South Hams Friends of the Earth

Is it possible to live in the modern world without generating any landfill waste? On Tuesday April 22nd at 8pm in the Methodist Church, Totnes an open meeting of South Hams Friends of the Earth will be addressed by a Totnes man who has come close to achieving this aim.

Since the 1960s, Michael Rose, who is now 65, has been working to reduce the environmental impact of his lifestyle. One aspect of this has been to reduce the amount of waste he puts in puts in the standard waste bin (intended for land-fill) to one milk carton every few months.

He has used considerable ingenuity in finding ways to reduce, re-use or return packaging and other plastics, wood, metal and other materials not accepted by the normal recycling facilities. He has made arrangements with individual companies to return polystyrene and plastic packaging. He even found ways to re-use the fluff and grit from his vacuum cleaner as loft insulation and potting-mixture filler.

After hearing Michael’s talk, the meeting will consider ways some of his ideas could be extended locally, to help others to reduce their waste.

Michael said:

“for a long time he had felt that the Earth had a sacredness that had been abused by mankind, and trashed with our ever increasing consumptive waste. His household waste bin developed into an 'Earth Nutrient Bin' and then has gradually reduced since then to virtually zero.”