I have something to show you.
It’s a little bit special.
I’ve never shown it to anybody before. No, that’s not true, I have shown it to one other person, but otherwise you’ll be the first to see it.
Ready?
Da daaaaaa
Sighhh, lovely isn’t it?
So why am I showing you my overstuffed and unsightly wheelie bin?
Well, my wheelie bin is unhappy. Really really unhappy. For the last few years he has been fed until fit to burst, then purged of his undigested lunch on a two weekly basis by ‘the lorry’.
The thing is, Simon (well I’ve got to call him something), stinky Simon has a crush on the the lorry. He believes she is a thing of beauty, an angel in the guise of, erm, a large heavy goods vehicle with mechanical extras, but she cannot see past his bulging lid, the flies, and the extra bags that hang around waiting to climb in when she has relieved him of his innards.
Are you with me?
Do I need to recap?
- Bin is too full
- Bin fancies lorry
- Lorry thinks bin is a disgusting greedy porker
- Bin is sad
Simon told me his story one night over a glass of Heineken and a muller light yogurt and I realized of course that it was all our fault. We overfed our bin. We left him bulging at the seams, swollen, aching, not even able to close his lid properly and no sooner was he emptied we filled him again with the left over bags we couldn’t fit in before.
Alas, what were we to do?
But fate was at hand. My lovely blog friend 21st Century Mummy aka Almost Mrs Average was already making headway into the realms of lowering your landfill waste by creating The Rubbish Diet in her own efforts to produce Zero Waste. She asked me if I would like her to design a personal programme to help me slim my bin and after sending photos, filling out a questionnaire about our waste habits and the area in which we live, she did just that.
We began our rubbish diet about a month ago.
We bought one of these…
..a happy side effect of which is that the slugs seem to love it so I’ve not had any in my kitchen for a while.
We’re using loads more of these, so we no longer have a ton of carrier bags littering our cellar stairs like a shiny plastic carpet covered in Schmesco logos.
And, almost Mrs Average found out that we could recycle cardboard drinks cartons in our area, and that our blue bin which is also emptied every two weeks can now receive yogurt pots and other recyclable plastics, so all of that, along with our glass waste now goes to the great God of recycling instead of into a big mucky hole on the ground.
So we’re doing ok.
And how is Simon?
I can feel the anticipation.
Well one month on, and our bin went out like this.
And apparently that saucy minx of a lorry winked at him and gave him her number.
Result.
We were aiming to cut our landfill waste by 50%, and we’re really on the way. I know it won’t be like this every week, but we’re doing much better and are now being so much more careful about what we buy, i.e. what it’s packaged in. I could give you a long list of the little changes we’ve been making, but that would be long and this post is already long enough, so I’m going to give you a little bit at a time over the next few weeks.
One thing though, it hasn’t been all that hard.
And it feels good.
(And my wheelie bin didn’t have a name before this post I promise. We don’t generally name household objects. Except the kids.) 
June 10th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Oh Jo, we’ve been composting and burning burnables for years…and have the most beautiful dirt for our plants to show for it, because we mix the ash with the “cooked ” compost to make it light and airy and add nutrients at the same time…good for you and good for the bin and “good on” Simon!
Sandi
June 10th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
ROFL Jo – I love you for both the fabulous account and for having the heart to go for it. I am so glad to have been of help and if you know of any takers to have a go in July, I can promise them a barrel of filth and laughs as well. Go Simon! Hope he enjoys his first date ;-D Karen (aka Almost Mrs Average) xxxx
June 10th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Woot Woot for living green!!
June 10th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Earth is pretty darn happy with you as well.
June 10th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Heehee, lovely personification of your garbage bin.
And awesome on the garbage reduction. We compost too, although I’m afraid to look inside. Your picture was enough to make me *herk* a few times.
June 10th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Good for you. Can you believe my area doesn’t even recycle!!! I’ve been on the waste management people, but they ignore me. I hate knowing that I could be recycling if just given the means.
