waste – The Green Tau

Counting on … day 115

23rd July 2025

Joy in Enough is the name of one of the Green Christian groups, and it strikes me as a beautiful description of how it would be to live well. And so how to live in a world where waste is valued.

Their aim is to seek out, develop and pursue a new form of economics that would ensure joy in enough for all.

‘…the purpose is clear. We want to build a society where there is delight in enough, taking from the earth only enough to meet our needs rather than satisfying our greed. We want to allow time for earth’s resources to be replenished, safeguarding them for future generations. We joyfully seek a just and ecologically sustaining economy where there is enough for everyone, locally and globally.’ (1)

https://joyinenough.org/resources/awakening-to-a-new-economics/

Counting on … day 114

22nd July 2025

During a vigil holding up the plight of the Palestinian people in the absence of any concern during the debates at this month’s Church of England synod, someone spoke of ‘wasting love’. This I take to mean being so generous with love that it is poured out liberally, abundantly, with careless abandon, with no regard as to whether it is either earned by the recipient or likely to repaid. In other words to be as generous as God who daily wastes love on us.

In the parable of the sower and the seed, the behaviour of the sower might be seen as wasteful but maybe it is actually generous, casting the seed everywhere because the sower doesn’t prejudge where it will take root.

Counting on … day 109

15th July 2025

The strip of land that separates road from hedge/ fence/ wall of other boundary might be termed waste land – but that waste land has the capacity to be a thriving green corridor. Warwickshire County Council has developed a successful strategy for planting verges with wild flowers. (1) In York the banks abutting the city walls have also been successfully planted with wild flowers -but not without some opposition! (2)

Green corridors are important allowing plants, insects, and other creatures to migrate, forage and breed across a wider territory that improves the viability of the different species. Plant Life reports “Our road verges and green spaces have the potential to act as a sanctuary for wildflowers and a network of connective corridors across Great Britain’s 400,000 km of public road verges and almost 85,000 hectares of public green spaces.” (3)

Counting on … day 107

11th July 2025

Once the jam – or peanut butter/ marmite/ olives etc – has been eat, is that the end of the road for the empty jar?

If nothing else it can be recycled. Glass is readily recycled time and time again – but there is an energy cost involved in melting and reforming the glass. Reusing the jar is a better outcome. In our kitchen jam jars are filled and emptied in a rotating cycle as jam/ marmalade/ peanut butter/ bottled fruit/ chutney/ pickles are eaten and refilled. Peanut butter comes from the refill shop; marmalade is made in January when Seville oranges are in the shops; jams, chutneys etc are made as fruits are picked in the garden or bought when gluts appear in the shops.

In an ideal world jam jars like milk bottles would be collected and reused – a better use of a ‘waste’ item.

Counting on … day 105

9th July 2025

Mend, darn and repair clothes. Ideally clothes and household fabrics will give us years of use and pleasure. And even as they wear out, they can still be of use.

Initially we can avoid waste by looking after our clothes and household fabrics will – ‘a stitch in time saves nine’ is a reminder that the sooner we restitch a broken hem or seem, or mind a tear, or darn a hole, the smaller will be the necessary repair. It can be tempting not to repair an item if it’s replacement is cheap – eg holes in socks, but we should consider not just the cost of replacement but the cost of discarding the sock. On that basis darning a hole makes even more sense. (1)

We have moved from a society that would turn collars and replace cuffs rather than buy a new shirt (2), or that would cut old sheets in half and resew, sides to the middle, to get maximum use from the sheet (3)

You can also patch clothes, sheets and even towels (4) but eventually you may get to the stage where the item is no longer useable in its present form. Then rather than being throw away waste, maybe the item can be repurposed. An old sheets and even might be transformed into a pillow slip or a pile of handkerchiefs. A towel might become a set of flannels or cleaning clothes. Old socks make good dusters or shoe polishing cloths. A t-shirt might become a duster or a pair of pants. (5)

(1) https://www.woolovers.com/page/how-to-darn-a-sock

(2) https://mathomhouse.typepad.com/bluestocking/2016/11/turning-shirt-collars.html

(3) https://forum.lettucecraft.com/t/turning-a-sheet-sides-to-middle-saving-the-planet-one-mend-at-a-time/22619

(4) https://designmom.com/living-well-4-secrets-to-patching-clothes/

(5) https://www.redhandledscissors.com/2010/06/17/t-shirt-to-underpants-upcycling/

Counting on … day 104

8th July 2025

Waste paper – not all waste paper needs to go into the recycling bin. Much can be reused.

