Recycling - here it's simply a part of life

A friend from Israel, who is heavily involved in the country's efforts to boost awareness of reycyling, recently asked if I could help her find out how organic household waste is dealt with in various countries. I immediately put the question out to the "Alternative Ways of Living and Consuming" group on Couchsurfing which drew some very interesting and informative replies. It lead to to really thinking about our situation here in Bulgaria, since I go to the garbage bin about once a week with one small bag which is full mostly of plastic wrappings of various kinds. We have no organic rubbish to throw away. All our food scraps (both cooked and raw - which don’t include any meat since we keep kosher) are put on the compost pile….. The chickens have free range around that area so in fact most of it never gets actually composted but eaten by the chickens! I have a separate compost pile for the weeds I take out of the garden, close to the garden itself so not far to walk and no need of a wheelbarrow. The chickens have access to this area too. They eat some of the greens, but the warmth and moisture generated there also attract various insects which the chickens scratch around and find to supplement their otherwise vegetarian diet. Anything non-toxic and burnable gets used to get the petchka (wood fire) going…. paper wrappings and used toilet paper mainly. To help the petchka along we collect fallen pine cones each time we walk up to the shop, and also reuse old cooking oil to make the paper kindling last longer. Eggshells were a bit of a conundrum for a while. They didn’t decompose very well in the compost pile and the chickens weren’t interested in eating them (probably seemed a bit cannibalistic to them, I guess, even though I've heard they eat their own eggs sometimes). Anyhow, I have been rinsing them off roughly with water to get rid of the sticky albumen which seems to attract the ants, and leaving them near the petchka to thoroughly dry out. Then I crush them and mix some of them with the chicken feed (which is ground corn, bought from our next-door neighbor). Apparently this should give them the extra calcium they need for making their own eggshells (though unfortunately we haven’t have a single egg from them yet). I am also experimenting with using crushed eggshells as one of the ingredients in my mud plaster mix to add a different kind of texture to wall-plastering. At the time of writing this I cannot say yet whether it’s successful or not as the mixture is still drying…. It will be interesting to see how it works out. Ashes from the fire are also reused…. Some are put pack into the garden or on the compost, and some are being sifted and used in various combinations for the wall plastering. Lemons don't seem to be too good in the compost and the chickens seem to shun them - but we use their remains for scrubbing out the sink before throwing them away. Plastic bottles are being reused for water storage, that is quite handy when there are water cuts a couple of times a week and also the water inside the bottles heats up quite a lot during the day so we have a good supply of warm water at the end of hot days for a pleasant shower or to do the washing. Old plaster taken off the walls is recycled by adding water and simply reusing. It has the added advantage of being just the right recipe. In fact so far we haven’t actually made our own plaster but have been using old plaster or mud bricks to recreate the new. Old paving slabs have been relocated to create a patio area; old mattresses and bedding have been utilized in revamping a den for Lielle and her friends. Rocks and stones too have been moved and replaced to create rockeries and interesting split level effects in the garden. Our next big project, the summer kitchen area, will also be mainly using the original roof tiles, mud bricks, etc. in addition to some creative artwork using up old tiles, glass bottles, etc.. It would be interesting to actually check it out, but I don’t think we actually throw away more than a kilo of garbage a week… that is mostly dirty plastic or foil wrappers. Yoghurt cartons, metal bottle tops, etc. are all saved as it seems pretty inevitable that we shall find plenty of good uses for them in the future. Clothes are another thing. Absolutely nothing finds it’s way to the rubbish bin there. Anything that is simply the wrong size or no longer liked is handed over to someone who would appreciate it more. Clothes that become stained become work clothes, and who cares that they become even more dirty in the process. Even these, when too dirty or torn, get torn into strips and used to tie up vines, tomatoes or cucumbers in the garden, or the better looking ones get incorporated into artwork such as the Mexican eye weaving thingies that we made with the children’s art and craft group a couple of weeks ago.