Recycle your Christmas cards for charity

National charity the Woodland Trust - who help maintain trees and forests in Shropshire and beyond are again promoting their Christmas card recycling scheme. 



The scheme is made possible thanks to the support of High Street retailers Marks & Spencer who put out special card collection bins in M&S stores from January 2 to January 31 2014.  Money generated through the card recycling scheme will fund the planting of new trees throughout the UK including in parts of Shropshire. 

If everyone in the UK recycles just one Christmas card at M&S this January, the Woodland Trust will be able to plant more than 60,000 trees across the UK. The UK is 10,000 trees richer thanks to the 10 million Christmas cards recycled last year. Lets see if we can help get another 10,000 planted again this coming year. 

Mike Barry, Head of Sustainable Business at M&S said, "This is a fantastic campaign which provides a really easy way for everyone to get involved in planting new woodland and preserving our important natural habitats by doing something as simple as dropping your old Christmas cards off at a M&S store."

Local MP Philip Dunne has been backing the scheme and taking his cards back to his local store in Shropshire.  

For more information on this scheme visit http://plana.marksandspencer.com/about/partnerships/woodland-trust

DON’T HAVE A ‘RUBBISH’ CHRISTMAS, GET COMPOSTING!

DON’T HAVE A ‘RUBBISH’ CHRISTMAS, GET COMPOSTING!

Christmas is almost upon us and as always it’s a great excuse to over indulge ourselves with great food, the joys of present giving and partying into the night!

However, the morning after can leave you with more than a headache when you look around you at the debris and waste that the festivities have created. Rather than overfill the dustbin and pile it up for the post Christmas collection, why not take the environmentally friendly option and compost it. On average over 30% of domestic waste is compostable and this percentage rises over the Christmas period.

Home composting reduces the amount of waste sent to landfill, so to encourage households to give it a go the councils of Shropshire are offering cut-price compost bins from only £16.98 (RRP £39) plus £5.49 delivery.  For more details call 0844 571 4444 or look online at www.shropshire.getcomposting.com   

CHRISTMAS  COMPOSTING TIPS

If you already compost your organic waste here are some great tips to help you keep a good thing going over the Christmas period. You’ll be surprised how many Christmas items can be composted.

*        Make your compost mixture more a-peel-ing! At Christmas we always eat much more and produce more food waste than at any other time of the year. Your compost bin will really appreciate the peelings from your tasty winter vegetables and festive fruits such as Satsuma’s and Clementine’s

*        Warm up your worms! Wood ash from open fires can be put into your compost bin; Let it cool right down first though, you don’t want to cook the worms and other little critters working hard to produce compost for your spring veg.

*        Give your mix a Christmas present! Plain wrapping paper (non metallic/glossy/plastic/waxy) and gift tags can be scrunched up and added to the mix, but if you do, make sure you add it gradually and mix with your fruit and veg peelings to get the right balance. Cardboard packaging from Christmas toys and gifts will add fibre and structure to your bin, as well as paper napkins, Christmas crackers, inners and party hats! (But again, be careful not to include anything metallic/glittery or made from plastic film).

*        Wish your Compost bin a Happy New Year! The remnants of your New Years Eve party will also be a welcome addition to your compost bin. Nut shells, wooden cocktail sticks, paper plates and some party food packaging. Natural corks can also be added but will take longer to break down.

*        Twelfth Night! When the festivities have drawn to a close for another year, if there is any room left in your compost bin you can add those natural home made decorations, the holly and the ivy, mistletoe, paper chains and other compostable decorations.

For more information visit www.getcomposting.com 

Dont be a Turkey - recycle your cooking oil this Christmas

This Christmas we are all going to produce alot more cooking oil and fat than usual.  Whether its the drippings off your beef joint, turkey fat or the olive oil from all those roast potatoes its really important to use every last drop.  The simplest way to keep your drains free of blockages and stop filling up your rubbish bin is to take your used cooking oil to your local household recycling centre this Christmas.

Shropshire Council and its recycling contractor Veolia have partnered with Living Fuels to transform the oil into much needed renewable energy.  The five household recycling centres in Shropshire have been fitted with tanks to collect cooking oil, which is then taken to a recycling facility where it is transformed into an environmentally friendly liquid biofuel which is fed into generators to create both heat and power.