Writing paper that has been used on one side only, can be used in the printer – including business letters which are often printed on really good quality paper. (But use discretion if you are sharing print-outs that you don’t accidentally share private information).

Christmas cards can be cut up for gift tags (but how many do you need?) or alternatively cut up into useful sizes for shopping lists, memos and phone messages.

You can cut the picture from a greeting card and reuse it as a post card. Oxfam even prints postcard outlines on the box of their cards. And if you are hand delivering a card, write on the envelope in pencil – and don’t stick down the flap – so that it can easily be reused. Reusing envelopes is generally another idea.

Wrapping paper too can be reused if carefully folded and kept after use. Using string or ribbon – or elastic bands – instead of sticky tape is good practice.

Old paper bags or sheets of newspaper can be used to line kitchen compost buckets.

Counting on … day 101

3rdJuly 2025

Plastic waste pollution doesn’t just come from single use items; it also comes from ‘fast tech’ – cheap plastic-encased electronic items that whilst not single use are quickly discarded. Eg hand held fans, electric toothbrushes, mini torches, fairy lights, head phones and ear buds. (1)

Conventional thinking goes:-

Being cheap we don’t worry of it breaks – we just throw it in the bin (from where it will go to landfill)

Being cheap we buy it as a fun gift whether it’s needed or not.

Being cheap we don’t worry about buying another if we forgot to pack it.

Being cheap, well discard last year’s model because this year’s looks so much nicer.

Being cheap we don’t try and look after it or to mend it if it breaks.

The problem of plastic pollution needs us to ask: Do I need this product? Should I buy the cheapest, or should I look for the durable, repairable option? Will I value this product?

(1) https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/02/throwaway-culture-products-repair-reuse-recycle-obsolete?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Counting on … day 98

30th June 2025

What is waste?

Waste can be what we throw away – what we no longer want. What goes into a waste paper bin or down the waste pipe. That paper bin might as easily be a recycling bin. The waste water pipe might feed into a grey water system and flush the loo too.

Waste can be what is left over when we have cut out the material for an item of clothing – ditto a piece of timber, a sheet of metal etc. The waste from shirt might become a matching pair of boxers, or a lavender bag. A timber off cut might become a bread board.

Waste can be the outer leaves of a cabbage, the stalk from a Brussels sprout plant, the core from an apple. Such waste can be the basis of a compost heap, or the start of a jar of cider vinegar.

Waste land can be the land we don’t cultivate – it may become a haven for biodiversity.

A waste of time – a sense that we could have made better use of the time; ditto a waste of space. But these are both subjective. Wasting time may actually be restful and restorative.

Counting on … day 23

3rd February 2025

“Farmers are the backbone of our agricultural industry, working tirelessly to bring food to our tables. However, the practice of price manipulation in agricultural markets has severe consequences for these hardworking individuals. One of the most significant impacts on farmers is the financial struggles they face, coupled with a sense of uncertainty about their future.” (1)

Food waste can also be linked with capital waste. Farming requires capital inputs – seed, fertilisers, equipment – for which the return can be unpredictable. Crops may fail due to adverse weather or pests. Prices may fall because of changes in demand or because of the manipulation of the markets by investors such as hedge funds.

Recently there seemed to be a surge in demand for British grown fruit – apples, cherries etc. demand peaked and with inflation consumers (and supermarkets) opted for cheaper imports. What do farmers do who have invested in planting orchards? It can be years before the capital is repaid: should they grub up the new trees and cut their losses?

Do we need more control over prices – limiting the role of investors who are simply playing the market, using subsides to guarantee prices for British grown produce?

https://fastercapital.com/content/Price-Manipulation-in-the-Agricultural-Markets–Impacts-on-Farmers-and-Consumers.html

Counting on … day 11

15th January 2025

Reducing waste and the pressure we put on the Earth, we should also consider how many single use items we are discarding, including those that we put in the recycling bin.

Plastic yogurt pots can be recycled but that still uses oil to produce the plastic (very little food packaging is made from recycled plastic) and energy to produce it. Could there be a more sustainable way of getting yogurt? One way might be for yogurt to be sold in reusable glass jars – as per milk. Another might be to make one’s own yogurt in reusable pots.

The same is true of margerine tubs – might solid margerine (vegan butter) that comes wrapped in greaseproof paper be better?

And what about refilling and reusing wine bottles, beer bottles etc? We do it with milk and fruit juices.

And what about avoiding single use coffee cups and plastic bottles of water? Tap water is free! And coffee tastes better in a proper cup.

Four different types of refull/ reuse consumer practice

What Is Reuse