Waste, waste, waste

I spent part of the day answering queries about the changes to Stockton council's waste management collections coming soon - plastic and cardboard to be collected for recycling so no need for collections of extra waste left beside the wheely bin (side waste) and no need for community skips which fill up with mixed waste that has to go to land fill because it can't be separated economically.
I've got a question down at council for Wednesday evening about how many plastic bags are being given away by SBC and its partners, hoping that the cabinet member will be spurred into trying to reduce the number. There are some really good services who don't give away such things but others seem to compete for who can give the biggest!
There's been a very interesting experiment by a BBC correspondent trying to do without any new plastic in the life of her family for a month. Read her conclusions - there may be some new ideas for how you can reduce your usage, who knows.
Late this afternoon I found that the carefully planted shrubs on Larch Crescent haven't covered enough of the ground and have only driven the football nearer to the very people they were designed to protect! More work needed I fear.
Some of us are keen to see the local shops we have maintained and we support them as much as possible. If you're one of those people you may be interested in a petition on the Government's web site by the Federation of Small Businesses. As fuel prices rise, car tax increasingly reflects the pollution caused by driving and time is short I think more and more of us may be looking towards local shops for at least some of what we need. But we may find they're not there unless we support them now.