You can recycle over 30 different types of material at your local household recycling centre and now cooking oil is just one more thing that you can recycle.  Its really easy to recycle your used cooking oil this Christmas, once it's cool just pour it into a sealed container and bring it to your local Household Recycling Centre.  This is the greenest way to deal with your waste cooking oil, its reducing your carbon footprint and helping keep the lights on too!

To find your nearest recycling site visit http://new.shropshire.gov.uk/recycling-and-rubbish

Compostable caddy liners to help Shropshire recycle more food waste

Shropshire Council is reminding residents in north and south Shropshire that special compostable liners are available to help them recycle their food waste.   

The liners are made from corn starch and are officially tested to be compostable so you can use them to bag up your kitchen waste and then add it to your green garden waste collection bin. The idea is to help residents to recycle more because using kitchen caddies and liners makes it clean and easy to collect up food waste in the kitchen.  

   

All the food waste and garden waste that they collect mixed together in these areas is taken to a specialist composting facility to be made into bags of compost - the type you buy from the garden center.  The liners can be purchased from the following council reception points -

• Ellesmere Library 
• Cheshire Street, Market Drayton
• Edinburgh House, Wem
• Whitchurch Heritage Centre
• Corve Street, Ludlow
• Church Stretton Library
• Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre, Craven Arms
• Cleobury Country Centre, Cleobury Mortimer
• Enterprise House, Bishop’s Castle.

Alternatively if you prefer to have them delivered liners can also be purchased over the phone, on 0844 472 1871, or online using the new www.shropshire.caddyliners.com web-based service. 

Plastic film recycling in Shropshire

Alot of people ask us about what to do with plastic film because it cant be collected with the Councils plastic recycling service. However its a really simple answer - you can take this type of plastic back to the larger supermarkets and recycle it at their in-store carrier bag recycling points - this includes all of the larger Asda, Sainsbury, Co-op, Morrisons and Tesco supermarkets in Shropshire.

What types of plastic film are accepted?

They accept any polyethene a.k.a. low-density polyethylene (LDPE) film which is sometimes marked with a number 4.   This includes things like: -

•plastic wrappers from bakery goods

•plastic breakfast cereal liners

•plastic toilet roll wrappers

•plastic bags from fruit and veg

•plastic carrier bags

•plastic bread bags

•plastic freezer bags

•plastic magazine wrap

•plastic shrink wrap

If you are unsure look out for the label on the packet which should say "recycle with your carrier bags at larger stores - not at the kerbside".

The supermarkets collect it at the front of the store and then they use "reverse haulage" so when new stock is delivered the empty truck takes away all their plastic wrapping. The plastic is recycled at a variety of mainly UK based reprocessors who use it to make recycled plastic carrier bags and rubbish bags.

It is said that the average household in Shropshire gets through about 25kg each year which sounds small but means theres about 5,000 tonnes of the stuff just in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin each year, most of which is going straight into landfill.  So do your bit for the planet and slim your bin, help keep this out of landfill by taking it back to the supermarket. Its not like you have to go out of your way to do it after all!  By recycling your plastic bags and film you also save taxpayers money, create jobs and investment, help to reduce oil use, save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Textile recycling in Shropshire

Textiles recycling

Charity shops welcome donations of clothes and other textiles. In most parts of Shropshire they also post bags through your door and offer free kerbside collections too.  You can also recycle textiles at the Councils Household Recycling Centres and at most of the supermarket recycling points.

What textiles can be recycled?

• clean clothing
• towels
• sheets and blankets
• duvet covers
• hats, scarfs, gloves
• leathers, belts and handbags
• pillow cases
• shoes in pairs
• curtains

To keep them clean and dry, please put your textiles in a bag before putting them in the recycling bank.

What textiles don't they want?

• Dirty material
• Duvets / pillows
• Carpets / rugs

What happens to the textiles?

The textiles go to BCR Global Textiles near Birmingham where they are sorted according to quality. Nice wearable items get re-used in second hand clothes shops mostly in Africa.  The lower quality items which cannot be sold secondhand get shredded down for cleaning cloths, and used to make 'shoddy' which is used for stuffing sofas and cushions.

