Meet the ultimate green family who recycle so much they only fill one bin of rubbish every year | Mail Online
Meet the ultimate green family who recycle so much they only filled one rubbish bin in 2009
By Paul Harris
Last updated at 12:46 AM on 31st December 2009The dustbin is so crammed with rubbish it's in danger of overflowing.
There's a mess of brightly coloured plastic at the top, some unidentifiable trash sticking out either side, and so much garbage in the bottom that it's getting difficult to keep the lid on without squashing it all down.
But this battered old bin is the Strauss family's pride and joy.
Green team: Richard, Rachelle and Verona Strauss at their home in Langhope, Gloucestershire, with the only bin they have filled in 2009. They make use of all their leftovers so crisp bags and cellophane wrappers ar about the only things that they throw away
Why? Because it has taken them an entire year to fill it - with the only rubbish they have had to put out for the dustmen since they resolved to cut their waste. In the last 12 months they have
had to dispose of an average of less than 2oz a week - the equivalent of three tablespoons of sugar. The bin was last collected in January 2009 and is only just looking ready to go out again.
All it contains is the waste for which there is no other place.
The rest goes for recycling, selected landfill, compost or re-use. Even the family's broken wooden toilet seat became fuel for the front room fire.
But their remarkable commitment goes far deeper than that.
They have adopted the Good Life by growing some of their own food, have taken the same reusable bags to the shops too many times to count, buy only what they need, and have ruthlessly removed their names from junk-mail address lists. Even Christmas produced only 61/2oz of waste.
Every little helps: The Strauss family's scheme - on the top shelf is the green recycling bin, kale which they grow themselves using composted soil and plastic containers to hoard their empties. Below is a box which the family takes to the landfill site and others for recyclable newspapers, reusable plastic bags and boxes which the family uses to transport fruit and veg
Here comes the difficult bit, though. Next year they aim to throw away nothing at all.
The no-waste quest began 18 months ago after water treattheyment engineer Richard Strauss, 53, his wife Rachelle, 37, and their daughter Verona, eight, read about the effect plastic bags had on marine life.
They decided never to use plastic bags again - and the idea grew from that. Soon, were checking every container at the shops to see if it could be recycled.
They took their own reusable tubs to the local butcher and supermarket deli counter, avoided convenience food and scrupulously sorted what little rubbish they had before determining the best way to use or recycle it.
Their three-bedroom house in the village of Longhope, Gloucestershire, is heated by a wood-burner and the lights run partly on solar energy.
'It's just a case of taking it a step at a time,' Mrs Strauss said yesterday. 'You don't have to do everything overnight.'
The family has chronicled its waste disposal in a weigh-in posted weekly on a website, myzerowaste.com 'When we started this off it felt like a hassle - a bit like going to the gym,' said Mrs Strauss.
'But now we've got into a good routine it's really easy and doesn't cost us any more than before.
'My daughter loves crisps, which was becoming a problem for our rubbish levels, but now she buys one large bag for the week and keeps the rest in an airtight container.
'It's taken us 18 months to get to this level and we've put a lot of determination and effort into it. But if everyone just takes a few more steps towards recycling they can make a huge difference across the globe.'
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To Bern, Canada (31/12, 21:46): Split infinitives are not ungrammatical - it's a myth (see 'AskOxford'). Famous splitters include William Wordsworth, George Eliot, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin - many more ...
I was down to '0' characters in my 'comment' so had to economise on words - hence the split. All newspapers (including 'quality' ones) contain 'splits' - journalists don't give them a second thought.
Cheers ...
- Rebecca Hilton, Bristol, U.K., 01/1/2010 03:51
"the world would be in a better state than it is"
..how arrogant!
- rookwood, USA, 01/1/2010 01:18
This makes me want to go by more stuff, just to create more trash!
Of all of the problems this world truly has, too much trash isn't one of them!
- Gary, Temple, Texas, USA, 01/1/2010 00:58
Recycling is largely morally vain indoctrinated and thus mass pointless usually uneconomical tax payer funded behaviour. 100 years of US rubbish would ALL fit in a hole over a mile wide and around a thousand or so metres deep. It's literally and ironically largely laughable WASTEFUL rubbish. No really. Colonel Neville.
- Colonel Neville, Melbourne Australia., 01/1/2010 00:52
The funny thing is that they're BURNING much of their waste... exactly as my municipal waste management department does. So their extraordinary efforts, while successful in landing them a mention in the news, really just amount to a self-congratulatory pat on the back, as opposed to actually changing anything. Great job, tho.
- Jude Federspiel, Boston, USA, 01/1/2010 00:48
When a good thing becomes an obsession, it ceases to be a good thing. I'd hate to get a Christmas present from them, you'd never know where it came from.
- Mike, Red Bank, NJ USA, 01/1/2010 00:21
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