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Talking Rubbish column: 16th April
Get real
The classic slogan ‘think global, act local’ is never more relevant than when you consider the contents of your own bin.
Take nappies. We do. We take millions of them every year.
One baby wearing five or six nappies a day will produce 70-80 nappies a fortnight - using about a third of the space in a wheelie-bin. That doesn’t leave much room for anything else. And with 7,500 Wiltshire babies born every year it soon mounts up.
In fact it means about 25 million nappies annually ending up in landfill where they are likely to stay for many years to come.
It used to be that you needed a Terry square, a safety pin and a degree in origami if you wanted an alternative to disposal nappies.
Now they come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and materials. You can pay for cleaning services, test drive them and even get money back if you are a Wiltshire resident, through the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust's scheme which is sponsored by Wiltshire County Council.
This week is Real Nappy Week and Wiltshire Wildlife Trust has excellent information and advice for parents thinking about switching from disposables. Have a look at www.wiltshirewildlife.org or ring Jacky Thomas on 01380 725670 ext 236.
Fruit figures
A staggering 4.4 million whole apples are being thrown away untouched every day in the UK, according to new figures.
According to research from the Waste & Resources Action Programme, fruit and vegetables make up 40 per cent of the food which gets binned in the average household. The top five items which get thrown away without even being touched are apples, potatoes, bananas, tomatoes and oranges.
The main reason is we simply do not eat it before it goes off - but we could be making the problem worse by not storing fruit and vegetables properly. Just storing most fresh fruit and vegetables inside the fridge can help them stay fresh for much longer – sometimes by as much as a fortnight.
Recycle for Wiltshire’s Love Food Hate Waste campaign has been highlighting how we can do more to reduce our food waste. There are plenty of tips and ideas on www.recycleforwiltshire.com
ENDS
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