Greener, cheaper, healthier: How my family went zero-waste, and how you can too

One resolution for us in the summer five years ago, led to longtime changes almost over night, if we can do it so can you, a greener cheaper life starts here, writes Kate Hughes

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When I open the front door there’s a man in a high vis outside taking photographs of our house. I ask if I can help him with something, he answers that he is taking a photo of the pavement. Or rather the lack of a bin on the pavement.

It’s the first collection day after Christmas and up and down our street, the engorged bins and tumbling recycling boxes are overwhelming the narrow gap between the houses and the road. It turns out the man was part of the collection team, taking photos where no bins had been left out in case of complaint that they hadn’t been emptied. I explained that we haven’t taken out the bins for almost five years. He looked at me as if I were mad.

I guess most people look at us slightly sideways when we admit we don’t have a bin, as if we’re the next subjects of a Channel 5 hoarding documentary.