sustainability

One man’s rubbish: 7 household waste items to reuse in your garden

Posted on by Birmingham Botanical Gardens
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Recycling is one of the most effective ways to reduce the pressure we put on our planet. 

We all know this, yet statistics released by DEFRA last month revealed that the UK’s target of recycling at least 50 percent of domestic waste was not met by three of its four nations. 

If we are to drastically reduce the output of global greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the decade, each of us needs to up our recycling game. 

Luckily, there are more ways than one of achieving this that don’t rely entirely on the bin at the end of your drive. 

No matter how big or small, our gardens provide ample opportunities for us to repurpose household waste items. 

From creating compost heaps and cultivating seedlings to bird feeders and decorative features, find out how your rubbish can be transformed into outdoor treasures. 

 

Plastics 

One man’s rubbish: 7 household waste items to reuse in your garden

Evidence of the global plastic invasion can be found everywhere from human blood to freshly fallen snow in the Antarctic.

Every minute, one truckload of plastic enters the ocean and an astonishing 1.8 billion tonnes of carbon emissions are produced annually from the creation, use and disposal of plastic.

Unfortunately, the reality of plastic recycling does not instil hope; less than 10 percent of plastic packaging is actually recycled in the UK.

Instead, a large proportion of our everyday plastics are burnt in incinerators or shipped off to countries with low recycling rates. 

So how can you help to combat this enormous problem? 

The answer – getting creative in your garden. 

Here are just a few ideas to get you started: 

  • Halve your empty milk cartons and water bottles and puncture small drainage holes in the base to create seedling containers.
  • Make bird feeders from plastic water bottles by puncturing small holes in the side and hanging up with string. 
  • Paint your old Tupperware and transform into a decorative bird bath. 
  • Turn large plastic bottles into long-lasting watering cans. 

 

Metal cans 

One man’s rubbish: 7 household waste items to reuse in your garden

Did you know that one in every three cans sold in the UK are drunk away from home? 

That’s an awful lot of metal which could be reused and is likely being discarded into general waste. 

Take a look at the ways you can maximise the potential of your waste cans below: 

  • Tins which previously stored canned fruits and vegetables are great for turning into outdoor light features. Piercing holes into patterns on the sides of these cans and filling the container with candles or lights makes a cheap and enchanting display. 
  • Paint the outside of your tin cans and transform them into pretty plant pots. 
  • Turn your tins into storage containers for gardening tools. 

 

Glass bottles and jars

One man’s rubbish: 7 household waste items to reuse in your garden

Known as cullet, waste glass is a versatile product which can be recycled over and over again through a melting process. 

Unlike other materials, waste glass is much more economically-friendly to recycle, saving 246 kg of carbon dioxide emissions for every tonne of second-hand glass melted. 

You can help to reduce the carbon footprint of waste glass piling up in your recycling further though by reusing it in your garden. 

Here’s how: 

  • Create an edge around your garden path with upturned glass bottles, pushed halfway into the ground. 
  • Remove labels from your glass jars and fill with fairy lights for outside decor. 
  • Save your glass jars to hold nails, labels and other outdoor equipment. 

 

Cardboard and paper 

One man’s rubbish: 7 household waste items to reuse in your garden

With the rise of online shopping and subsequent shipping increases, the UK churns through 12.5 million tonnes of paper and cardboard a year – one third of which is not fully recycled. 

This third is then taken to a landfill or burnt, both of which have disastrous impacts on the environment.

Minimise the amount of paper and cardboard you throw away with these easy uses:

  • Save egg boxes for sewing and growing seedlings in.  
  • Spare cardboard can be made into signs for labelling young crops or plants. 
  • Rip up or shred paper and add to compost piles. 
  • Use excess cardboard as a substrate to grow mushrooms. 
  • Lie cardboard flat and cover with compost and leaves or wood chips to prepare your garden bed in a process known as sheet mulching. 

