Systems

Our day-to-day systems for living have been under review here recently. We don't have compulsory recycling in this area yet but the sighting of a rat around our dustbins a few weeks ago has made us think about what we throw away and how. We're paying much more attention to packaging, containers and recycling and our black binbag output is now much reduced.

I'm glad to see Asda is finally running a recycling service for its carrier bags. Whether you subscribe to the global warming theory or not, I like the idea of thoughtful waste disposal. It appeals to my organisational instincts. Like playing with a giant shape-sorter! Dumping it all in landfill is far too messy ;-) Here's our recycling tower:

 

We're collecting tins, plastic bottles, newspaper, cardboard and glass. We were doing most of that before but we're doing a bit more now. We still can't recycle plastic packaging around here though. And I remember in my childhood things like silver foil milk bottle tops being collected for recycling, but nobody seems to do that any more.

Looking at the waste system made us think about how much food we buy and how we could reduce that by growing more fresh produce and composting more to help the plants. It's a good time of year to be thinking along those lines isn't it?

So we have peas, tomatoes and potatoes on the go and we might plant more this week. It means we need to cut back paths and repair walls and generally do more outdoor stuff, which is better for our health, no doubt. We've also been thinking about our water and energy systems here and wondering if these can be improved.

All this from one little (big) rat who is long gone, presumably oblivious to the major effects of his visit!