Could you bin your bin?

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned Betsy Reid who is rumoured to be the UK's greatest recycler. Then I got my copy of Clean Slate, the CAT magazine, which had an article on what you might call extreme recycling - giving up your residual waste bin altogether. The idea is simple, but extremely challenging - you buy nothing that you can't recycle.

I'm tempted to give it a go, but I can see immediate problems. While we mainly use real nappies for our little boy, we do use one 'eco-friendly' disposable overnight as they're more absorbent so he will sleep through the night OK. This is the single most important thing for our quality of life at present and I really don't want to risk disrupting it. Another problem is that we're omnivorous so meat scraps can be a problem - not ideal for the compost heap. So I'm wimping out.

Another new idea, which is used in the construction industry, is to become 'waste neutral' - in other words you make sure that the amount of stuff you do throw away is matched by the amount of recycled/reused material you purchase. I'm not entirely convinced this adds up as it might encourage you to buy more stuff just to cover your increasing waste which may in turn increase the amount of stuff you buy - not really going in the right direction.

BTW Clean Slate suggests you convert your old wheelie bin into a water butt using a special kit, but I rather think your local council (which owns the bin) may have something to say about that.