Recycled (W)reath

I realise it should have been gracing our front door at least a week ago but everything's late here this year, and besides I didn't have enough of the right kind of waste. So it wasn't until this morning that I hung up our recycled wreath. Inspired by the photo I used to illustrate this month's Carnival of Trash, I created my own version. The basic structure was provided by a (willow?) ring I bought half price from The Guild on Monday. I wrapped it in plastic netting from the satsumas and chocolate coins I bought for our stockings. The sweetie papers came from a friend's Christmas drinks party. The bows were from our crackers. I'm rather pleased with the result and we can keep adding to it over the next 10 days.

Presenting The Carnival of Trash!

Welcome to the December edition of The Carnival of Trash. It's the first time I have hosted it, or any other carnival for that matter, and I have enjoyed reading through the excellent range of submissions. Special thanks to those who managed to submit posts with a Christmas theme!

To kick off , Gemma presents Environment posted at VideoJug: Life Explained. On Film - a collection of videos to inspire us to take greater care of our planet.

Recycling

Jim presents Recycling Earns Money For Your County on Blueprint for Financial Prosperity and The Five Reasons Why I Recycle posted at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity, illustrating how recycling makes sense for individuals and local authorities alike.

Cindy offers two pattern using plarn (plarn? - check it out!). Firstly a Yellow Barbie Plarn Dress "Who says Barbie can't be green? Check out the cool recycled yellow dress crocheted from plastic bags. I offer the free crochet pattern and other details so everyone can enjoy this eco-friendly craft project." Followed by Crochet a Spike Stitch Plarn Tote Bag "I've been busy again recycling old plastic bags into plarn. I then crocheted this handy, reusable tote bag. Here is the free crochet pattern for anyone who'd like to make this bag.". Both patterns can be found at My Recycled Bags.com.

Aahz presents Save Money (and the Planet) While Remodeling Your Home posted at Aahz Reviews Gilroy, saying, "Yes, Virginia, you can recycle your house ;)" I wish I'd read this before we had work done on our house this autumn.

Heather Levin presents 5 Surprising Things You Can Recycle posted at The Greenest Dollar and promises more to follow!

Reducing Waste

Almost Mrs Average presents An early Christmas present: A zero waste lifestyle in a nutshell posted at The Rubbish Diet, saying, "Get ready for the new year." Mrs Average is an inspiration to Zero Wasters and I look forward to reading her book when it is published in July 2009.

Mrs Green presents zero waste advent calendars posted at MY ZERO WASTE, saying, "Delicious ideas for zero waste advent calendars. Come and read our suggestions then share your own!" If you didn't catch this post in time for this year then be sure to make a mental note for next year.

Recycle Raccoon presents It's a Wrap , saying, "Now that you have got the goods, make sure to wrap your presents in creative ways that are easy on you, your wallet, and the environment" and All I want for Christmas saying, "Here is a hurdle for holidays with creating less trash: purchasing presents. Here are some ideas for waste-less gifts for the holiday season." It's almost impossible to get through the festive season without producing more than your usual amount of waste so Recycle Raccoons tips are very welcome. Both are posted at Easy Going Green.

Reusing

Condo Blues presents Turn Rice Bags into Shopping Tote Bags posted at Condo Blues, saying, "Instead of chucking this empty small useless rice bags into the bin, I made them into bigger useful shopping tote bags." Who needs to splash out on trendy reusable bags when you can make them yourself?

Finally, to view my family's first attempts to produce Christmas cards made from recycled paper, last year's cards and chocolate wrappers click here.

Well that's all folks. Mrs Average will host the next Carnival of Trash on The Rubbish Diet on 7 January 2009 and is looking for everyone's waste busting new year resolutions. Deadline for submissions is 5 January 2009.


Submit your blog article the carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on the blog carnival index page.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Christmas Cards

We've had workmen in and around our house for ages. Actually it's only been since the end of September, but it feels much longer. As a result I have not been as zero waste as I would have liked to have been in the run up to Christmas. I did, however, manage to make some recycled cards.

The recycled coloured cards and matching envelopes came from Eco-Craft. The pictures were from old Christmas cards and the gold paper is the inner wrapping from Divine chocolate bars. Eating the contents was, of course, the hardest part! I spent a pleasant afternoon composing and sticking designs and hope that they are well received. I was even joined by my daughters whose masterpieces (right) put mine to shame. Although, they only made one each to my dozen!

Roll Up Roll Up for the Carnival of Trash!

There are 10 days to go before the Christmas edition of the Carnival of Trash. So rummage through your posts, pick out one linking Christmas and waste and submit it here.

And tell your friends.

I'm hoping for a bumper edition.

And if none of this makes any sense please refer to my earlier post.

Ho Ho Ho for the Carnival of Trash

The lovely Almost Mrs Average has very generously asked me to host the next Carnival of Trash on Monday 15 December.

For those of you who have no idea what a carnival is (I didn't until very recently), it's a blog post which brings together a selection of posts on a particular subject. In other words, a blog magazine. If you're still confused you could take a look at one or more of the last three carnivals here and here and here.

This next edition will be a special Christmas one so please ensure that your submissions have a Christmas theme. The festive season is a veritable minefield for zero waste campaigners so if you have any thoughts, strategies or tips to help us pick our way safely through this year please feel free to share them with us.

As ever the categories are Composting, Recycling, Reducing Waste, Rethinking, Reducing and Zero Waste. Submit your entries here.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Recycling Crisis

I read an article in today's Observer which claims that sites are desperately being sought to house the UK's unwanted mountain of recyclable rubbish. The financial crisis has led to a drop in demand for recycled raw materials. Thousands of tonnes of paper, plastic and steel are piling up and local authorities have requested government permission to store them on Ministry of Defence land until the market returns.

The danger is, of course, that this will discourage people from recycling. Our recycling or composting has increased by 10% over the last year but we still lag behind the rest of Europe.

What is does illustrate is that recycling should remain the last option and, ideally, only resorted to after reducing and reusing.

Easier said than done, I'm afraid. My last weigh in, 10 days ago, was 475g (ie about 240g per week), almost entirely made up of unrecyclable plastic food wrapping. Definitely still work in progress.

Zero Waist Goes Global

For those of you who read Chinese click here to read about my challenge in the Beijing Youth Weekend newspaper. I was approached through this blog by one of its journalists, Chen qimei, who interviewed me by email. It will be interesting to see what response, if any, it elicits. As I said to Chen qimei in my last email, we are all in this together.