How I Contribute for Zero Waste Week

Well, I suppose really I should not be contributing to Zero Waste Week, if you get my meaning! Have you heard of the challenge? Environmental waste management is a big deal in the Green household, because my husband is a Chartered Waste Manager. Therefore, he scrutinizes every item that we use, he monitors the products we buy (and refuses to purchase items with excessive, unrecyclable packaging), and he tries to encourage reuse as often as possible.

When I received the Zero Waste Week newsletter inviting us to do a waste audit, I decided that wasn’t really an issue for me. As a family of four, we dispose of just one black plastic bin-bag of general waste each fortnight. Our biggest waste challenge is plastic food containers and cardboard packaging, but we recycle almost all of it. But there is an area that I feel needs improvement. I am the only person in our household that eats salad, and I often throw out half a bag of the stuff because I cannot eat it quickly enough before it spoils and goes soggy.

Zero Waste Week

My solution to the salad issue is a little wild, quite literally. I like the idea of foraging for food, just like our ancient ancestors used to. I want to break free from the supermarkets, and find my own natural, vegetarian food. I just haven’t been brave enough, because from a young age I have been taught that anything growing wild could be poisonous, or carries germs, or is otherwise bad for me. That is a cultural issue, I believe. There are lots of green plants, berries and flowers growing alongside the canal and river in my hometown, and most of those contain edible components.

So here is my challenge, and this seems the best time of year to try it out, with Autumn fast approaching and all those winter fruits and berries beginning to ripen. I will seek out overgrown and little used places, and I will attempt to forage for foods that can accompany my meals. I’m not sure how successful I will be, or indeed when I will try it out, but that is my plan. Watch this space for updates!

 

 

Catherine is the author of the adult paranormal romance series The Redcliffe Novels and also The Darkness of Love, She has short stories published in YA anthologies, freelance articles on various industry websites, and contributes to her personal blog, and her author blog .

You can find Catherine on Facebook and Twitter

 

 

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