We’ve had an email from Jennifer asking:

I was on the verge of buying a soda siphon to make my own sparkling water at home – surely much more ecologically sound than buying bottled sparkling water, right? But my husband raised a concern about the used CO2 cartridges? Are they recyclable?

A not-so-quick Google around suggests that they’re metal (typically steel) so can be recycled with normal metal recycling. Anyone know for sure?

When we posted about water filter cartridges three years ago (cor! that’s ages!), we had a number of people making reuse suggestions – how to clean them to get more life out of the filters – are there any tricks like that for soda syphon cartridges?

Even if they couldn’t be reused or recycled though, it still might be worth considering the syphon route because of the amount of energy wasted shipping heavy bottles of water around the place.

Any other suggestions?

We’ve had an email from Hayley asking:

Can I compost baked beans? From a tin. We always seem to have some leftover!

Like many composting questions, there is no definitive answer. Some people say it’s fine – they’re vegetables after all, they’ll break down – but other people say don’t do it – the preservatives can upset worms/bacteria in the heap and/or attracted unwanted vermin. If you’ve got a well contained, healthy heap, a few beans won’t ruin it.

Composting though should be a last resort – try to use them first. If you don’t think you’ll use them up within a couple of days in the fridge, you can apparently freeze them (anyone had experience doing that? anything to do/avoid?). You can also add them as filler to soups and casseroles – but if they’re salty ones, remember to adjust your recipe accordingly.

How do you use up your beans?

So far in our lunch–themed week, we’ve mostly focused on packed lunches and take-out – what about eating at cafes/restaurants?

After a stressful start to the day yesterday, John & I had treated ourselves to lunch at one of our favourite cafes, the Love Apple in Bradford – I had locally sourced pork, leek and ginger sausages with mash and homemade onion gravy & relish – yum! My plate was practically licked clean so no food waste here on my end but I wondered about the waste higher up the chain. On the way out, I asked the chef about whether they compost their kitchen waste and they do – it’s not a council service but they have someone to pick it up regularly. I’m going to check with all my regular haunts to see whether they compost their waste.

Do you know if your favourite cafes/restaurants compost their food waste? Do they do anything else to minimise waste?

Has anyone had any success asking food businesses to change their practices to minimise waste?

Next up in our lunch–themed week…

Like clear plastic muffin/cake boxes, plastic clamshell-ish tubs from salad bars or pre-packed pastas/salads are frustrating – they’re *almost* strong enough and *almost* resealable enough to be reused but not quite.

As with many things of this nature, it’s best to just avoid them when possible so you don’t have to worry about disposing of the tub afterwards – but if you do pick one up, what can you do with it?

I believe most of them are plastic identification number 5 so can be recycled in some places. They can also be used as mini-greenhouses/cloches for very small seedlings.

Any other suggestions?

Following on from yesterday’s lunch box post, I thought we might have a week of lunch themed items because a) I love lunch, mmm, lunch and b) it is often a lot more wasteful than most meals because most people tend to be away from home, with limited catering facilities and so are more likely to resort to pre-packed snacks.

To save money and to avoid packing landfills with even more plastic sandwich packs, people are encouraged to take their own packed lunches with them to work – but without a bit of pre-planning, that can easily lead to a lot of packaging waste – plastic bags, cling film/saran wrap, foil — and that’s before starting on any specially bought single serving items.

There are a number of different bento box style lunchboxes on the market – a set of reusable containers which fit neatly inside a carry case – perfect for snack-size portions of different items. If you’ve already got a stash of small plastic tubs (either purpose-built or reusing resealable packaging), you can use these as inspiration to make your own bag. Perhaps even one that can fit onto your bike…

If your lunch isn’t quite so complicated, a reusable sandwich wrap/bag might be enough – Julie from Towards Sustainability has been experimenting with making a reusable lunch bag for her daughter.

What have you done to cut down packed lunch waste? Have you made your own sandwich bag/wrap or lunch box? Do you regularly reuse packaging from other food items — like bread bags?

What do you do for drinks? Have you bought a purpose-built water bottle or do you reuse an old bottle instead?