I recently received an e-mail from one of our readers, Seyi. I could totally relate to it (because when we got our recycle bin I wrote about it on City Hippy) and it was so positive that I asked him if I could post it on GGG. He said “sure”, so here goes…..

Don’t know who to tell, but Im really excited!

We got given our blue box yesterday - for recycling kitchen waste, vegetables etc. I live in Hackney, East London.. We now have a brown bin for garden waste, a green one for bottles, cans, plastics and paper and a blue one for leftover food, peels, cores etc.

I’m SO excited!! I know thats a bit sad, but I dont care.. had to tell someone who might give a toss!! We take the bins out everyday usually - in the last 24 hours we havent at all.. I just checked it, its basically empty apart from a bread bag and some plastic meat trays.

I wish I weighed my rubbish to see how much of an effect its having…seriously, this is revolutionary - I hope the rest of Hackney is doing it too.

It feels so right! I have always hated (since I was a kid) putting all rubbish in the same bin.. It looks problematic! it seems counter-intuitive to me, the paper can be made into new paper - but not once I’ve poured the rest of my dinner onto it! Then top that off with a glass jar that could be recycled, but nobody is gonna get it out of the spag. bol. leftovers it’s sitting in!

So I now feel very ‘complete’ knowing its all going to the right place…Having said that it’ll probably just get shipped to Chinese landfill sites, but still - I feel better!

I had this obsession years ago with a company (Compogas) that made biogas out of garden waste.. they put it in a big cylinder with some enzymes… what comes out is manure and liquid fertiliser, but while its in there it produces Methane gas, which gets collected in cylinders. Read about it on Wikipedia (if your that bothered!)

I read recently (I read environmental technology websites - I know its sad, but I refuse to stop!!) that they can do it with all kitchen waste now - including processed/cooked foods and cooked meat - which is a real step forward, we’re talking twice as much waste that can be used, so presumably roughly twice as much gas. The enzymes they use are better too - so they dont take as long… The first time I read about this technology i think there were 60 day cycles, now it happens in a few days.

My dream would be to run a waste management plant like that. It all goes in one end, and out the other end you get.. lumps of plastic for making bottles etc. sheets of glass, rolls of paper, and gas cylinder.. then you could have a little farm shop selling veg grown in all the compost the plant produces! I know its not really possible/practical to have an all-in-one solution like that, but I love the idea!

Thanks Seyi!

Are any of you out there like us and get excited about recycling? Do you feel inspired by new initiatives where you live? Tell us about it!