 

Clothing

One man’s rubbish: 7 household waste items to reuse in your garden

Despite a light being shone onto the impact fast fashion has upon our environment in recent years, £140 million worth of used clothing still goes into UK landfills each year. 

According to Clothes Aid, this equates to 350,000 tonnes of jeans, shoes, jackets, dresses and more being dumped into the ground. 

Whilst our discarded garments might be out of style, there is still so much potential for them beyond the bottom of your closet or worse, the skip. 

Take a look at how you can transform your wardrobe into useful garden tools: 

  • Rip old t-shirts and shirts into long shreds and plait into ropes which can be used to train young plants as they grow. Shoelaces can also be used for this. 
  • Use old clothing to shield plants in the summer heat and insulate in cold winter temperatures. 
  • Turn old wellies and shoes into plant pots. 
  • Make a scarecrow  

 

Food waste 

One man’s rubbish: 7 household waste items to reuse in your garden

Here are some scary facts you should pay attention to regarding humanity’s food waste, courtesy of food share company Olio: 

  • $1 trillion worth of food is wasted globally every year. 
  • One quarter of fresh water is wasted growing food that is never eaten. 
  • If waste food were a country, it would be the 3rd greatest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. 

Put simply, our whole attitude towards food waste has to change, for the benefit of ourselves, the natural world and the planet as a whole. 

Recycling food by products is one great way to tackle this issue and creating a compost heap in your garden can make all the difference. 

Unprocessed, fruit and vegetable peelings create the best compost and will not attract vermin like meat and other animal byproducts such as dairy, fat trimmings, eggs and fish. 

 

Tyres

One man’s rubbish: 7 household waste items to reuse in your garden

Recent studies have shown that nearly 2,000 more particle pollutants are produced by the wearing down of car tyres than by vehicle exhausts.

The Guardian reported that particles from tyres contain a variety of carcinogens and toxic compounds which are transferred to soil, water and air.

This is worrying considering that there were over 15,000 incidents of tyre fly-tipping in the 2020/2021 year. 

Avoid carelessly chucking away old tyres by trying these simple alternatives:

  • Create a naturally waterproof, hanging bird feeder or bird bath.
  • Build a small compost area or bin. 
  • Make an insect shelter.
  • Create a mini veg patch inside a tyre or surround an existing veg patch with a tyre wall.

 

 

Community gardens: the antidote to social disconnection, food insecurity and urbanisation?

Posted on by Birmingham Botanical Gardens

Pocketed within the UK’s cities and towns are over 1,000 green havens, humming with the sound of collaboration and cultivation. 

These oases are community gardens, plots of land which are rented for the public or private purpose of gardening and cultivation.

Usually found in urban areas, these gardens provide “multiple points of reconnection with the food system, the environment, landscape, local economies and our communities.”

For their inhabitants, community gardens are mutually nurturing spaces where individuals care for themselves by tending to plants, taking a break from polluted air and sharing a natural space with others – important activities we hold dear at the Gardens.

In light of last week’s national celebration of community gardens, we wanted to explore the social connectivity, improved food security and environmental rejuvenation provided by these special areas. 

Building a bridge between people

Historically, community gardens have been places for people to congregate in periods of crisis and worry. 

From victory gardens present throughout WWI and WWII to communal gardening activities prevalent in Cuba following the collapse and withdrawal of Soviet Union support in 1991, food cultivation through community gardening was a means of grounding people during hardship.  

Turner et al. point out that food gardening achieves this by providing people with a purpose, a sense of belonging and an “intimate response” to wider issues over which we have no power. 

In today’s world where one crisis seems to be followed by another, communal gardening is a chance to establish a sense of personal control amid the chaos. 

It is also an opportunity to become involved with a project centred on inclusivity. 

Studying the progressive opportunities presented by these spaces, researchers from the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde discovered a culture within community gardens which celebrated and supported a diverse group of people. 

