Day 4 in the big Zero Waste House!

Good afternoon blogwatchers (is that the collective term??)

Zero Waste is definitely causing a stir locally- we are still getting media requests from local media- Radio Cornwall are interviewing Jon again tomorrow morning to see how his week is going. We have also signed quite a few people up for the Cornish Real Nappy Project free trail kits. This week the kits have been free to celebrate the week and to maximise take up- it seems to be working:)

Its very quiet in the office today and there are only a few of us in- so there is definitely no noise pollution today- less computers on too!

I have had a look in our bins today and in the office apart from backing paper for labels, strapping from boxes of paper delivered from stationers, it seems to be empty....thats more than can be said with our downstairs bin where no one is around to monitor it! You see i am right next to the office bin so i think i scare people off. We need a Zero Waste monitor/monster downstairs as there are a few no recyclable items in there....very disappointing when others are working hard at it- i suppose convenience wins through for some (well most in our society!).

Another day and another cake, this time baked by Becky it was a lovely creamy chocolate cake, very enjoyable. I could get used to this, but i don't think the scales would!

My desk looks like a recycling jungle at the mo- i have 6 empty Ecover bottles on my desk that I have brought from home that need refilling. Our reuse furniture centre in Bodmin, that sells seconds in furniture and electrical appliances, also sell refills for Ecover products which is very handy- saves money and waste. I only started working here over a month ago, having told all my friends and family about ways to save money and save the environment I can imagine my next trip will be with 50 bottles!

I am hoping to cook something for the offices 5th Zero Waste day, i'm not quite sure what and how yet- I have just received a cake recipe from Bec that you can do in the microwave, which means I could save more electricity rather than letting it sit in an oven for 30mins! Zero Waste all round:)

Sian

Good Day 3 For Sam :)

Well! Today has been a good day, not only did lots of people turn their noses up at Laura's cake as they did mine, but the Office received (Finally!!) the Office recycling waste bins!
Also, the Franking Machine ran out of ink and had to be replaced, the Cartridge has gone in for recycling.
Theres not really much else to report apart from its fun to see what you can actually eat without all this packaging malarky!! Theres tonnes of things that can be done, I think it's so wasteful and I'm glad we are all trying to reduce waste!!

Laura's Cake Blow out

Well day 3 has arrived along with a victoria sponge made by yours truly. It should have been a momentous moment as I don't bake, but the office seems to be well and truly caked out, I did try to win them over with huge amounts of Green & Blacks & Almonds on top, but one of the girls straight away said 'Iam allergic to nuts' this would have been fine if I had not seen her with a bag of Nobby's Nuts only last week. Guess that tells you how bad the cake looked.
Anyway it is half gone now and noone has made a dash for the loo yet and I i've checked all the bins for signs of crumbs and all is well.
I am off on my hols after today so although I have enjoyed the waste free week I must admit I am looking forward to raiding the snack box on my return, but may also carry on baking as it is a bit of an office bonding session and you find out who your friends are!!

Day 2 at the office!

Hi, Sian here again, ready to share today's news re our challenge to reduce waste, oh and thanks for your comments they are all gratefully accepted!

Today started with me nearly opting to chew a chewing gum on the way to work, trivial I know but I believe this to be one of the most annoying, visible wastes around outside and in... this said i still enjoy the odd chew! But what are we supposed to do with the left over after we have chewed it for a while? Swallow....i'm sure there are medical facts that state that this is not healthy, make something useful (see pic of pink chewing gum sculptures, i'm not sure i can make this in 1 week!) or throw away?

The latter is almost always the choice as i'm sure it is not biodegradable! However doing some research I found this interseting company- http://www.chewinggumbin.com/, perhaps we should have more of these on our streets to save money for Local Authorities to pay to clean it up??

Also today saw our 2nd day of a member of staff bringing in a snack- today was Jo's day and she brought in a lovely home made apple pie- it was lovely!

We had a look into our bins today and with the odd bit of sellotape there were some polystyrene blocks from the packing of ink toner that we had received for our printer. Luckily Sara was on the ball and she has taken this home to recycle and use in her plant pots to help irrigation.

Thats all for today! Sian

16:43, monday afternoon - on a chocolate low...

Despite a big fat zero chocolate intake by yours truly it appears that Cadbury's shares have risen - thus disproving any correlation between my daily (except today) intake of the unhealthy stuff and profits of aforementioned company!

I am thinking that at this rate I shall have achieved zero waist by the end of the week! so I'm shortly off to the local shop in search of environmentally wrapped, fairly traded, products.

Sara the self confessed (and now slightly depressed) chocaholic.

From the Marketing Dep...

Hello from the Marketing Dep at Rezolve Kernow.

Well Zero Waste week is here at last and having prepared mentally for it for a while, it still arrived very fast- too fast for me to organise myself over the weekend! With all good intentions of making a big batch of pasta and sauce (or any food!) that will last me a few days I ended up with beans on toast, the bread brought in from home in a container and beans (they will last another serving and the can is recyclable, one brownie point!).

With snacks reduced to fruit/veg in the office and the chocolate box banished to another room by Sara we welcomed the cake that Sam made.....i believe this was her first attempt at baking.

As the saying goes first impressions aren't everything, it was a low fat cake and tasted very chocolatey and quite nice. It was very diff from a conventional cake, more like a brownie, unfortunately I don't think it travelled too well as it turned out a bit wet, but well done for the effort, I ate all mine...i bet next time its even better!

The main problem with Zero Waste and being in the Marketing Dep is that we get sent subscriptions to newspapers and although we recycle these the packaging is clear plastic bags! I am considering options with these- whether to send them back to the papers to see if they have any recycling policies/practices in place or to research if any companies recycle these. I read in the WMN last week that a company The Electronic Waste Company have a new machine to recycle plastics, they might take these but its a long shot, i'll keep you posted!

I will let you know progress tomorrow....

Bye for now,
Sian

Sams Zero Waste Week!

So far, things have gone suprisingly well (although it's only Monday!!). I have bought items with less packaging, and have recycled the majority. I baked a cake which was mocked in the office as it wasn't the most presentable cake ever, but it did taste good. My diet has got in the way of trying to reduce some waste, but I have tried my best. Things look good for the rest of the week and am looking forward to trying other peoples cooking!

Rebecca starts early...

As I am on holiday next week I was persuaded to give Zero Waste a go in the office this week. I had all the best intentions of planning food, baking bread, bringing a waste free pack lunch, etc. However after a weekend away and a week at work preparing for my week off, all I managed to do was buy 5 tins of soup which could be recycled after eating!

The first thing I have noticed this week is that I immediatly couldn't eat my usual lunch of Ryvitas (other healthy bread alternatives do exisit!) as I couldn't think of anything to put on them that didn't come in a plastic pot. My usual cream cheese is fairly good on the waste front as a tub will generally last nearly a week and so I wonder if in the great scheme of things this might actually have been better than buying 5 cans and heating them up in a microwave! But them's the rules!

I had asked the man who brings in our snack box to give it a bit of thought and swap some of the overly packaged treats for waste free alternatives. A bit of a challenge I know and apprantly one that was just a bit too hard, as we had a delivery today of all the normal crisps and chocolate, covered in plastic wrapping.

I have encouraged the team to try and bring in some home baking as a replacement and intend to try and kick this off myself tomorrow. However, going on my track record so far this week - I am not going to promise anything!

My advice to everyone for next week would be to make like cub scouts and "be prepared!"