It isn't easy, being Green...

Ever heard the one about the expat woman who takes her own shopping bags to a Russian hypermarket that already provides free plastic ones for it’s customers?

No?

Neither have the cashiers, apparently.  I swear I’m known as ‘That Expat Bag Lady’, based on the number of raised eyebrows and confused expressions when, each week, I stop them from packing my shopping for me and pack it myself into a motley collection of reuseable over-sized shopping bags.

‘Reduce, reuse, recycle’;  three not-so-little words that – if you live in the UK, at least – may as well be engraved on top of your rubbish bin, are enforced by waste-collectors,  and which are often parroted at you by your children who have been indoctrinated with the philosophy by their schools from a very early age.  Most homes are equipped with bins for glass, bins for paper and card, and bins for tins and aluminium.  Depending on where you live, there may be composting bins for your left-over food too, and also drop-points for used batteries.

And so, to Russia.  Where there are just about none of these things.  I was told once by a Russian friend that during communist times recycling was a civic duty as well as a practical necessity, but that nowadays it’s seen very much as something that they used to do rather than a requirement for modern life.  This may account for the not-infrequent sight, during drives outside the city, of clearings in the forest filled with domestic rubbish – or perhaps that’s just the result of unscrupulous waste collectors fly-tipping once they are out of view of the village they’ve just collected from.

Another friend of mine here, who likes to make her own pickles and jams, tells of ongoing battles with her cleaner who, given half the chance, will clear the top shelf in the pantry of all the glass jars lovingly collected over the last few months in preparation for pickling season.  The cleaner dumps them in the bin because of course you can buy new glass jars cheaply at most supermarkets at the right time of year, rather than using those second-hand ones...

Visiting friends and family from Western Europe are appalled when they see all our refuse going into the same bin, but since there are no alternatives,  that’s where it all ends up.  Hence my determination that when supermarket shopping at least, I will try and make my own small difference and take my own bags.  It’s not entirely selfless, I have to admit; I can fit into 1 of my reuseable bags the same amount that the cashier would distribute between 3 of the flimsy ‘packyets’(sic) that they provide, thus reducing trips between car and house on top of giving me that feel-good moment when I return the empty bags to the car boot ready for their next outing.

But if one more cashier looks at me as if I’m a crazy woman as I race to get all my purchases onto the belt in enough time to be at the other end of the till to pack it all myself once it’s been scanned through, I swear I will have to start wearing a t-shirt printed with the words ‘It’s the Environment, stupid’ (in Russian, of course) every time I do the weekly shop.

They’ll still think I’m crazy, obviously.  But then no-one ever said it was easy being Green...


This post first appeared over at my other blog; 'Diaries of a Moscow Mum' at The Moscow Times Online

Recyling In Moscow and the 1000 Bins Campaign

At last Saturday's Cybermummy, (nearly a week ago, how did that happen? Can whoever stole the last 6 days give them back, please?) one of my oldest blog mates Karen Cannard at The Rubbish Diet mentioned in her excellent presentation that she has recently started a campaign to raise awareness of recycling litter bins in the heart of the community.

I love recycling. I think it makes absolute sense. When living in London I was only too happy to sort through my rubbish and separate it all out; in my mind, it was an easy way to make a positive contribution to minimising my impact on the environment. Much like getting a vegetable box delivered every week (virtually no disposable packaging, seasonal locally produced vegetables and amazingly, lighter on the wallet than buying the equivalent in the supermarket. And my mother in law always loved the swede I could never bring myself to cook...), and taking UK only holidays.

OK. That last was in my dreams, the one where I wear a Cath Kidston apron whilst baking bread for my family and simultaneously writing an award-winning column for The Times from my eco-house in Cornwall. But still. Recycling? Win-win all round, to my mind.

But here's the thing, since I've been living in Russia, I have had to stop recycling. Pretty much completely, if I'm honest. Why? Because there are no recycling facilities available. Don't get me wrong; there used to be. Back in the bad old days (cough), it was a comrade's duty to recycle, so every one did it. But now, since people don't have to do it, they don't do it. AT ALL.

Part of the problem is that Russia is a country with seemingly inexhaustible natural resources, and one of them is space. Sure, they have 150 million people, but they also have vast tracts of unused (and in many cases, due to the extremes of climate, unuseable) land. A few landfills can't hurt, they reason. Why not just dump acres of waste in previously pristine forest, no-one's going to see... It's not true, obviously. But there will need to be a huge change of mind-set before many Russians realise that.

That is why, whilst walking in the Sparrow Hills in Moscow recently, I was delighted to see a proper recycling bin, with separate sections for different types of waste. It's not much, I know, in the whole scale of things, but it's a start, and so - way before I knew about the 1000 Bins campaign - I took a photograph to record the existence of what might be the only recycling bin I ever see in Moscow.

I know. Most people take pictures of views; I took one of a bin. Maybe that's why Karen and I get on?

British Mummy Blogger of the Week

I was contacted by an eco-friendly company this week, asking me if I would be interested in reviewing their products. I'm not going to tell you who they are as I've said yes and want to keep my powder dry until I write the post, but it got me thinking about eco-friendliness and the apparant complete lack of recycling facilities here in Moscow.

Everything goes into the same bin. Everything. No separation of card, glass, plastics, batteries; nothing. I'm told by a new friend here, who has made it her mission to try and educate people about the advantages of recycling, that this is a direct result of the communist era when everyone was forced to recycle. Now, they don't have to - so they don't. Recycling is something Russians now see themselves as being lucky not to have to do. And let's face it, with a country as vast as this one, I suppose it's not too hard to find remote spots to dump the trash in vast landfills where nobody is immediately affected. Out of sight, out of mind.

I wish my new friend the best of luck - I think she's going to need it.

So I suppose it should be no surprise that with this issue top of mind for me, I'm recommending as British Blogging Mummy of the Week another crusader for recycling. Almost Mrs Average at The Rubbish Diet writes that:

'The Rubbish Diet is written by Karen Cannard, a housewife and now freelance writer, based in Bury St Edmunds, where she lives with her husband and two young children. The blog was only intended to last for just 8 weeks, to chart Karen's attempts at slimming down her bin for Zero Waste Week in March 2008. However, having realised the importance of the issue it has since been impossible to shut the woman up.'

Karen writes in an interesting, knowledgeable and entertaining way about the challenges of 'slimming down your bin' in our consumer society. And in my book, anyone who says: 'So think about it, if the bathroom can last one more day, then leave it and go and do something more interesting instead' in Week 4 of their New Year Rubbish Diet Challenge has got to be worth a look...

For the British Mummy Bloggers Ning, click here. (Note: It's called 'Mummy', but Dads can be members too).