Recycling packaging

I am constantly reminded of the often unnecessary packing that comes from conventional food shopping.

The unbelievable amount of packing that one is left with once one has packed away or used the useful items, serves as a reminder of the benefits of growing ones own food where possible.

We have two bins provided by the council. One for regular trash and one for 'organic material' i.e. food waste, paper and cardboard, vegetable peelings etc. One must separate glass, plastic and metal for recycling tips, which are a short walk away (near the local school).

This means at least that the regular trash is reduced - we hope. How many people follow this apparently strict, enforced recycling and sorting is unknown and glancing periodically, (unnoticed) into peoples outside bins has clearly shown us that the 'NO PLASTIC' statement on the yellow sticker which determines the 'organic bin' does not sink in. Many organic bins are filled almost to the brim with plastic bags stuffed with all sorts of 'non-organic' rubbish.

The point I assume of the organic bin is that this material can be centrally collected and professionally composted, so the indiscriminate practice of disposing of all manner of items in there kind of defeats the purpose, one would think.

We often try to re-use what can be re-used in some form to further reduce that obvious waste as we all know professional recycling is in itself not good for the environment, even if it is reducing landfill.

Glass jars can be cleaned and kept for homemade jams and pickles and any type of container can be used for growing seedlings and cuttings etc. One does often though lack the cupboard space to store the stuff until it can be used. Often we find there is an overstock of potential jam jars and then they have to go out to the recycling tips, which is a shame.

Its helps to collect bottles that match and often we try to buy particular brands with pleasing bottles and easy to remove labels that we know will make the homemade stuff look better.

One, now hysterical memory I have, is of an acquaintance (unknown to me!) palming off some average marmalade on my husband and not removing the previous label (a very nice brand of pasta salsa).

Stuck for an evening meal, I opened the fridge to discover a wonderful bottle of tomato and mushroom pasta sauce, which I though my husband had recently purchased from the local food shop.

Not thinking beyond that (although I do now check) I poured a great deal of this well known sauce onto our last packet of freshly cooked and still steaming pasta only to notice an unusual aroma (sort of marmalade-ish). YUK! Say no more. It tasted disgusting especially if you were expecting tomato and mushroom.

So the importance of removing labels is noted. Another case I remember was a sudden camping trip and remembering in the last rush to take along dish washing liquid. Short of a container I saw a small push top cold drink bottle we had kept for future use and decanted some into the useful size. Needless to say our young daughter on the camping trip discovered it and took a deep long drink of 'dish washing liquid'. Luckily she lived to tell the tale.

Making a new label is always essential.