Haringey council recently added some more recycling options to our street. We can now recycle plastic and food waste, which I happen to find ridiculously exciting. Now we don’t have a pile of plastic containers in the kitchen, building up until we can take it to a separate recycling facility.

So there’s one less mess. The other fantastic part is recycling food waste. The reason it SO fantastic is because all the smelly stuff goes into one small container with a bag that is replaced often enough for it not to trigger a gag reflex everytime I need to throw something in the bin.

This means that our main bin consists almost entirely of plastic wrapping. Even cardboard and paper get recycled, so it magnifies how much plastic we actually throw away each week.

Everytime we go to the grocery store, tomatoes, lettuce, apples, pears, bananas, peppers, carrots, and more all in plastic bags, sometimes with plastic trays as well (but those are recyclable). Why do we need our apples to be in plastic bags? Are people catching swine flu from apples?

I know we can reduce our plastic use by doing things the old-fashioned way, selecting fruits by hand. Perhaps the grocery store can provide a special part of the shopping cart that is meant only for fruit and veg, and we can get those re-usable bags and just move them right into those.

What about cereal? Do we really need a box AND a bag? Meats and cheeses are perhaps another large use of wrappings. This one is a tough one. Let’s use wrappings that decompose. I know this type of plastic exists. Why aren’t we using it?

I think it’s really important that the government provide us easy ways to recycle. I never would have gathered food waste for composting if Haringey hadn’t made it simple. I’m glad my council tax is going toward a good cause.