So I have decided to start my own zero waste mission, or as close to zero as I can get. It’s all about throwing as little away as possible, especially plastic. I have always been thrifty and resourceful with what I consume but so many things we buy come wrapped in plastic and unnecessary packaging. I am going to make extra effort to cut out plastic at the source, at the point of purchase.

I want to think of ways to use things I no longer need, turn them into materials or components that can be made into something else. It’s like adding a ‘filter’ on your rubbish bin or recycling bin that means you look at waste differently and take that into consideration when you are buying anything new.

My zero waste journey needs to start with what I already have, looking at where the changes need to be made in my everyday life. As I go through my day I can identify where I am using the most plastic and try to find an alternative that is either made from sustainable, natural materials or from recycled plastic.

The first everyday plastic I want to look at is plastic shopping bags. I use tote bags but still have a bunch of old plastic bags that I couldn’t bring myself to throw away. I found this technique a while ago that makes a continuous strand from anything tubular like a t-shirt, sock or a plastic bag.

I have made a PDF that you can view below or download here:

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I made another recycling bin from old Tesco bags which had a nice blue red and white colour scheme, always a winner. They were the thicker bags for life and were much easier to crochet with as it is a chunkier strand. This gives it a stronger structure as well and it feels more like a waste paper basket when finished. You can achieve different thicknesses when cutting out the strands by adjusting the width of the strand. This does however mean that you need more bags to cut up if you make the strips wider.

I feel immensely satisfied that I got rid of the bags that were cluttering up my cupboard and turned them into something useful (smug face and self five :D). If all goes to plan my new recycling bins will be empty most of the time.

“The UK has more breeds of sheep than any other country in the world, but wool has gone from being so valuable that the Speaker of the House of Lords still sits upon a wool sack – symbolic of the historic significance of wool to the wealth of the nation – to a throwaway by-product of the meat industry.”

“Most farmers don’t value their wool because the price is so low, sheep flocks have become much larger and it’s not easy to process and market wool yourself. As a result, most sheep don’t get sheared.“

“By the 1980s the use of wool (and other natural fibres) crashed as synthetic fabrics, derived from oil, saturated the markets with cheap, quickly produced clothing and other domestic and industrial products. Almost overnight wool, upon which so much of our national wealth had been built, became practically valueless in mainstream markets.”

“Processing options for wool are limited and current outlets typically fall into the ‘niche’ or ‘craft’ categories.”

Cradle to Cradle

Cradle to Cradle (C2C) is about seeing garbage as an eternal resource and doing the right thing from the beginning. It is about making community and product development function in the same way as a healthy ecological system where all resources are used effectively, and in a cyclical way (as opposed to the current linear system that can be better described as a Cradle to Grave system).

In order for the C2C system to be sustainable, all materials in products need to be kept clean and should not be mixed. Alternatively, there needs to be a separation system in place that can be applied after the item is discarded. C2C methodology builds on the concept that “waste = food”, meaning that what is considered waste can become food in a new product cycle.

This methodology was developed by professor Michael Braungart and William McDonough in 2001 and it has been used as inspiration in products, buildings and production systems.

C2C cyclical systems

In practical terms, C2C requires products to be designed in such a way to ensure that all materials can be classified into one of two cyclical systems:

1. Biological cycle

   Materials that naturally biodegrade and can be returned to the ecological system. Examples of such materials are natural fibres and bio plastics.

2. Technology cycle

   Metals, oil-based plastics and chemicals are examples of valuable materials that can be recycled or reused producing the same or better quality in closed systems, provided they are not mixed.