Discussing their findings, Cumbers et al. said: 

 

“Glasgow’s community gardens have provided new spaces for working class and low income groups, including, in our case study, asylum seekers, refugees and individuals and groups with disabilities and mental illnesses, to engage with food and the outdoor urban environment in ways that enhance individual dignity and self-esteem.” 

 

As the UK’s population continues to grow and diversify, the recent rise of community gardens in this country can only be seen positively for society as a whole.

Reflecting on the social prosperity present in community gardens, associate professor Efrat Eizenberg outlined how such spaces facilitate the construction of a “thick social fabric” which increases the network of relationships experienced by the people working in them. 

 

Community gardens: the antidote to social disconnection, food insecurity and urbanisation?

 

For Eizenberg, personal empowerment is born from this network as much as it derives from being part of a community who challenges the social alienation of the modern city. 

How can community gardens help with food security? 

From mass farming to the omnipresence of supermarkets, industrial agriculture has led to a disconnection between people and the food system. 

No longer growing our own food, we rely upon shops and the internet to sustain us despite the growing cost of inflation. The price of produce is exacerbated by the staggering quantity of food we throw away, amounting to $1 trillion annually across the world. 

Whilst they may not be the overnight solution to food poverty, community gardens can help ease financial pressures and engender a more resourceful attitude toward meal consumption by reintroducing individuals to food cultivation practices. 

Analysing the impact of a community gardening programmed upon 38 migrant seasonal farm worker families in Oregon, one American study found that involvement in the gardens improved family relationships, increased their intake of vegetables and decreased food security concern to 3%.

During a time where the cost of living is pushing many people toward the poverty line, the results prove community gardens have the ability to cut the cost of fresh fruit and vegetables at a minimum as well as making self-empowerment possible; the growth of cheaper food, sharing of recipes and acquired knowledge can reinforce a sense of control over expenses and family meals. 

The indication that community gardens are spaces where people learn and relearn skills about producing and consuming food was equally discovered by Cumbers et al. in the Glasgow-based study.  

Why are community gardens beneficial to the environment? 

In her essay, Allotments and community gardens: a DIY approach to environmental sustainability, Susan Buckingham describes allotments and community gardens as the “green lungs” of urban areas – a “haven of biodiversity”. 

Birmingham Botanical Gardens itself is part of this city’s green lungs, providing a vital spot for both people and wildlife to refresh from the external pollutants. 

Our Urban Garden for instance, which was unveiled last year, is a great spot to step out of the smog and into nature. 

 

Community gardens: the antidote to social disconnection, food insecurity and urbanisation?

 

According to research professor, Mark J Nieuwenhuijsen, 43,000 premature deaths a year could be avoided if more green spaces were adopted into European cities and towns. Our natural world would benefit hugely too. 

Crowded and concrete-heavy, urbanised domains are hard places for native wildlife to exist in and many are dwindling in number in the UK. 

Bees especially have been subjected to habitat loss and fragmentation which are seriously impacting their survival. This is alarming when you consider that pollinators are worth £690 million to the UK economy. 

Yet the solution is simple – we need to transform more land within our heavily industrialised and polluted areas into plots of varied vegetation and green matter.

As well as improving social connections and food security, community gardens have been indicated to substantially increase the number and range of bees.

Observing the population of bees in Californian community garden, one study discovered an increase of diverse plant materials led to a greater diversity of native bee species seen.

Stressing the importance of community gardens, Efrat Eizenberg succinctly described the threat heavy urbanisation poses to all living beings alike:

“The city – industrialised, electrified, mechanised, and motorised – is harmful not only to its inhabitants, and not only in the short-term, but is also contributing, actually and symbolically, to the deterioration of the environment at large.

 

So how can we utilise our community gardens to combat the impacts of urbanisation?

To start with, determine where your nearest garden lies through the official Social farms and Gardens map; Birmingham itself is host to a wealth of them! 

Do your research and find one which suits what you’re after – whether its allotments, food cultivation, family-oriented or neighbourhood gardens, there is something for everyone.