OCR

OCR. It's a bit like OCD but rubbish, quite literally. My name is Mother Badger and I suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Recycling.

Over the last week or so I've been clearing out the kitchen. First it was the pan cupboard (empty, clean, put back minus the grotty one that puts nonstick coating in your food). Next the crockery (do we honestly need 40 mugs?!). Then on to the store cupboards...

I honestly didn't realise our kitchen was host to such a random selection of out of date ingredients. We have almost-full jars of spices that expired three years ago (obviously bought for a recipe and never used again); two untouched bags of bread flour, purchased several years ago in a fit of enthusiasm for wholesome 4am baking sessions ready for pre-commute breakfast (which unsurprisingly never transpired); the packet of strange purple seaweed with indecipherable Chinese writing and no use by date.

The obsessive tree-hugging green in my head refuses to allow me to simply chuck these foodstuffs in the bin, so I have spent the afternoon (and a good part of my evening) systematically opening jars, cans and packets, depositing contents into the food recycling bin, then assessing how much of the packaging can be recycled.

OCR. You saw it first here.

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