by angelborne

Created on: October 13, 2007

My Recycling Methods

I am trying to run my smallholding as enviromentally friendly as possible, this includes recycling, reusing and reducing the amounts we use and buy.

This is a short story about how and what I recycle and why?

All plastic bottles, whether it be drinks bottles or milk cartons, I will recycle them by washing & drying them thoroughly I them use them to store, all my flours, sugar, pulses, pasta etc. I have also turn them into peg boxes to hold pegs, and which hangs on the washing like for convienence .I also use them for planting seedlings in and making bird feeders too. The other plastic that we have to contend with is the plastic carrier bag, well were, possible I try and use a cloth shopping bag because sending plastic carrier bags to landfill, is definitely environmentally unfriendly, especially as I have discovered that it takes 400 years for one carrier bag to bio- degrade at landfill, and while it is sitting there it is emitting large amounts of co2's

Then there is all the cans and tins, these are washed out and squashed, but I do also use them for making pen holders, utensil holders and am about to use them, sunk in the ground and part filled with beer, which will act as a slug baiter, and at least the slugs die happy.

All food waste is also recycled, unused cooked food is given to my free ranging chickens, who love nothing better and all the raw peelings, are given to either my rabbits or goats, to substitute their diet. If I find a food source that cannot be recycled through my animals, then it goes on the compost heap.

Then there is cardboard well I don't know about all of you but there is an awful lot of cardboard waste in my house, with cereal boxes, newspapers etc, well there are plenty of ways that I recycle my cardboard, either burning it on the fire, or shredding it for using as animal bedding, or for my gerbils & chipmunks to chew. Or off course if there is too much of it then I will of course send it to the recycle centre.

And what do we do with electrical goods, and furniture I hear you all ask, well I recycle them too, by advertising them on a free site, offering them to other people, who perhaps can use them, for a little longer.

Absolutely nothing gets wasted in our house, we do try and recycle as much as possible, even if it means going to the recycle centre twice a week then I will.

My next big task is to get more self sufficient, and grow more fruit and vegetables in our garden and making the most of the land we have around us.

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