For more information visit

• BCR Textiles

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Dont let your pumpkin go to waste this Haloween! Scoop out the insides to make a delicious soup and then why not make a tasty snack from the seeds as well!  Here is our simple recipe for making salted roasted pumpkin seeds.

1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius.

2. Wash and pat-dry the seeds.

3. In a bowl or lunchbox, cover them with a generous glug of oil and a generous pinch of salt.

4. Spread the seeds evenly across a baking tray.

5. Keep them in the oven until they start to turn a crispy brown colour (about 30 minutes).

6. Leave on the side to cool.

And remember of course to home compost the pumpkin shell afterwards! www.shropshire.getcomposting.com

Bubble House Wormeries

Whether you are a single person living alone, a family with children, vegetarian or meat eater, or a business producing food or green waste, there is a better way of dealing with your organic waste than throwing it in the bin. Garden owner, allotment holder, flat dweller, business or educational establishment, this is the one component of rubbish that you can recycle yourselves, at source, with no need for it to be transported else where to be dealt with.

Earthworms have worked tirelessly for millenia aerating, tilling and fertilising the soil. The practise of vermiculture is at least a century old but fell out of fashion when the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides became commonplace last century. Their use led to the destruction of earthworms on a colossal scale. Vermiculture is now being revived worldwide with diverse ecological objectives such as waste management, soil detoxification, soil regeneration and sustainable agriculture.
 

We are lucky in our area to have a local 'green' business (based just over the south Shropshire border in Worcestershire) called Bubblehouse Worms who breed our own worms as they don’t like the idea of them being imported, and they are hand harvested so that they reach the customers in peak condition. These wonderful creatures will gobble up your food waste and turn it into nature’s finest fertiliser, worm casts.

Bubblehouse sell a wide range of products for managing your waste and improving your garden but perhaps the most iconic is the stacked wormery which incorperates a pretty plant pot on the top.  This way you can keep worms, process food waste and grow your own whilst you're at it! They are ideal for places without access to a garden or for anyone who wants to be more sustainable.  For more information visit www.bubblehouseworms.com

 

Make soup to use up old food and avoid waste

With the long winter nights now that the clocks have gone back and with the weather turning colder we all need to make the most of lovely leftovers and forgotten foods and turn them into winter warmers.

A couple of items many of our Master Composters grow on their allotments and small holding which go great together is spinach and potato.  

Spinach is an excellent antioxidant and is low fat too. Use fresh or wilted – or leftovers – it will make a really tasty soup.  Potatoes are a great everyday store cupboard essential which keep really well if stored in a cool dark place.  It doesn’t matter if your potatoes look a bit tired or start sprouting simply give them a good peel to bring them back to their best.

Here's a simple soup recipe for you all to try

Ingredients:

·          

1   1 x finely chopped onion

·         3 x potatoes, diced

·         2 x pints vegetable stock

·         5 x handfuls of fresh spinach leaves

·         Salt & pepper

Method:

1.    Place the potatoes, onion in a large saucepan and fry lightly for 10 minutes.

2.    Add the stock and simmer for 10 minutes until potatoes are soft and cooked.

3.    Season with ground black pepper and add the spinach. Cook for a further 5 minutes.

If you wish you can then blend the soup to suit.

Winter warmers can be the perfect way to turn cheap, healthy veg and staples into tasty warming dinners for the family. Whatever the size of your household most of these dishes can be frozen in individual portions, giving you homemade, cheap ready meals for those nights when the last thing you want to do is cook.  For more recipes like this visit www.lovefoodhatewaste.com

Furniture re-use in Shropshire

Furniture re-use in Shropshire

We often get asked when we are out promoting waste minimisation in Shropshire with Shropshire Master Composters about how to deal with big bulky items like furniture and white goods - especially if you dont have a car to get to the tip. Luckily in Shropshire there are several local furniture re-use schemes.  All schemes collect good quality furniture, electrical items, white goods, bedding, beds, curtains, crockery and cutlery - and pass them on to those in need. 

