June 24 2007 - the doggy do's ain't going nowhere

It's no good convincing myself otherwise. As carefully as I scoop them up from the garden and drop them in a plastic bag, it makes no difference whatever. Those poos are going nowhere. And they're going nowhere because of the bag. Protected in their totally-un-biodegradable cocoon they're not going to make it back to Mother Earth where they might do some good.

It's even more nonsensical that I purchase the finest quality cat litter, completely biodegradable, from the supermarket each week - only to encase the cats' main contribution to the environment in another totally everlasting plastic bag.

But now I'm under pressure from Tesco to do something about it. The numerous used envelopes I wantonly waste will have to wait, Tesco won't. How's that? you ask. I'll tell you. Apparently sensing a major public relations disaster just because they get about £1 in every £5 spent in the entire Universe, Tesco has suddenly decided to go green. And one way they are doing this is to discourage their customers from using their free plastic bags.

They even offer bag-less delivery, which leaves me in the embarassing position of having to explain to the delivery man why I still wanted bags when all the other guilt-ridden middle class lefties were managing to do without. "It's the animals" was my weak attempt at self-justification.

To make matters worse even the cats and the dog (and the kitchen bin) cannot keep up with our supply of plastic bags - and believe me they try - and it looks like we might have to start throwing some out soon if something doesn't change. I even suspect Beloved might have done so on one or two occasions without telling me.

So, after a quick look around I discover a guy called Tommo1717 (funny, I used to know a Tommy1717) is selling biodegradable carrier bags on Ebay for £5.99 for 150. Tommy1717 has a 99.9% popularity rating, which makes him a lot more popular than even the Prime Minister and George W Bush combined. And I don't think £5.99 is a lot of money to make me that little bit more of a responsible citizen, so I'm going to buy some. I'm not sure the doggy-do's will be that good for the environment even then, but at least we won't have to wait until the year 3050 to find out.

June 22 2007: Took the plastic mountain to Tesco

Having discovered that Tesco are running their own recycling depot in their car park, I decided this would be a good place to dispose of the by now almost unmanageable plastic mountain.

It seems that, whereas only a year or two ago there were restrictions on what plastic could be recylced, now it appears we can take along whatever we like. This is great news, because being such light items, it's difficult to catch ones plastic bottles let alone look underneath them to see what type of plastic they are.

Plastic is a very versatile thing, and some very enterprising and creative people have started reforming the molten stuff into new items. The wife and I bought some very interesting - and inspiring - items at The Eden Project last time we were down there. What they can make from otherwise unwanted items includes pencils, rulers, a fascinating keyring made from an old printed circuit board (aMAZING what some people can create!), notepads, pencil cases made from recycled tyres and even a recycled rubber mouse mat.

Some of these items are made from old tyres that would quite likely otherwise be dumped or burned to create yet more atmospheric pollution. I came away feeling much more hopeful for us all. The Eden Project shop is at: +recycled">http://www.edenstore.co.uk/stationery-search.asp?types=yes&type=stationery+>+recycled

So anyway, recycling our plastics at Tesco was fun. You put them in a machine which then grabs them one by one when it's ready. More often than not it seemed to close its non-negotiable jaws at precisely the moment I am chucking a bottle in, so the whole process took a while, including of course chasing around the car park as the ultra-light plasticware bounced out of its recycling box and onto the tarmac.

Only problem is, having driven to Tesco's in the first place, did I use more energy getting there than was saved in the recycling? I think the idea is to be shopping there at the time, but we get our groceries delivered. Except of course the stuff I forget to order every week so there' s an opportunity there. Or maybe Tesco won't mind picking my plastics up for me. They always seem to be driving around in vans.

7 June 2007 - There's a plastic mountain outside my house

The first thing I should mention is the sterling job Beloved has made today of cooking up all our veges (organic) into three delicious-looking dishes, a fritata, a stewy thing and definitely a soup. She thought I should mention it so I have. Quite rightly.

I keep getting flyers through the post and falling out of the Guardian newspaper I have to put up with suggesting we get a satellite dish and go over to Sky. It's not the corporate enormity of Sky or B-Sky-B or whatever I object to, it's the large, ugly satellite dish you need on top of your house in order to receive it. For a wind-turbine that might save the planet you need planning permission in triplicate from the Council, but you can stick up a rusty old metal soup bowl for free. The resistance continues.

Talking of the Council I had a reply from a nice lady from the Council assuring me that the used computers sit by the scrap metal bin and not in it. Was it a case of "place it gently down there by the scrap metal bin and we'll deal with it later, mate", that I was hearing after all? Anyway, it's good to know my humble email resulted in some action as the management of the recycling 'place' (sadly we can't call it the 'dump' anymore, I think it's now a 'resource' or 'centre'. Or maybe it doesn't even have a name, it's just 'the recycling') was consulted with my complaint.

I cleansed my soul to some extent over the weekend by actually reusing an envelope to house the receipts from my computer consultancy. Hopefully the start of a great new habit.

Oh, and finally, what do you do when the recycling bin the Council provides AND the one we brought home with us from New Zealand, still don't hold all the plastics that seem to flow out of our home like lava from Mount Vesuvius? Plastic builds up very quickly indeed, and it blows away easily too. I'm on the lookout for a plastic bottle crusher, I'm sure they exist, or I'll have to invent one in my copious spare time, and then I can advertise it on my super-successful website (still in the design stages), sell a couple of million and retire to a life of blogging on a Spanish island somewhere. I can hardly wait!