Day +1023
Alf Coles
I work at the School of Education in Mathematics Education and teach on PGCE and Master's courses and supervise several PGRs. I help to run the School's Climate Action Group. I have a family with 3 children, two of them still at school.
My challenge
I want to document (and hope to reduce) all my landfill waste.

Here is our family’s black bin from the last fortnight – about the same as last fortnight – and maybe one quarter or less than before the challenge. Things still going in seem to be mainly stuff that cannot be cleaned and which then is a mix of materials.

It has felt strangely easy to become more mindful of waste – I have almost distrusted how easy. Also bizarre is that I have been wanting to focus on this for a number of years and it needed the challenge and the collective focus to make it happen. The biggest change we have made has been to find a place to recycle plastic film and wrappers and keep these separate – they make up more than the volume of our other waste.

I am confident that habits in our household have changed. 

29.03.2022
  • Team cChallenge
    cCHANGE Team commented on Day 29: This fortnight’s black bin 2 years ago

    Wonderful Alf! I have recently been thinking about the saying "Where attention goes, energy flows". Your comments reinforce this. Congratulations on the changes and progress you have made. In some of your posts, you wrote how they are burning waste for energy. I came across this short video in The Guardian on the weekend. Interesting information about burning waste. What do you think? I was a bit surprised by the level of emissions it emits. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/video/2022/mar/24/why-are-we-burning-our-recycling-video Also reinforced how our challenges sit within systems and we need both system and individual change. Best wishes, Leonie Respond

    • Alf Coles
      Alf Coles commented on Day 29: This fortnight’s black bin 2 years ago

      Thanks Leonie - that is a powerful video. Plastic waste and what we do with it does seem to be a really key issue and that would fit with our family's experience. I need to look into this more! Respond

Inspiration

More about

Climate Justice

Copyright cCHANGE