Waste not…

….want not. That’s a phrase that I’m sure many of us grew up hearing from our parents. They’d lived through the rationing during and after the Second World War, right up until 1954 when meat and milk became more readily available. Throughout my childhood there would be saucers on every shelf of the fridge, each one with a couple of roast potatoes, or some carrots, whatever hadn’t been eaten over the last few days. They’d be put into a cauldron of soup at the end of the week so nothing was thrown away. So I’ve always tried hard not to be wasteful. Imagine my surprise, then, when our local council decided to reorganise our rubbish collections and give us two bins for food waste. One to keep inside, lined with a recyclable bag, and then a much larger one to store all those bags until it is collected each week. Well, ours has never had more than one bag and in it there are tea bags, which hubby complains about in our compost bin as they don’t rot down. Also I put egg shells in there and chicken bones, that’s all. Any vegetable peelings go into the compost bins in the garden along with tree soft prunings and lawn mowings . Overkill by the council? I’d say so 😉