one of these saying he would only accept if it was valid for the next world!
I stole the envelope from Elly’s junk mail since it was a new one on me:
Tonight I was in the hall and thought I saw something on the doorstep. I opened the door to find this:
At first glance I thought someone had left me a present of a puppy or kitten. Then I took a closer look.
It was a food caddy from our Local Council so that we can recycle food waste. The leaflet informs me that I may put any raw or cooked food in the caddy.
- Meat & fish – raw or cooked including bones.
- All dairy products – such as eggs and cheese.
- Raw & cooked vegetables and fruit.
- Bread cakes and pastries.
- Rice, pasta and beans.
- Uneaten food from your plates and dishes.
- Tea and coffee grounds
Included are two rolls of corn starch bags and a number to order more!
Do people not eat any more?
The levels of waste now are incredible. Gone are the days of ‘waste not, want not’.
I read an extraordinary statistic recently, that the amount of food thrown away each year by retailers in the US and UK combined would feed one billion people!
I know, Grannymar, it’s awful how much food is wasted, both by stores selling it and the private householder. Accepting it as a fact of modern life, until people actually wake up to the shocking implications, do be happy that YOUR council provides this service. Ours doesn’t.
I am an avid recycler (complete with compost heap and wormery – and no, not every single worm does have a name) but down here at the South Coast of England the council will only let us divide our garbage into three different bins, ie “glass/cardboard/plastic containers”, “garden and plant waste” and the rest goes into the general bin. If you want to take it further, to , rather more purist levels, say metal, wood, whatever, you are free to cart it to your local communal tip who will then recycle it. Some countries in mainland Europe have taken their private householder recycling to such sublime levels that – to the unitiated – it feels like needing a PhD to understand the system. Which you will have by the time you leave for England. – after a two week holiday.
I do not jest, and now you know all there is to know about me: I once took all my rubbish, accumulated at my sister’s place over a two week period, back to England. I remember approaching the border praying that customs wouldn’t check my trunck. I was in luck. And believe me, a woman on her own travelling with a child across Europe arouses suspicion if ever there was one. But that’s another story.
U
Grannymar, the pastor of that church must be hungry– tell the parishioners to pay the man! The “Men of the Cloth” have to live also! They have needs!
They are going to have a wonderful compost pile!!
Ian – I grew up post WW11. We did have rationing in Ireland then, but not to the same extent as in the UK. Relations in the country saw to it that we had chickens, geese, eggs and veg a plenty. Our large back garden had ten apple trees and goosegob bushes [that was where we came from 😉 ] and daddy grew potatoes and veg there too back then. He gave up after a few years, mores the pity.
We had the ‘waste not, want not’ mantra drummed into us, as well as ‘if you don’t eat it for your dinner, you will have it for your tea’!
Ursula – I am delighted with all the efforts made by my local Council. * i feel a post coming on*
Maynard _ Church? Who mentioned church? The envelope above was from a trade union; OK, I know some of them have churches but definitely not of the religious kind.
So, Grannymar, what day do you put this thing on your step for collection?
I’ll skip McDonalds and come to your place……..
Nick had a very interesting post http://nickhereandnow.blogspot.com/2009/10/leftovers.html where you had commented too. I had commented “I think that all cultures teach the young not to waste food. The parvenu however make a habit of wasting food to make a statement. I make it a point to be obnoxious whenever I come across this behaviour, and moralize. The only time when I am afraid, I tend to pontificate.”
Judy – The European Parliament has pushed local governments into doing something concrete about the waste/refuse problem. Councils can be fined if they fail to recycle the waste. See Ian’s comment above.
Nancy – Sharp at half past sunshine tomorrow… who said tomorrow never comes? Mind you I have few left overs, it would be peelings and well sucked bones! 😉
Ramana – I remember Nick’s post. I wonder if his Council are providing these food caddies. I was also fascinated by the corn starch bags as I had never heard of them before.
We have a three bin system picked up weekly. I recycle almost all the food scraps thru the chickens or the compost. Often there is not enough in the trash bin to put it out, which upsets the garbage man no end. Last week he came to the door to make sure we didn’t have trash for him. Job security I quess…
We have little green boxes for our Kitchen waste but no degradable bags…If we dare to use them the men refuse to empty the bin… we never put cooked food in…it all gets eaten.
My pocket handkerchief garden is too small to make compost efficiently…I once had a wormery but the worms died in the winter.
I hate our “Brown Bin” It is emptied on a fortnightly basis and tends to smell even tho’ we hardly put anything in it and the fruit flies drive me mad. been here before? OH yes, I tried adding some elder leaves and that seemed to cut the number down…..
Grannymar, my bad, I can’t read. I was putting my “Depends” on while reading your post. My wife has always said that I can only do one thing at a time!
I only recycle my cat. She comes into the house and then out, In and out.
Grannymar
You’ve opened a can of worms here…
or are you just talking a load of old rubbish? 😉
Steph I was going to get on my soap box then I read your post and laughed so much I chucked it on the compost heap 😉
Grannymar, after reading all of the comments , I decided that this is a “garbage” post! Keep up the good work!
There wouldn’t be much food waste in our household either, we plan our meals carefully and eat virtually everything. Belfast Council hasn’t given us a food caddy yet, and I haven’t heard of any plans to do so. It’s an excellent idea, at least all that wasted food would be put to a good use instead of ending up in landfill.
I still can’t get access directly to anything on Blogger, no idea what’s going on. But I managed to get access to Grannymar through Stat Counter!
They only recycle plastic #1 and 2 . paper. glass and tin in my area. It all goes in one big barrel and is picked up weekly.
If they started recycling food waste here they would find slim pickings at my house. I keep a careful eye on the contents of my fridge and if something is about to go bad I eat it first. ‘Waste not, want not’ was the mantra of all of us who were alive during the depression. I think it’s about to make a comeback.
We’re fortunate living on large blogs, the junk mail deliverers aren’t keen to stuff our mailboxes. I still get mail addressed to my dad though and he died six years ago! The compost thing is a great idea! We have a three bin system as well but with a hungry 23 year old male and a labrador in the house, there’s not much to throw away!
Brighid – We I need a diary to remind me of which bin is collected on which day or week. I could go for two months and not have a full bin.
Magpie – I was wondering about a wormery, but if the winter is to much for them in London…. they would never survive in Co Antrim.
Maynard – Rubbish, pure rubbish! 😆
Steph – Some say I always talk rubbish! 😉
Rhyleysgranny – You be careful on that soapbox, I would hate you to fall into the compost heap!
Nick I don’t understand your Blogger problem, I opened five different Blogger blogs and managed to leave a comment at your place. Did you try it from Jenny’s laptop?
Darlene – I am the same, with a freezer there is no need for waste.
Baino – I would not need a paper bin if my junk mail stopped.
Grannymar – I have access to Blogger now, there must have been a server problem. But I still have to reach Grannymar via Stat Counter!
How was your Halloween? We had two lots of extremely polite trick or treaters, luckily we had lots of mini choc bars ready for them….
Nick, I am glad you have the Blogger problem sorted. I am not sure why you are having trouble with mine. Do you use a feed reader?
Not a soul knocked at my door last evening… so I will have to eat the mini bars myself. I was expecting a toyboy (all of six years old) alas he was sick so I gave his share to his mum earlier in the day.
I don’t use a feed reader. I wouldn’t know how to.