Save yourself a trip to the tip, contact your local scheme to arrange a collection:

• Shrewsbury Furniture Scheme - 01743 246668
• Oswestry & North Shropshire Furniture Scheme - 01691 679817
• South Shropshire Furniture Scheme - 01584 877788
• Bridgnorth District Furniture Scheme - 01746 764494
• Reviive Shop in Shrewsbury - 01743 588458

What is a furniture reuse scheme?

All schemes are non-profit groups set up to recycle unwanted items within Shropshire. Most have some capacity to restore and repair items but they prefer working, good quality items. The schemes are run by a combination of paid staff, trainees and volunteers.

What items cant they collect?

• Gas appliances of any sort.
• Soft furnishings without Fire Regulation labels.
• Glass items without British Standards kite-mark.

What happens to the items?

Wherever possible the items are repaired and reused by selling them on at low prices. This helps to benefit local Shropshire residents on low incomes.

For more information visit: - 

 

• Shrewsbury Furniture Scheme
• Oswestry furniture recycling scheme
• South Shropshire furniture scheme
• Bridgnorth Furniture Scheme
• Reviive
• Telford Furniture Scheme
• Furniture re-use network

Get Composting this Autumn

Make the most of those falling leaves - Get Composting this autumn...


The nights are drawing in and there is a distinct chill in the air, all signs that autumn is now upon us. Met Office figures show that 2013 has been the hottest summer since 2006 and the higher than average temperatures along with the occasional heavy downpour, has encouraged plant growth, creating an abundance of garden waste.

The traditional picture of the autumn clear up are mountains of leaves blowing about and smoky bonfires, polluting the atmosphere. A much more environmentally-friendly way to dispose of this waste is to compost it at home. Simply throw it into a compost bin and over the winter months it will rot down to produce a nutrient-rich, free supply of compost.

Fallen leaves, pruning’s, dead plants and flowers are great material to feed the compost bin and nature makes sure they are in plentiful supply. A good tip is to use a lawnmower to collect up leaves: this shreds the leaves and helps to speed up the composting process.

The secret of great compost is a good mix of materials (you don’t want too much of any one material). If you have too many leaves for your compost bin, put the excess into a bin bag, make a few holes in it, and leave it in a secluded spot to rot down. It takes a little longer but the end result is leaf mould, a fine product that could be used in place of peat as potting compost for container plants.

Shropshires local authorities are offering discounted compost bins in partnership with www.getcomposting.com. Prices start at £16.98 plus delivery – less than half the recommended retail price of £39.

A Buy One Get One Half Price offer is also available on selected items for residents in Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin - call 0844 571 4444 or visit www.shropshire.getcomposting.com 

Real nappies reduce waste

It’s fair to say that hard pressed families with children could do with watching the pennies right now, and let’s face it, literally throwing away money is the last thing anyone would want to be doing.  But that’s exactly what parents who use disposable nappies are doing.

The odd tenner here and there on packets of nappies seems like it’s not a major cost, but have you ever actually sat down and added up the full cost of these regular purchases?
 
Well from birth to potty your baby will need about 5,000 nappy changes – so you’re talking about spending around £750 on disposable nappies alone!  So your decision on nappies will have a big impact on your wallet and the planet.  On average during that first two years a baby will produce a tonne of dirty nappies before they’re even potty trained!  And disposable nappies cost you twice, as a taxpayer you pay again to have them landfilled. Now that really adds up!

But it doesn’t have to be that way – you can use modern real washable cotton nappies instead. By using real nappies, you can reduce waste and save money. Of course you have to pay up front to buy the washable nappies and the liners (you can kit your baby out with all the real nappy gear they need from the high street for about £250).  Then you have to consider washing powder and ever rising electricity costs if you’re washing nappies a lot, but even when you factor this in you could still save £400 compared to buying disposables and double that if you re-use the kit again on a second baby.

Analysis of what’s in our bins in Shropshire has shown that disposable nappies make up about 4% of total household waste.  This means an incredible 6,000 tonnes of disposable nappies end up buried in landfill sites in Shropshire every year.
 
