recycle – The Green Tau

Counting on … day 123

4th August 2025

It is an old slogan but still pertinent: “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”. If we are to live sustainably within the Earth’s finite resources, if we are to live simply – with joy in enough – then reducing what we consume is a good starting point. Ditto reusing what we have.

And recycling as the last resort.

That said, I do recycle cardboard boxes rather then hoarding them for future use. During Covid whilst so many things were being bought on line, people were hanging onto the boxes, which led to a shortage of recycled card with which to make new boxes. I guess there would be logic in having. Reusable boxes – as for example, with Riverford vegetables boxes.

Counting on … day 104

10th May 2024

Having said that we try to minimise waste, should what we recycle be seen as recycled waste? Flour and oats both come in large paper sacks. The sacks are single use which arguable might seem wasteful but they can be recycled. They are good for collecting all the other paper that goes out for recycling. Margerine comes in plastic tubs – again single use but recyclable.

One reason that our dustbin fills slowly is because we can recycle much of the ‘waste’ that comes into the house. We recycle paper and card, aluminium foil, tins, glass and standard plastics via the Council’s kerb side collection. We take soft plastics to the Coop for recycling, toothpaste tubes to Boots, medical blister packs to Superdrug. There is a recycling bin for small electrical goods at the library and for batteries at Robert Dyas.

Recycling is good and worth doing but it comes with its own consumption of resources and production of emissions. And we know that in reality many things that are labelled as recyclable are not recycled – often because they are not put into the appropriate recycling bin. Greater thought needs to be given by designers and producers to reduce what needs to be recycled and how often.

The aim becomes not consuming more than you need to consume, buying less and ensuring the best and most efficient use of what we do consume.

Counting on … day 370

5th November 2022

Unconventional but try getting rid of your waste bins – repurpose them? – and use it as a challenge to only buy and/or use things that can be recycled or reused. It may take a little practice and a bit of research – and as a last resort you will have you dustbin. You may well find that the net result is less in your recycling bins too.

Green Christian’s blog has an item on the 7Rs – Rejoice, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Rent, borrow and share, Recycle – https://greenchristian.org.uk/the-seven-rs/

Counting on …day 301

6th September 2022

Consuming less can also mean discarding. Do a survey of your dustbin. What are you throwing out? Could any of it be recycled, repaired or reused? Do some of the things that you buy come with too much packaging? Could you shop differently? What would it take to half the amount of rubbish you produce each week? What would it take to reduce it to zero?