One of the things I try very hard to minimise around the house is waste. I freely admit that I don’t do a very good job of it, but I am trying. Wherever possible I’m reusing things or trying to replace disposable items with reusable versions (eg. handkerchiefs instead of tissues). With 2 kids who eat very little and can be picky, there can be a lot of wastage of food. The chooks are very useful in this regard, although I have started putting more of the scraps they would normally get into the compost bin. I’ve found that putting too much out for the chooks just attracts a lot of the introduced wild birds (sparrows, starlings, etc.) and they are annoying.
I’m not the best about keeping an eye on useby dates and using meat quickly, so it’s a fairly regular occurrence that we have meat in the fridge which is no longer suitable for human consumption. In these cases I try to give the meat to the dogs, so that it’s not wasted.
Last week was a particularly bad one for forgetting to use things so we had some lamb chops, a couple of steaks and a whole chicken that were just past their useby dates and in need of disposal. The dogs ate the chops one night and the steak the next, but they couldn’t eat a whole chook in one night and I didn’t want rancid meat hanging around in the fridge for any longer than necessary.
I’ve made the dogs some homemade food recently using minced beef, boiled up with vegies, rice and pasta, so I decided to do the something similar with the chook. I tossed it in the big boiler and boiled it until it fell apart. Then I separated the meat from the bones (the dogs can’t have the cooked bones) and minced the meat in the food processor and put it to one side. Next, I threw a couple of cups of frozen, mixed vegetables into the stock created by boiling the chook and brought it back to the boil. Then a couple of cups of rice and a cup of pasta went in. I also put a little oatbran in to bulk it up a bit. Once all of this had boiled a little I put the minced chicken back in and let it boil some more. After a while I turned it off and let it cool. Then I ladled the mix into some plastic containers to be stored in the chest freezer.
For the sake of a $6 chook, with some vegies, pasta and rice that I had around the house anyway, the dogs have got about a week’s worth of meals. This is not intended to replace the premium kibble they eat, but as an adjunct to it. It adds variety to the dogs’ meals, reduces the cost of feeding them and makes up for my absent-mindedness when it comes to using meat in the fridge.
Given the increased awareness in the world about waste, I’ve been very surprised and a little appalled by what has happened at Finn’s school this year. The school has moved to a new site and changed name, so has a new uniform to match the image change. There is supposed to be an 18 month changeover period to enable the kids to wear out their existing uniforms, but yesterday it seemed like 99% of the kids were wearing the new uniform. Now, the Preps were obviously going to be wearing it, the Year 7s were required to wear it as it differs a little for the senior kids and I knew there would be lots of new kids at the school (enrollment has almost doubled) and probably quite a few kids who would have outgrown their old uniforms. But I was horrified by the number of kids in Year 1 (Finn’s year) wearing all new uniform. These kids started last year with new uniforms and, here they are, fitted out completely again.
Finn is not wearing the new uniform, because he didn’t need anything new, and he is (unsurprisingly) not happy about it. I think there’s only one other kid in his class in the old stuff. We’ve told him he can have the new stuff in the next couple of weeks, so he doesn’t feel left out, but I can’t help feeling really resentful about it.
What happens to all those still wearable tops, shorts, dresses, and so on? OK, the stuff without the school insignia on it can go to op shops or be sold on ebay, etc. But the items with the school name and logo on them are largely useless to anyone else. Do they just go into landfill? And what are those other parents thinking? I respect their right to spend their money as they wish, but I really have to question the logic behind it.
On a planet groaning under the weight of our lifestyle, why would anyone add to that if they didn’t need to? Many of these households would be carrying a much larger amount of debt than Mark and I are and they are throwing money away on school uniforms their kids just don’t need.
14:28