So if you want to help tackle this waste mountain and save yourself some money then contact the Real Nappy Advisory Service via their website http://www.goreal.org.uk/

TV recycling in Shropshire

All types of TV's can be recycled in Shropshire simply by taking them to the Council's Recycling Centres.

And its not just TVs they accept any type of display screens for recycling, including:

• Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) monitors
• Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screens
• Plasma screens
• Personal Computer (PC) monitors
• Calculators
• Sat navs
• Laptops

All monitors are taken to Recycling Lives (www.recyclinglives.com) in Lancashire for recycling.  Recycling Lives is a charitable organisation who use recycling to create income to support people in need - literally recycling lives.


From humble beginnings as a small local charity repairing furniture and trading a bit of scrap metal, they have now grown into a large social enterprise and expanded their operations to include a fully licenced TV recycling factory which allows them to safely handle hazardous waste including PC monitors and TV sreens which contain cathode ray tubes.

Once staff in the main area of the recycling centre have removed the plastic and metal components from the units, the remaining screen and mercury-filled fluorescent tubes enter the sealed mercury-safe room.

Did you know almost 99% of the material in the TV can now be recycled, including the glass from the screen and the hard plastics used, almost nothing goes to waste and this is one of the highest / most efficient for any recycling process.

Can I compost cork?

Sometimes when we are out promoting composting with Shropshire Master Composters we get asked can I compost the cork from a wine bottle?



To clarify by this we mean you know a proper old fashioned natural cork, not the plastic ones obviously.  Well the answer is yes because cork is just a type of bark from a tree and so it will ultimately rot down too.  Although we would caution composting alot of them because they will take an incredibly long time to break down, corks are used because they are naturally impermeable - which makes it perfect for plugging a bottle of vino but makes composting a bit tricky.  Chopping the cork up a bit (tricky as this may be) will speed up the decomposition a little but overall in small amounts you can add them in and they do rot eventually and are (eventually) a valuable addition to the finished compost.

Improving soil with compost

Many of us have inherited gardens that are inherently poor for growing plants, whether this is down to the underlying geology of the area or historic management there is a simple way to overcome the challenges of low fertility and poor soil, its simply to add compost.  

Compost improves your soil in a number of ways.  Crucially compost returns nutrients to the soil such as phosphorus, potassium, nitrogen, and many trace minerals, all to be released slowly over 1-2 years for optimal plant growth & health.

• Compost is a natural fertilizer that improves soil aeration, tilth & drainage.
• Compost, as a top-dressing, promotes weed control by suppressing growth. Furthermore, improved tilth makes it more difficult for weeds to anchor roots.
• Compost controls erosion by creating good tilth.
• Compost protects plant roots from sun and wind damage.
• Compost conserves water, when used as a mulch: the soil retains moisture beneath it.
• Compost increases water retention when absorbed into loose or sandy soils. It aids drainage in clay or other heavy soils.
• Compost reduces soil diseases because of its high nutrient content.

All in all if you want a healthy garden you need healthy soil and if you want healthy soil you need to compost.  With rising food prices and a crisis of biodiversity around the globe, we need to improve our soils health and so we all need to get more composting going on.  For more information on how to get started with composting visit getcomposting.com

Windfall fruit

As the nights draw in and we enter the season of 'mists and mellow fruitfulness' many of us will find our gardens and driveways carpeted in windfall fruit. 

We have had a few queries of late about this relating to this issue because whilst of course the best thing to do with windfall fruit is a) Eat it! and b) home compost it some folk seem to be unsure about if you can include this with your garden waste for the council collections.

Yes windfall fruit and vegetables from the garden are garden waste not food waste.  So it is perfectly OK to add this to the Councils garden waste collection service.

The confusion seems to have arisen because most garden waste in Shropshire goes for on-farm composting and following the BSE & Foot & Mouth strict Animal Byproduct Regulations were introduced which mean that food waste cannot be composted on farms.
Whilst of course fruit and vegetables are not an animal byproduct, the ban applies to anything from the kitchen so captures all food waste.  The distinction with material from your garden (whether edible or not) is clearly laid out in guidelines produced by the Department for the Environment.  The point at which this would change would be if you brought the items into your kitchen.  Anything which has been in the kitchen, could potentially be cross contaminated with pathogens from other foodstuffs and thus would then be deemed to be kitchen waste which cannot currently be composted on farms due to the Animal Byproduct Regulations.

