Nowadays, everybody goes green, so I would like to add my hums to this environmental chorus.

Today I am very pleased to find a flyer lying on my doorstep, that's from Derby City council recycling department. I read it with great enthusiasm, and I found something astonishing, something regretful, and something I am eager to try it out.

The astonishing fact that I have learned from this flyer is: In the UK, we throw away a third of the food we buy. This Autumn, environmental groups will be looking at the amount of food that we buy and then throw away without even opening. In Derby, about a quarter of all waste is food waste, and almost half of the food waste has never been touched. It's both expensive and wasteful to buy food that we don't eat. So we are adviced to bear the following in mind when we go shopping:

• Never shop on an empty stomach - if we are full when we go shopping, we won't be interested in the monster pack of cakes at the end of the aisle!
• Buy one get one free isn't a saving if we throw one away. Ask ourself if we're going to get chance to eat it before it goes off.

When my daughter was born, I strongly apposed to my wife and mother-in-law who tries to use cloth nappies, because we have to wash and dry it during cold and damp winter, winter is always dark and cold and miserable. Even though I have not calculated how much energy do we need to wash and dry it, but I feel we can not save much by using cloth nappies if we don't buy stylish brands like pampers or Huggies, just buy some cheapest value brands like Tesco Supermarket's own brand nappies. I have never been worried about the environment.

But more people using real nappies means a reduction in the 4500 tonnes of disposable nappies that Derby send to landfill every year! I am asking myself is that regrettable things? Will I still insist to use disposable nappies in future?

What I really wan to to do in future is to start home composting. Currently I rent a house with a very small concrete ground garden, there two trees in the corner. So much fallen leaves in my garden, I have to brush it and dump into the bin. I have never thought about composting, because composting means nothing to me.

But in the leaflet, it is said that fallen leaves can make an excellent mulch once they're composted. Just rake up the leaves in the garden, and put them straight into black plastic sacks. Tie the top, pierce the sides a few times to make holes, and put them away in a corner of the garden. It takes six months for them to break down, then we can get a bag of fantastic mulch for the garden. But what can I do with these "fantastic mulch"?

Derby city council said they had teamed up with the other councils in the area to offer home composters at a discounted price. the composters are available from as little as 5 pounds and are delivered straight to your house. That's a good news. I really wish that I have a big house with one acre of garden, and start home composting today!