We have just returned from a beautiful trip to the Balinese island of Nusa Lembongan. Our son James attended a camp at the Green School and we decided to turn it into a chance for a family holiday. Whilst fully appreciating the stunning beauty of the ocean, lush vegetation, flavoursome food, amazing weather and the warm and friendly people, I couldn’t help being horrified by the amount of rubbish on the island. Even the beautiful daily Hindu offerings are left lying around until they wash into a heap in the gutter and then out to sea. The boys jumped out of the boat we hired to pick up some papers floating in the ocean and I daydreamed about rubbish picking up initiatives where children could be paid to pick it up…which Steve pointed out would most likely end in people deliberately creating rubbish to earn more money and even more worryingly, accusations of child slave labour…and of course it’s not just a problem in developing countries, where the rubbish is visible – the problem is more likely worse in the countries where the rubbish is out of sight. It just feels like insanity to ignore the amount of rubbish we create in the world without any clear plan of disposing of it responsibly. I think that once my responsibilities as a Mum are over, I’ll put a backpack on and become a rubbish lady; making sure that every last piece of waste and plastic finds it’s way to a proper method of recycling. Until then, there is research to be done…to see how artfully I can continue to evolve a life of minimal waste for our family.