Hopefully that clears up any confusion? Because looking around my area I can see tonnes of fruit all over the ground right now and I would hate to think that might end up in landfill when it is perfectly OK to compost it with your garden waste.

Fluorescent lighting recycling in Shropshire

Did you know that low energy light bulbs can be considered hazardous waste and should be handled with caution?  Although they are not immediately dangerous, all fluorescent lighting contains tiny amounts of mercury and so when they reached the end of their life or get broken they should not be put in your general rubbish for disposal.

If you do need to get rid of a low energy light bulb or the long fluorescent tubes then you should take them to the Councils Household Recycling Centre instead.

The good news is that mercury within the bulbs can be safely recovered and the glass gets recycled. They can't go in the normal glass recycling though because they're Phosphor coated glass, so please don’t place them in bottle banks or your kerbside glass recycling box.   Its also reassuring to know that the tiny amounts of mercury used in these lamps is much less that the amount of mercury which gets pumped out by coal fired power stations every year!

So low energy lightbulbs are an environmentally friendly solution they use less power, they save you money, they reduce mercury in the environment overall and they can be recycled, a win, win, win, win!

There is a special area set aside for these lamps, look our for the signage or ask the site attendants if you are unsure or need help, they are always very helpful there.  

Shropshire composting site invests in green energy

Wind turbine adds fuel to farm’s sustainable energy targets

A Shropshire farming & composting business is making sustainability a top priority on its mixed farming unit and adding wind power to a growing list of renewable energy sources.

Gethin and Co has erected a 50kw single wind turbine at Lower House near Cardeston near Shrewsbury for commissioning in April. The turbine is 36.4m (120ft) tall with three 9.6m (31ft) blades.

Lower House Farm is a mixed farming enterprise comprising arable crops, poultry rearing and a green waste composting facility. With energy prices increasing, Mark and Claire Gethin and next generation Sophie and Matthew are keen to adopt a variety of energy sources to meet their ambition to become more self sufficient in energy.

Although planning permission was granted in 2011 for a 2160 solar panel array mounted on the roofs of the existing poultry units, only about half the solar panels were erected because the feed in tariff rate changed and it became uneconomic to erect the remainder.

“The Gethins realised that other complementary renewable energy systems were needed particularly to provide energy at night time,” explained Peter Fenwick, a planning consultant with Berrys who has been advising the Gethins on renewable energy and planning options.

“The overall power needs of the poultry unit is some 300,000kw per annum. The solar panels provide approximately half of this, depending on the amount of daylight, sunshine and season. The proposed wind turbine will generate between 144,000 to 170,000 kw per year and in particular will generate electricity in winter and at night when the poultry units are net users of non PV energy.

“The size of the wind turbine was chosen deliberately to generate the shortfall in renewable energy for the farm business,” Peter added.

As is often the case, there was local opposition to the planning application and Shropshire Council rejected the wind turbine at first, but after a successful planning appeal presented by Berrys permission was granted.

The council originally rejected the scheme because it felt the siting would have a detrimental effect on the landscape and be intrusive to neighbours.

“We argued that the chosen site has a good wind resource location and since the nearest non involved residential property was some 600 metres away there would be no noise or shadow flicker effect. The turbine is a single slim structure so the slim aerofoil shaped turbine blades will blend into the environment and not move quickly enough to disturb the general tranquillity of the landscape,” he added.

Wind energy will be a vital contributor to the energy demands of the farming operation at Lower House Farm , complementing the solar panels and biomass boiler producing heat in the poultry houses. Methane from the green waste is used in a combined heat and power unit to breakdown the waste in a closed loop system.

“With energy prices set to rise further farmers need to consider all their options and adopt renewable technology where possible to become more energy self sufficient,” Peter added.

Sophie Gethin says the turbine project ran relatively smoothly, once the original objections from neighbours had been overcome. The slim body of the Endurance turbine was installed by Dulas the second week of March with the Nacelle and Blades being added the following week, after the concrete had set. It will hopefully be commissioned the first week of April.

