Month: March 2009

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‘Love Food – Hate Waste’

I was reading about an interesting British initiative the other day. A government agency is trialling going door to door giving advice about how to reduce food wastage. The estimate of this agency is that about one third of all food purchased in the UK ends up in the bin costing an average family about $1,100 each year. The article cites that the C02 impact of eliminating this waste would be equivalent to taking one in five cars off the road (Source: NZ Healthy Food March 2009 p. 14. Original source: Telegraph.co.uk).

 

In our household we have been trying really hard since the end of 2008 to minimise food wastage, planning our meals around what is about to expire etc so that we make the most of the food we have bought. Last week we had sickness in the house and were off our food a little so we ended up with a bit of wastage but even that was very minimal compared to what we used to waste. The cats play their part as well – we have found they are very fussy about the kind of food they get during the day but if we leave meat scraps from our dinner out during the night the plate is always clean when we get up in the morning.

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Thumbs up to The Warehouse

Well I guess I’ll have to stop hassling The Warehouse over plastic bags for now. Went shopping yesterday in Upper Hutt and got asked if I wanted a plastic bag – back to normal again! The weekend newspaper (Dominion Post 21/03/2009) also reported that of April 20 The Warehouse is going to charge 10 cents per bag to encourage shoppers to reduce their plastic bag use. 

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The Warehouse and Plastic Bags

I’m not sure what’s been happening with The Warehouse lately. The last two trips our items have been automatically put in a plastic bag at different Warehouse stores – Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt. The other day my husband bought one DVD and it was put in a plastic bag???!!! If my husband is asked he will say ‘no’ to a plastic bag so it is important that consumers like him are given the option by the checkout operators. I would have thought that with businesses trying to save money that asking consumers if they want a plastic bag would be a good way to reduce costs. Up to now in my survey (see ‘Say no to plastic bags’) the Warehouse has always been great at asking about plastic bags – what’s going on? The Warehouse signed the Packaging Accord so it would be good to see them not dropping their standards. Although Woolworths is part of the Packaging Accord also and they, as I have commented on before, put everything in a plastic bag! The Packaging Accord is due to expire in June – save this link for keeping up to date with what is happening re the new packaging product stewardship scheme Packaging Council of New Zealand (Inc) : Media News

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Vinegar update

Well I’m just about to finish my first spray bottle of white vinegar and still have litres of the stuff stored in the cupboard. White vinegar as a cleaner is definitely an economically sensible purchase as well as eco friendly. The thing I still like best is the fact I can use it while I’m in the kitchen cooking if I see a stain or fingerprints all over the fridge etc as spraying isn’t going to be harmful in any way.

 

The Summer 09 Greenpeace magazine ‘kakariki’ has a page of useful eco cleaning recipes – some ecocleaning recipes can be accessed from

 

Green cleaning – share your recipes | Greenpeace New Zealand Weblog. You can also pop your own recipes on the site. I like the look of the toilet cleaning recipe. I always use toilet duck but it gets used up quickly so I would rather use a cheaper alternative. Recipe: Sprinkle baking soda into the toilet bowl, then squirt with vinegar and scour with a toilet brush. Will clean and deodorise. I still have my bathroom weekend cleaning to do so we will see how it goes!

 

 

 

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The poverty trap

Although things are tight around the household at the moment we are lucky that we have some flexibility when it comes to spending. We are mortgaged to the hilt, our newly renovated house pretty much all belongs to the bank and we have lost one salary due to the recession but because we presently have a mortgage in that respect we are doing better than before the recession because of lower interest rates. Because we have a mortgage we also are able to try and ride the recession as we have access to borrowing money. We can buy in bulk if we see things on special – toilet paper, meat, toothpaste, coffee etc. As a result of being able to buy in bulk cooking at home is a cheaper option than takeaways and we can therefore save money. As an earner I received tax cuts last year. We insulated our house while renovating it and were able to put in heat pumps so we can heat our house more efficiently. While renovating we chose not to go with gas sticking with electricity figuring that in the long run having one daily charge is better than two regardless of the unit charge.

 

Those on or below the poverty line don’t have all this flexibility, as prices rise they have few options to pay full price as their weekly spending can’t take benefit of bulk spending. Those without jobs don’t get tax cuts to assist them to survive the price hikes and those who rent make no savings from lower mortgage rates. Often those who rent live in houses with poor insulation so heat is a necessity for their health not a luxury. My mum, living on superannuation, lives in a house that has both gas and electricity. Even if she never puts any appliance on she still has to pay two daily charges.

 

At times like this it’s easy to stop payments to charities and donations to food banks but now is the time that those who are struggling most need the support of those of us who are in situations where we can at least try and buffer ourselves against the recession.