Welcome to Vauxhall Community Orchard

I've made an enquiry about turning some redundant land (a disused petrol station) in Vauxhall into a community orchard. It wouldn't be very large, maybe only about six trees but it would look fantastic, give local residents and workers some more green space to enjoy and, once the fruit trees start cropping, food for people for free and a chance to teach some city children about seasonal, native food and cooking. It may only be on a small scale but it would provide much more community benefit than a disused petrol station. I emailed my local councillor and have been promised a detailed response once the matter has been investigated fully. Watch this space...

A Whole lot of disappointment!

I visited the Whole Foods shop in Clapham Junction last weekend and was very disappointed as it seems that many of the Whole Foods stores in the US have bulk buy options where you can refill your own containers rather than buy pre-packaged goods. At the Clapham Junction store there were no bulk buy options in sight. So I'll have one last attempt in the so-called 'flagship' shop on High Street Kensington, otherwise all I can suggest to readers is to buy in the biggest sizes possible to limit packaging. This should theoretically be cheaper, but sadly this is not always the case.In good news...as one of my first official steps into a waste-free lifestyle, I have now purchased a Klean Kanteen to carry with me in order to stop buying bottled water and it is fantastic - lightweight and aesthetically pleasing. Mine comes in a chic coffee colour (described as 'tree-bark brown' by the company - not so chic methinks!). If you are in need of a UK supplier for these, I have found one - in the form of Little Acorns to Mighty Oaks (www.littleacornstomightyoaks.co.uk ). This is a business run from home by the lovely Warren Masters, so you can't really visit. But the website is extremely browse-able and Warren was wonderfully helpful with all my queries. He even took any excess plastic out of my parcel before posting!So Klean Kanteens: fantastic, will last for ages and stop you spending money on overpriced, overpackaged bottled water. I used to buy a bottle of water/diet coke/juice at least three times a week so I'm saving myself around £5-6 per week. I'll make back the money spent on my Klean Kanteen in no time.

First Foray to the Supermarket since starting

I walked to Sainsburys in Vauxhall for vegetables and lunch materials. My aims on this trip were (1) minimal packaging and (2) at the very least – no packaging that was non-reusable or non recyclable.I took one of those thin plastic vegetable bags that I had washed and saved from my last trip to use for some loose fruit and vegetables along with some old plastic bags to save me taking any more at the till. I re-used the veg bag for some loose apples and then took two bunches of beetroot and didn’t put them in a bag. Suprise, suprise - they were perfectly fine when I got home without the need for packaging. For the first time ever I used the deli counter as opposed to taking pre-packaged product off the shelves. I did look at the pre-packaged products but I couldn’t find one product that was packaged in recyclable material. NOT ONE. A lot of them said to check with your council (which I will get round to at some point - and try to produce a helpful list for others). Therefore I gave the deli lady a piece of Tupperware to put the sliced meats in and she gave me the sticky labels to stick on the side and be scanned at the checkout. My next quandary was rice and pasta which all comes in plastic bags. Furthermore, most breakfast cereals come in recycleable cardboard boxes and then…plastic bags. These bags are not able to be collected for recycling by the council (Wandsworth at least) and I’ve found no other use for them, so the best way to avoid the waste is not to buy them at all. I did find that Quaker Oats come in only a cardboard box which you poke in the side to open, so for the time being I'll be eating a large amount of porridge for breakfast. Beth Terry of Fake Plastic Fish solves this problem by bulk buying dried goods i.e. taking along a reusable container and refilling it in the store. However she lives in San Francisco which has a lot more options for bulk buy than central London. I’m going to investigate Whole Foods in Clapham Junction to see what they offer…watch this space.

To explain a few things....

It all started when I read a small column in the Saturday Telegraph magazine about a woman in America who threw nothing away. The article said she was able to fit all her waste for one year into a coffee tin. Which is really really miniscule. Meanwhile. I was sat at Caffe Nero with my coffee. I then promptly forgot all about the article I had read until I finished my cup of coffee...and went to throw the takeaway cup in a public bin. I thought about all the other stuff I’d thrown away and where it all goes.

I stared investigating and discovered the totally amazing Beth Terry from Fake Plastic Fish and(http://fakeplasticfish.com/) and Almost Mrs Average from The Rubbish Diet (http://therubbishdiet.blogspot.com/).

And started reading. Both of these lovely ladies have very different lifestyles to me and many of their suggestions seemed inspiring but completely impractical. So what this blog is really about is my attempts as a young woman with a shoe habit and somewhat refined tastes to implement some of the ideas and lifestyle changes that Beth and Almost Mrs Average have managed to achieve in different locations and lifestyles...and maybe inspire a few people to do the same along the way.