“We are aiming to become carbon neutral on the farm and the turbine is another way for us to generate our own electricity, complementing the solar panels perfectly. When the sun isn’t out we will have wind power,” said Sophie.

“We are also building an in-vessel composting facility to take green waste and food waste and an anaerobic digester to take food waste, slurry and chicken litter,” she added.

Homemade food – home and away – is a winner for a tasty, cheap summer

A surge in demand for self-catering holidays coupled with Met Office predictions of more settled warm weather over July could give us all a chance to save money this summer by getting clever with our food.  Tips from Love Food Hate Waste show us how.

While a recent survey shows demand for self-catering holidays in England is up by a third, with 42 per cent of those questioned citing ‘money saving’ as the reason, better summer weather coming our way will also provide lots of opportunities for those at home to dust off the picnic hamper and fire up the barbecue. 

Times are tough and we’re all feeling the pinch at the moment.  But the good news is summer food tips from www.lovefoodhatewaste.com will help all of us going on a self-catering break – or simply enjoying the long light days at home – to turn leftover food we already have into some truly fabulous seasonal dishes and save money at the same time.

With a little planning before you leave, together with a cool box and supply of freezer packs, its easy to take key ingredients with you and be well equipped for picnics and days out while you’re away.

Tips include:

• If you have cooked too much for a meal such as fish pie, chilli or lasagne, simply pop it in an airtight container and store in the freezer as a homemade ‘ready meal’ or take with you for an easy first night supper.
• If you take some lettuce or salad leaves with you and they’re looking tired and wilted after the journey, put them in a bowl of water with a couple of ice-cubes and they will become nice and crisp again.
• Quiches are an ideal way to help use up eggs and spare cream before you go. Add flaked, cooked fish or fry that last rasher of bacon and some onion for classic quiche Lorraine; a perfect, simple dish to take with you, in your cool box, for the first meal of your holiday - lunch or supper.
• Filling sandwiches filled with tasty and unexpected combinations of leftovers, such as chicken, bacon and mayonnaise, lamb and mint sauce or cheese and coleslaw.
• Making leftover potatoes into a tasty potato salad with sliced red or spring onions and mayonnaise – a tasty salad that also travels well.

For more invaluable tips for a cost-effective enjoyable summer home or away, visit www.lovefoodhatewaste.com for recipes and inspiration!

What to do with your old Argos catelogues

Residents in Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin are being encouraged to help reduce waste to landfill by recycling their old Argos catalogues, when the new one is launched in July 2013.
It is estimated that there are over 30 million Argos catalogues in circulation across the country, each weighing 2kg each – a combined weight equivalent to more than 10,000 double decker buses!!!!
In Shropshire and Telford, people can recycle old and unwanted Argos catalogues in their kerbside collection box with their paper. They also compost down well eventually but you may need to tear them up a bit first.

Paper based catelogues are a carbon rich source of 'brown' fibrous material for your compost heap which help to mop up moist food waste and other 'green' materials.
All Argos catalogues collected in Shropshire will be sent to the UPM paper mill at Shotton, Deeside where they are turned into newsprint paper and used to make newspapers.

The Indore Composting Method

The Indore Composting method was based on ancient agricultural practices in India but was developed and written about by the late great, Sir Albert Howard in his 1940 epic 'An Agricultural Testament'.  At the time he was working as an agricultural advisor to the Indian government and so he studied alot of aspects of what was then a very low intensive system of farming in India.  But the thing that really fascinated him and to which he devoted most of the writing was the local composting method in Indore.  His scientific experiments showed quite clearly that the compost they made was special and resulted in higher plant productivity than either fertilizer or raw manure.




With the Indore method, a compost heap is built up in 6 inch layers, like a sandwich.  The first layer is made up of green plant matter such as grass clippings or crops. The next layer is a layer of manure, and then its capped off with a thin layer of topsoil. This layering system is  repeated until the pile reaches a height of about 1.5 meters (5 feet) and the heap is doused with water if neccessary to kept it moist.
This technique has been adapted and applied widely and much of the basics of home composting which will still preach today are based on the fundamental tenets of layering & mixing and using a combination of Nitrogen rich materials and Carbon based materials. 


