He was smiling still, the wooden snowman with the broken nose. He wondered: if his nose hadn’t been knocked off, what would he smell? He had some interesting companions in the pile he had recently joined. An old toilet; some pencil crayons – pink, orange, brown and blue; a VHS video tape (he remembered when Read More…
Waste Stories Blog
Wash or waste? A microplastics dilemma
Hannah’s recent post about stained clothes is on my mind. It’s Saturday morning and George is out at work, cleaning the pub. I’m wondering what kind of cleaning cloths he’ll bring home today. I know it doesn’t sound like something worth wondering about, but it has become a source of uncertainty for me, and Read More…
For the love of pisgetti!
I grimaced as Noah used his sleeve to wipe the tomato sauce off of his chin for the third time. “Yummm, I love pisgetti mummy! It’s my favourite you know.” “It’s tasty, isn’t it?” I replied smiling, “try to use the cloth rather than your sleeve to clean your face though bud OK?” I’m a Read More…
Christmas with Stirling Community Food – Waste Hero
It’s Boxing Day and I want to write about Stirling Community Food (SCF, otherwise known within the Wilbertson household as Waste Reduction). I’ve mentioned it in a couple of other Waste Stories posts (most recently in Flower Food) but I haven’t yet explained what it is; I’ve been planning to write more directly about Read More…
The box of lost treasure
I wasn’t working last night. Or not at first. Perhaps not at the end. I was on a mission to find a small pouch or bag, perhaps the kind that you might be gifted jewellery or a small trinket in, or perhaps the kind that a Tooth Fairy might carry. I had practised my Read More…
Flower food
This morning (2nd December 2021), Waste Reduction (aka Stirling Community Food) had flowers. Pink lilies, the flowers just beginning to open to reveal dark-speckled, suggestive interiors. Huge sprays of Calla lilies, ready to fill a church or a village hall: wedding or funeral, they wouldn’t care. And dozens and dozens of white roses. Later, we Read More…
It’s not even December and they’re decorating the trees
I know it’s an annual trope, but Christmas (and Christmas waste) really did seem to start earlier this year. The shops switched to their Christmas ranges and started piping shmaltzy Christmas music, even before the lights were switched on. Amid concerns about continued supply chain “issues,” we are urged to stock up early: to Read More…
All Souls Day
Serafino Celebrations – making YOUR moments last forever. Anna added the date to the card – Halloween 2021 – and slid it into the plastic pocket with the coppery-coloured foil disc. “Are you still bringing those into the house?” Anna shrugged. “They seem to be getting here under their own steam now. This one Read More…
No wasted time and no time to waste
After an unexpected and unavoidable change to fieldwork plans, Anna and I decided to embark on a spontaneous adventure to track down the dismantled and rehomed parts of Fife’s Earthship. We have relatively few opportunity to spend a full day together doing fieldwork and were determined we would not let the time go to waste. Read More…
Heroes, villains and tidy litter
Throughout the last 15 months, there have been regular reports of widespread, and sometimes mass, littering. In the summer and autumn of 2020, and then again in the spring and early summer of 2021, many media outlets featured stories about waste left on the UK’s beaches and in our wilder or more rural areas. Legal Read More…