Day +1: A day late but never too late to share!

This month has flown by – as many have already commented. It was a great month, but busy, and frustrating, and disheartening, and incredibly inspiring and motivating all at the same time. 

For my personal challenge I had ups and downs. I started by taking pictures of all of my waste to document what got thrown away, either to landfill or recycling, but I stopped doing that about halfway through the month becuase I had a lot of pictures of repeat products and photos of plastic filling my phone (I got a warning from phone that memory was 100% full), which depressed me. So I thought it would be better to just focus on the large and small things I could do to reduce and divert waste. That bit went pretty well, but I didn’t do any many creative repurpose projects as I was hoping. It turns out that needs time, creative space and ideas, and it turns out I didn’t really have those things this month. 

What did I do? Reduced my own waste by researching and buying day-to-day product alternatives of better eco-quality, such as oat milk, sparkling water, yogurt, chocolate, tea bags, sanitary pads, bamboo travel cutlery, tissues, etc. I also repaired clothing items and have set aside several items that will go to the next local repair cafe that I can make it to (they are sadly very infrequent currently), I have signed up for a local Upcycle, Recycle, Re-use beginners sewing workshop, I have reused many items and set packaging aside for future re-use, I have done litter picking and attended local sustainability group meetings (reciprocity as the ‘r’?), I have made use of my local re-fill zero waste shop, and more. 

And my new thing that I wanted to share: I found a fantastic business in Weston that uses re-claimed wood to build new, beautiful pieces of art, decor and home and garden furniture. We have several things we’ve wanted around the house, most especially a show-bench for the hall. I have looked everywhere for a second-hand option – a handful of antique, second-hand and charity shops, Gumtree and other online marketplaces, to the point of exhaustion and frustration. We were nearly to the point of just caving and getting the flat-pack option. Then, lo! The answer: Somerset Wood Recycling. I am very priveleged to be able to do this, as it is not cheap – but as a middle-class person I should be investing my money in quality recycled goods rather than saving a buck by buying mass produced flat-pack! 

I have done a lot of reflection throughout the month that I will take with me after this Challenge. I have already written too much here to share it all, but suffice to say the Challenge has been very good for me and I will continue to challenge myself, my assumptions, my ‘needs’, and my network, University and community, to do better.