Product Description

Slow down and Green Up Every householder should have a copy of this easy reference guide to reducing household waste and stopping wasteful behaviour. The book is a top down guided tour through the average family home, from bedroom and bathroom through to the kitchen and out into the garden. Although the percentage we recycle is increasing we still need to dramatically reduce the amount of waste we produce whether that be waste from the kitchen or bathroom or garden shed. Full of practical tips and quirky ideas – from insulating your loft to jazzing up your old clothes; growing your own food to keeping chickens.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #107625 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

From the Author
On her debut title, 'The Book of Rubbish Ideas', Tracey says, "I've combined the sobering reality of the issues we face regarding our rubbish and waste, with a good handful of easily achievable solutions on ways to eliminate it.

It's an encouraging and upbeat read that will enable you to make simpler, happier living with dramatically reduced levels of rubbish, a reality!

It also issues you with tools that fire up your imagination for a little armchair activism that could significantly minimise waste in your local communities too.

There's a website coming soon with further reading, more great tips and a few short films showing how easy it is to turn rubbish reduction notions, into positive actions.

About the Author
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Tracey Smith is the founder of National Downshifting week. She has been shortlisted for the ITV Eco Hero Award and writes for Good Energy and the Environment Agency. She also presents the radio show Slow Down and Green Up.

Customer Reviews

Genuine Inspiration For Change - Reducing Waste Can Enhance Your Life
This book is a lasting inspiration!

Having lived a life of composting, cooking with leftovers, and avoiding packaged food for years, I didn't think I could learn that much on the subject of re-cycling and reducing waste, and was sceptical about the difference an already eco-concious individual can make to all those depressing stats about humans destroying the planet. But Tracey Smith's Book of Rubbish Ideas was full of facts and snippets I was totally ignorant of, as well as literally hundreds of ideas on how to make easy changes, and alter the way we have become used to living.

I used to feel a bit helpless about the plastic bag issue, so just ignored it and increasingly ended up chucking them in the bin. Now I know that each bag will hang around for up to 1000 (!!!!) years, I feel that each one does make a difference and have stopped being lazy about it.

Consumerism and the resulting waste have already been proven not to make us happy, but in this book, Smith shows how reducing waste and recycling can actually enhance your life and save you huge amounts of money. This is why it is so inspiring. Surely it just makes sense to use a Mooncup, which lasts for 10 years and costs £20, rather than spend a fortune on tampons, which leech chemicals and fibres into our bodies? And as for the countless chemicals we slather on ourselves and our homes, well, they can be replaced with safer, more natural, less expensive, multi-purpose products, which will mean less clutter, and of course less waste. Yes, those two examples might not be as surprising and `radical' as others in the book, but they are both things that I was aware of before, and had made moves towards, but I am now actually going to do something about them properly - Smith's book shows how ridiculous it is to hold back on going the whole way. We have nothing to loose and everything to gain.

But the best bit about The Book of Rubbish Ideas is hearing Smith's inimitable voice leap off the pages in her empathy for individuals, and saucy ideas (read the book!), as well as her cheeky and light-hearted but persistent ridicule of how twisted our every day lives have ended up.

Waste not, want not.
A very apt, timely piece of a well researched book, big on ideas to save our money and time. It also gives us a feelgood factor in recycling more of our unwanted possessions.

Some of Tracey's proposals could also make us new friends when we meet the people we are donating our goods to.

This book is affordable, handbag sized to show our friends and suits my pressing requirements.

If you want to make a difference in saving the planet, this is the book for you.

A Christmas Present to help Save the Planet
What a fantastic little book. Packed with loads of doable ideas that get you thinking about more ways you can save energy, water and money. This would make an ideal Christmas present for those that are trying to do their bit and especially for those you know that aren't!

It is a very readable book that you keep coming back to and find yourself talking to people about. It has many brilliant ideas that you can fit into your everyday life no matter how busy you are. Many of the ideas don't cost you a penny and indeed save you money.

Highly recommended.