Tips for Zero Waste Week
Didn’t summer just begin? In fact, there’s no point reminiscing because creeping in ever so slowly over the horizon is September. The final 1/3 of 2017!
September brings with it many changes – the new school year, that slight change in the weather as it gets darker earlier and one of our favourites – Zero Waste Week!
From the 4th – 10th September, we’ll be looking forward to helping promote Zero Waste Week. Now in its ninth year, the aim of Zero Waste Week is to raise awareness of the impact our rubbish has on the environment and empower everyone to reduce their waste. All you need to do to take part is to start by asking yourself one question – What can I do to reduce the amount of stuff I throw in the bin?
In England alone we generate about 177 million tonnes of waste every year and on average, each person in the UK throws away their own body weight in rubbish every seven weeks. Looking at what is thrown away and how much there is can be truly amazing or really frightening but it’s really easy to start reducing your waste. Here are 3 simple things you can do to start reducing your waste at home…
1. Show some love to wonky fruit & veg!
In our opinion, there is no such thing as ‘ugly fruit & vegetables’ – just produce that hasn’t been eaten yet! The idea that misshapen fruit and veg should not be bought or eaten is being continually 
challenged with awareness growing all the time. There is nothing wrong with buying perfect looking produce at your local market or supermarket but for this week, why not look at how you can help prevent misshapen or ugly produce from ending up in the bin. Pledge to –
- Sign up to support an organisation such as the ‘Ugly Fruit & Veg Campaign‘ that promotes raising awareness of the fact that fruit or veg doesn’t need to be perfectly shaped to be enjoyed.
- Buy a box of wonky veg from your local market or supermarket. Most major supermarkets have started or pledged to start selling imperfect produce in order to reduce how much of it ends up being thrown away.
2. Food waste? What food waste?
Pledge to make this the week where no food at home gets thrown away. All it takes is a little planning and imagination to use up what you have instead of going out to buy more groceries that week. You could –
- Find recipes online to use up any produce that looks past its best. Love Food Hate Waste has lots of recipes online so if you need to use up that bag of potatoes that is in danger of going rotten in the cupboard. Check out this simple recipe for Loaded Potato Wedges on the Love Food Hate Waste site.
- Invite some friends over for a pot luck dinner. Ask everyone you invite over to bring a dish or something that they need to use up before it goes off and have a dinner party.
3. Ditch the disposables!
Let’s face it, babies are expensive! Keeping them in nappies is a large part of that cost but for this Zero Waste Week, you could try switching to reusable nappies instead! Our West London nappy trial pack gives parents the chance to trial a full set of different reusable nappies and accessories so you can see which one works best for you. Up until your little prince or princess is potty trained, you could be looking at binning about 1 tonne of disposable nappy waste!
Using reusable nappies could not only save you from filling your bin too quickly but your wallet could also be thanking you – not to mention the environment! If you would like to try out our kits and you’re a resident of Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hounslow, Hillingdon or Richmond, check out www.westlondonnappies.com to loan out one of our kits for free.
Anything else?
These are just the tip of the waste-reducing iceberg and there are lots more things you can do to use your ‘rubbish’ as a resource and make this the best Zero Waste Week yet! Here are some other suggestions that you could also consider doing that week…
- Using reusable shopping bags
- Make a shopping list to avoid buying food you don’t need and won’t get round to eating in time
- Making full use of your kerbside collections- including food waste collection and recycling all the materials you can
- Switching to paperless billing – some companies will even offer you a discount
- Stop buying any veg or fruit packaged in plastic
- Using reusable rather than disposable items like cloths instead of kitchen towel or refillable water bottles
- Mending your clothes instead of binning them, not sure how? Then check out these easy to follow guides from Love Your Clothes
- Donate or list for free on line (Freecycle or Freegle) furniture you no longer want
- Re-vamp a piece of furniture instead of throwing it out – get inspired
- Sort out some clothes you no longer wear and bring them to a Swish to get yourself a new outfit you’ll love
Check the Zero Waste Week blog for inspiration and suggestions on how to reduce your own waste. You can sign up for the Zero Waste Week newsletter too.
Once you’ve made your decision don’t forget to make a pledge and share it with us on Facebook or Twitter.
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