Green green heating fuel

Here's some of our green heating fuel, three times green but not because it's green wood though...





...it's actually dry and seasoned - always more efficient in a wood burner.

More importantly, it's reusing waste - saw mill offcuts.


And it's local - the mobile mill is working a wood about 8 miles from us.


And on top of that it's a conservation project restoring an oak woodland by selectively felling conifer plantation. So the felling will be matched by a rejuvenated 'native species' woodland in our lovely corner of Devon.

And the icing on the cake? It probably saves us a significant outlay on heating oil for the house. OK, the house is 'cool' in the original meaning of the term, but we haven't had to buy central heating oil for about a year and a half now.

Here's Ian unloading the trailer.

And here's another earlier blog post about this source of sustainable timber - which we also hope to use in the new eco lodge we're building. The cutting list has been sent off already!

Christmas and New Year waste

[Maggie] This post is a big thank you to everyone who stayed at our eco lodges and cottage over Christmas and New Year. We asked you to recycle and you certainly did!



Totted up, a total of 146 people nights over the two week holiday period (that figure includes us) produced just 13kg of kerbside waste - and at least 43kg of recycling. I say at least, because that doesn't include the cardboard and paper yet to be taken to the recycling centre, or any estimate of food waste going into the green cones - and I know you were using them.

So at a time when people often falter on their green intentions, you've really made a difference, cutting what might otherwise have gone to landfill by well over 75%, and probably somewhere between 80 and 90%.

Thank you so much. Sorting the rubbish can be one of the more disheartening jobs for accommodation providers trying to be green - but not this time, and that was an extra Christmas present for me!

Recycled office paper

I've bought a ream of recycled copier paper. Not big news, you'd think...




...Except that I can't remember when we last bought paper, so this time I thought I'd make a note of it and see how long it lasts.

We just don't use it much - the prompt this time was needing to refresh the welcome information in the lodges and cottage.

We used to buy office supplies from Viking, but got so fed up with endless catalogues we asked them to take us off their mailing list. The last thing we bought from them was a replacement printer I think - delivered to the farm house door. A fat brochure was delived to the door separately the next day by courier. The paperwork was delivered to the door separately the day after that by the postman. And we'd partly done it to save driving to a shop!

This recycled paper came from a local high street retailer, though I've seen it in the big supper markets too. At least it's getting easier to buy recycled products now.

I'll add a comment on this post when the paper runs out. Sweepstake anyone?

Cutting landfill by 75 per cent

[Maggie] Since September, when I started monitoring our rubbish, our recycling has cut what would otherwise go to landfill by 75 per cent...




...it could be higher, but I don't want to over-egg things. For those that need convincing about green stats (and why not), here's how I work that out.

From the beginning of September to date (13 December) we've put out 132kg of residual waste for 895 'people nights' (that includes us). Our kerbside recycling for that period was 126.5kg (weighed each week on the bathroom scales).

So far, that means we cut our landfill by about 48 per cent.

As well as what the council collect, we've taken cardboard (32kg), paper (49kg), mixed food plastic (12kg) to the recycling centre, as well as other waste they separate and recycle there (metal items, electrical items, batteries guests separate from their general waste etc - 36.5kg in total).

That means we've reduced what goes direct to the tip by about 65 per cent.

But we also encourage guests to put all their food waste into the biodigesters, as we do (well, we compost mostly, but the digesters can even cope with left overs like pizza).

That's harder to gauge, but we'll try...

If you're interested in UK food waste statistics, a new report (November 2009) makes very interesting reading.

The average UK household of 2.4 people throws away 330kg of food/drink a year, or just over 6kg a week. An average household of 4+ throws away 480kg a year.

About 9.6 per cent of that is disposed of down the drain.

So for arguments sake, and ignoring what goes down the drain, the average household throws out about 298kg of food waste a year, or 0.82kg per household per night.

Our guests are usually groups of more than 2.4! Often families, very rarely singles. But for argument's sake and so as not to be greedy, let's stick with the average and also assume guests only compost half the UK average - and the other half still ends up in the bin.

And for ourselves, since we're careful about food, I'll assume we compost/biodigest the average for a 2.4 household (6kg a week), not the figure for the 4 person household we actually are. That brings our estimated food kept out of landfill to 157.3 kg to date - and that's a conservative estimate.


So, in total, that's 413kg recycled and 132.5 to landfill - a 75.7 per cent reduction.

Still a lot though - even better would be to bring the overall amount down further. 545kg is a lot of waste, even if some can be re-used. It always makes me think of times before bin collections when rubbish had to be disposed of at home (usually down the privy). We'd be digging a lot of new out houses... When I get a chance I read My Zero Waste - a blog by the Green family who aim to have the bin emptied just once this year. Inspiring!

Buying recycled goods

[Maggie] It may seem obvious, but if we want to be able to recycle our rubbish we'd better buy it back again...




...otherwise there'll be no market. It makes sense intrinsically, but I have to admit I've only recently really taken it on board. Of course, we've long bought recycled toilet and kitchen paper. And charity shops provide our replacement teapots etc. But that has been more about not cutting down trees and reducing waste rather than closing the recycling loop.

So in future, I'll be looking out for products made from recycled materials as a matter of priciple. Yes, I bought these from Tesco. Some might question my principles there... But at least the labling was clear - they're made in the UK from recycled farm plastic. And today I almost got conned into buying 'recyclable' bags in Lidl. On the shelf it said Recycle rubbish bags. Bad English? An eco instruction? More like a fiddle. On closer inspection, the bags were made from recyclable, not recycled, plastic. Well, most of it is if you have the right facilities - but who recycles their bin bag?! Certainly not the council after they've collected it. Green wash I call it.

Advice on sustainable building

We've had an inspiring visit from Rob Buckley, of the Dorset Centre for Rural Skills...




...This is it, this is the very start of our new Eco lodge! We have the planning permission, now we have to rise to the challenge of creating truly sustainable holiday accommodation. And one of our first steps has been to listen to what Rob as to say - afterall, he is 'mr straw bale south west'.

We've met him a few times over the last couple of years - at an open day at the Dorset Centre for Rural Skills, at a sustainable building show in Exeter etc, and he has offered to talk us through some of the basics. So we've swept the straw out of the barn, tidied the wood store, and thought through some ideas.

He's suggested modifying the overall design, keeping more of the 'barniness', reusing what would have been building waste within the structure, and making better use of the interior space. But most importantly, he's talked Ian through the stages of the build, and shared his knowledge of techniques and materials. There's nothing like experience!

Buying a reconditioned phone

Ian has bought a refurbished / reconditioned phone. The scroll buttons on his old one finally wore out and he could no-longer read more than the first couple of lines of a message. So we had to change it.

The good-as-new ERI 200i came from Dextra solutions, ordered online and delivered to the door for £22.51 all in.

Ian's old phone will go for recycling too - once we've managed to get all the numbers off it!