Below, you will find the refuse disposal schedule for where we live. There are separate containers for: Paper products, general waste, mixed recycling, yard waste, and food waste. That is five different containers for various types of waste that we need to ensure we use correctly but also that we put out at the right time. Our neighbors told us to just watch what the folks do across the street because that’s what they do.

I actually really appreciate the level of dedication the U.K. has taken to ensure that every little bit of waste is disposed of properly, it’s just going to take an undergraduate degree to figure it out. For example, every bit of scrap food, including meat and sauces, can be tossed in the food waste container. They even allow for pizza boxes with a bit of grease to be recycled which goes against everything that we are taught in the U.S.

Then there’s making sure heavy cardboards don’t go in the paper waste because they should go with the mixed recycling and only thin papers are meant for the paper bin. Juice and milk cartons are also recyclable in the U.K. which is not something we can recycle in the U.S. This leads me to wonder why the U.S. doesn’t recycle so extensively.

On top of making sure to recycle and dispose of everything appropriately, London has something called the “Ultra Low Emission Zone” (ULEZ) which is a scheme set in place to lower the air pollution in the city. If your vehicle does not meet emissions standards set in place by ULEZ then you must pay a fee of £12.50 when you drive inside a certain radius of London. It’s quite a large area as you can see by the map below. We live just outside of the zone in Buckinghamshire (the most British sounding county you’ve ever heard of) but, funny enough, our beautiful 2006 Toyota Previa passes the emission requirements for ULEZ so we don’t have to worry about it.

The U.K. is also very much affected by the war in the Ukraine so energy costs are quite high. As a result, there is a little device that I can keep an eye on that helps me gauge how much energy we are using on a half-hourly basis. We also find ourselves having to pay for energy usage (we didn’t in Singapore) so it’s become a bit of a game for me, seeing just how little energy we can use in a day. I suppose that is my life currently, keeping myself entertained by watching an energy meter. In other news, I need a job!