June 10th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Good for you Jo! I’m feeling all inspired now. We’ve got to have two bins around here, it’s that bad.
June 10th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
very timely post. I have a couple of questions as I wanted to buy one this weekend. I was told it attracts a lot of flies.
Q1: How big is your garden?
Q2: Have you noticed an increase in flies?
Q3: Ok so I don’t have a third question just any added info would be helpful I’m a city dweller so I don’t have loads of space.
June 10th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Wow!
I must admit, I get a sinfully lovely feeling when I fill up the recycling bin or the composter. Wheeee!
Good for you guys!
June 10th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
It’s amazing how much can be reycled when you put your mind to it. Good job, JB.
June 10th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
we don’t even have wheelie bins. we have sacks. the whole street has sacks. it’s crap. no romance at all.
nice one, jo, for hookin’ simon up proper.
June 10th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Well done, Jo.
(that’s not a compliment, I’m just telling you how I like my steak in case I ever get invited around for dinner)
June 10th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Good for you Jo! That is a great step forward and I applaud you. And I love the way you wrote the post, and that you named your bin!
June 10th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
oooo look at you saving the earth. I love it.
day by day….I get more and more green…and it feels good! 
June 10th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Stinky Simon looks like a nice, respectable wheelie bin and it is nice to hear you have started treating him (and the environment) with respect.
I live in suburban Texas where the general thinking is “environment? we have plenty of that!”. When we bought this house it came with three (3) wheelie bins. There is no recycling in our subdivision and we can leave out as much rubbish as we like.
I thought the kids might like one of those sluggy bins – you know, as a kind of gross garden toy
Do they smell in summer?
June 10th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
You are SUCH an inspiration…and hilarious to boot!!
I’m such a nerd, but I love reducing our household trash…it feels really good to know that I’m putting the extra effort in and teaching the kids good habits at the same time.
Very clever post!
June 11th, 2008 at 2:23 am
That was a brilliant post. I won’t tell you about the rat we had in our compost bin (needless to say I don’t have it anymore~ rat or bin!) You can recycle a lot more than we can down here!
June 11th, 2008 at 4:47 am
Sandi I will have to try that too. Mr B likes him a good bonfire, hee hee.
Karen aka Mrs Almost Average AKA 21st Century Mummy, you are amazing and we couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you so much for all your hard work and to constant tips and inspiration. Hug.
Maria thanks babe. We have to do something don’t we.
Momo, yay. Thanks hon.
Lilacspecs, it’s a bit gross in there isn’t it? And did you see the size of those slugs? Bleurghhhhh. As long as they stay there I don’t mind though.
Lori that must be soooooo annoying. Hope they get something sorted soon.
Kim, it’s hard to think of this stuff when you have kids, but I promise it’s easier than you might think. Go for it babe.
Lindy, our garden is quite big, but the composter isn’t too enormous. At the moment there are only flies when you open the lid and it’s about two thirds full. It pongs a bit if you open the lid mainly due to the grass cuttings I think. We need to stir it around a bit and add some paper to get some air in there.
I would imagine you’ll be fine but I’m kind of new at this so I’ll look into it for you ok?
Miss Burrows me too. It’s bit weird, but it’s like a pet you have to feed or something.
GonebackSouth thanks. It really is surprising. We’re also really thinking about what we buy now.
Holl, at least you could have a race or something babe.
WT, Mr B likes his well done too so that will be fine.
Maureen thanks, you’re a star.
Corey it really does doesn’t it? Kind of liberating in some way too.
chrisb, I don’t mind rats but I’d rather not have one in my compost bin. I’ll keep an eye.
June 11th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Inzaburbs, hi. My kids do like to feed the sluggy bin. It whiffs a bit if you take the lid off but I think that’s because we need to mix it a bit. Otherwise it is stink free. Get one, you know you want to.
Huckdoll, hi lovely, and thanks. It is cool to know we’re giving them SOME good habits isn’t it?
June 12th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Good for you making your own changes. And yay for slugs that stay outside!
June 13th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Oooooh! I want one of those compost bins.