We passed the one-week mark in our Kimberley Clean Bin Challenge this morning, so it seems a fitting time to reflect on challenges to date. I think we aren’t doing too badly so far.
The bulk of our garbage is five disposable diapers, courtesy of Joseph. He is still in diapers at night, and although he was a cloth diaper veteran for three years, he started objecting when his overnight pee became too caustic for his sensitive skin. Now we use supermarket disposables at night...since online research shows that ‘eco-diapers’ made by Seventh Generation are no better, containing gel, dye, plastic and all the same nasty stuff as big name brands.
On a vacation to England in 2009, we used Bambo disposable diapers which are mainly wood-pulp from sustainable forests...and entertained my mum’s neighbours when we hung them to dry outside and then burned them on a bonfire. While those would be a good Clean Bin alternative to cloth, the large carbon footprint for shipping from Europe weighs too heavily against that as a feasible option. We’ll keep trying to persuade Joseph to either use his cloth diapers...or just stop peeing at night!
The remainder of our week’s garbage is mainly plastic, and comprises:
a tortellini package
2 cereal liners
2 crisp/chip packets
2 burst birthday balloons (left over from Dec 20)
1 sugar bag
a day ski pass
a band-aid wrapper
an apple label
a Malteser bag
Some non-recyclable paper, like the bottom of a pizza box, has been burned on the woodstove, as have floor sweepings, cotton thread trimmings, and the used band-aid. I’ve been baking bread and cookies for packed lunches as usual. And we have a small bin of chicken food which we hope to feed to the chickens soon!
Fingers crossed that Week 2 will continue in much the same way!
The bulk of our garbage is five disposable diapers, courtesy of Joseph. He is still in diapers at night, and although he was a cloth diaper veteran for three years, he started objecting when his overnight pee became too caustic for his sensitive skin. Now we use supermarket disposables at night...since online research shows that ‘eco-diapers’ made by Seventh Generation are no better, containing gel, dye, plastic and all the same nasty stuff as big name brands.
On a vacation to England in 2009, we used Bambo disposable diapers which are mainly wood-pulp from sustainable forests...and entertained my mum’s neighbours when we hung them to dry outside and then burned them on a bonfire. While those would be a good Clean Bin alternative to cloth, the large carbon footprint for shipping from Europe weighs too heavily against that as a feasible option. We’ll keep trying to persuade Joseph to either use his cloth diapers...or just stop peeing at night!
The remainder of our week’s garbage is mainly plastic, and comprises:
a tortellini package
2 cereal liners
2 crisp/chip packets
2 burst birthday balloons (left over from Dec 20)
1 sugar bag
a day ski pass
a band-aid wrapper
an apple label
a Malteser bag
Some non-recyclable paper, like the bottom of a pizza box, has been burned on the woodstove, as have floor sweepings, cotton thread trimmings, and the used band-aid. I’ve been baking bread and cookies for packed lunches as usual. And we have a small bin of chicken food which we hope to feed to the chickens soon!
Fingers crossed that Week 2 will continue in much the same way!
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