On of the key things with the Indore Composting Method is that the pile needs to be turned over to fire up the microbes and ensure it heats up.  This is done atleast twice in the traditional method using a spade or fork.  Of course in India, the climatic conditions in particular speeds up the composting process, but this technique can still be applied in any country because the microbes themselves create heat anyway.

Recycling Gas Bottles

As the summer barbecue season approaches many people in Shropshire will be making use of gas bottles to power their modern barbecues or perhaps getting out the caravan for the summer.  In fact in many Shropshire homes off the gas network these things are common place, so one way or another it is possible that you may end up with a LPG gas cylinder to dispose of at some point. 

Used gas bottles are considered hazardous waste and must be treated with caution because although unlikely they are potentially explosive. The best option is to take them back to where you got them from.  Most companies which sell them take them back free of charge as part of the service and so hopefully you wont have to deal with them yourself, but there are also facilities for the safe recycling of gas bottles at each of the five Council run Household Recycling Centres (HRCs) in Shropshire.

What type of gas bottles do they accept?

Any pressurized metal containers including: -

• LPG (propane or butane) gas bottles
• Gas fire cylinders
• Diving tanks
• Helium cansisters
• Fire extinguishers
• Beer kegs

How should I recycle them?

Ideally you should take the bottles back to the company that makes them, which can normally be identified from the label. It is important that you handle used gas bottles with care. If you take them to a HRC please ask the site staff for assistance. There is a lockable cage at each of the sites where used bottles can be safely stored.

What happens to the gas bottles?

The aim is to reunite orphaned bottles with the company which makes them. They are collected by the LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas) Association and wherever possible they are refilled with more gas and reused again.  As a back up where this is not possible the containers are safely depressurized and then they can be recycled for the scrap metal content. 

Why recycle gas bottles?

Primarily it is a health and safety issue, these things can be dangerous and so it is important to follow the correct disposal instructions and ensure that they get taken for professional reuse / recycling.  Not only is it reducing waste to landfill but by allowing bottles to be reused it is reducing the need for more gas bottles to be manufactured. This is reducing the need for metal to be made which helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

For more information on recycling gas bottles visit: - 

• Health and Safety Executive
• UK LPG Association

Britain’s households stash 17 part used paint cans

The Metal Packaging Manufacturers Association is urging the public to take their metal paint cans for recycling after research found that Britain’s households are hoarding 17 part used paint cans each on average.

Britain’s households have 17 part used paint cans each on average and half of these are estimated to be made of metal equating to 39,500 tonnes of scrap metal which could be potentially all be recycled.

The problem is many householders don’t know what to do with the paint left in them.  The Association recommends a number of ways including being donated to local repaint schemes or soaked up in absorbent material like sand and then disposed of.

Nick Mullen, MPMA’s chief executive said: “Why not take your empty metal paint can hoard, to your recycling centre and free up some overlooked storage space?”

In Shropshire you can take unwanted paint to any of the main Household Recycling Centres for disposal and (empty) metal paint tins can be recycled in the scrap metal area.

Composting Bracken in Shropshire

The Long Mynd in Shropshire is a fabulous and famous hill in the south Shropshire hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.  The entire site, is owned by the National Trust and is maintained for public access, common grazing and natural beauty.

One of the environmental problems faced at this site is that of Bracken encroachment: this is a problem throughout the uplands of Britain, but particularly so on the Long Mynd where 60% of all the hill is now affected. The problem is being tackled in two ways:

1. where bracken grows amongst acid grassland e.g. the northern and eastern side of the hill, the bracken is mown on a regular basis, this does not eliminate the problem but reduces its vigour and prevents further encroachment.
2. where it is growing amongst heather it is not possible to mow so a chemical treatment is being used (applied in larger areas by helicopter) which does not affect any other vegetation or wildlife.

Each year the Trust removes nearly 17 hectares of bracken! Alot of this is then managed through composting.  Thats one big compost heap! You can buy the compost they make from this operation from the Shropshire Wildlife Trust shop on Abbey Foregate in Shrewsbury.