Bonster The Hungry Monster. A book produced as part of a successful food waste campaign in Torbay and Teignbridge with Devon County Council, Torbay Council and Resource Futures.
The book shows the journey of Bonster from ‘left over land’ to your local bin! Devised and Written by Carol Arthur, Joanna O’Callaghan, Alex Mack & Demelza Annison. Illustrations by Andy Council, his website is linked here Home | Andy Council. Design by Sally Scholefield.
Below Bonster the Hungry Monster is shown as a flip book in the link below or accessible in this article further below.
Bonster the Hungry Monster
Bonster was bored and HUNGRY, he was
sitting with his friends on a planet called
LeftOverLand, with nothing to do and
nothing to eat
LeftOverLand used to be a wonderful place
to live. The monsters living there were never
hungry – they could snack on old teabags,
scoff chunks of stale old bread and wolf
down potato peelings and gobble up coffee
grounds.
But things had changed, leftovers were
running out and sometimes they had to eat
horrible ordinary food like cake and biscuits.
They had no choice – one of the monsters
had to go in search of a planet with more
wasted food and Bonster was chosen
Bonster was going to travel in a space rocket,
which looked a bit like an old tin can.
He only had a few days’ supply of food –
some lettuce leaves, apple cores and mouldy
cheese. He climbed nervously on board.
As the rocket took off, he closed his yellow
eyes and hoped for the best…
WhOOOOSH
went the rocket, up and up until Bonster
could no longer see LeftOverLand.
After a long and bumpy ride the rocket
began to go slower and slower until…
BANG!
His rocket crashed into something and
stopped.
SPLUTTER!
It was so dark, where was he?
Luckily Bonster’s landing had been soft
and he wasn’t hurt. He squeezed out of
the rocket and could feel squishy stuff
underneath him.
Bonster reached above him and he could feel
something solid which he pushed against. It
opened and his eyes were nearly blinded by
the sunlight.
He peeped out – oohh it was beautiful – he
saw green trees and an amazing blue sea in
the distance. They only had sludgy brown
seas in LeftOverLand and spiky black trees.
Then he realised he had landed inside a
black wheelie bin! He jumped down to the
ground and started to wander up the road.
As he wandered along, Bonster saw different
types of bins and boxes which he peered
into. Some had shiny black bags inside –
BORING! Some had glass jars and plastic
bottles and newspapers inside – BORING!
Then he spotted a smaller bin which, to his
delight, had his FAVOURITE food inside.
He couldn’t believe it! There were eggshells,
fish skins, carrot peelings, and stale bread
crusts. He ate them ALL up – yum yum yum!
BUT, afterwards he was still hungry.
“Wouldn’t you prefer nice fresh food
to eat?” Olivia asked. “NOOOOO“ growled
Bonster, “I don’t want any of that new stuff,
I want mouldy old food please.”
He turned and saw a girl and boy looking at
him in surprise. “Hello, my name’s Bonster,”
he called out. “Have you got any old food
to eat? I’m super hungry.” The girl stepped
forward, ”Hello. My name’s Olivia and this
is Noah,” she said.
“Come with us!” said Noah. They went to
their house to look for some Bonster food.
Dad was in the kitchen, “This is Bonster. He
likes to eat old food waste.” Said Olivia.
“He’s super hungry, please can he stay?”
“I’ll be very helpful,” said Bonster “I’ll eat up
black rubbish bags.
all of your old food waste, so it doesn’t go in
the I don’t take up much
space!”
“Ok then,“ sighed dad “BUT you two need to
look after him and make sure that he gets
fed.” “Yessss!” cried the children and they
helped Bonster to sit on the worktop near to
the sink.
The children fed him every day with old
eggshells, tea bags, bread crusts and
vegetable peelings. He was very happy
sitting there helping his new friends look
after their beautiful planet
Why don’t you start recycling your food waste too?
It’s easy to get into the habit and it actually makes you very aware
of the food that you are throwing away.
Did you know that in Devon you can use any plastic bag to line
your kitchen food caddy, such as a bag that your bread came in or
one that you got your fruit or veg in?
Most food scraps can go in it, including raw and cooked food, stale
or out of date food, leftovers and even uneaten pet food!
The main things that can go in to your food waste bin are:
• Dairy products and egg shells
• Stale bread / crusts
• Cake and pastry scraps
• Meat, fish and bones
• Tea and coffee grounds
• Fruit and vegetable peelings / cores
• Rice / pasta / beans
• Plate scrapings
The stuff that goes into your food waste bin, which is emptied
every week, can be the smelly part of your rubbish. By recycling
food scraps every week, you’ll stop your rubbish bin (which is
emptied every other week) becoming whiffy
If you don’t have a kitchen food caddy or a larger
caddy for outside, you can order one by visiting
www.recycledevon.org/replacement-containers
or by contacting your local District Council.
For a plethora of literacy check out our Literacy & History Resources – Zone (recycledevon.org) and Top 5 books – Zone (recycledevon.org)
For more information on food waste check out Food Waste – Zone (recycledevon.org)
