I have always thought that we probably make a little much rubbish in our house but I never really thought much about it, certainly not enough to take any steps to combat it.
When I saw that
the ABC was screening a show called War on Waste I was quite excited. It seemed
like the perfect opportunity for me to start thinking about the waste that we
produce and see if there were any changes that we could make as a family to
reduce the waste that we produce.
So, I watched it. And I was horrified. The amount of waste produced by Australia alone is mind blowing. The Australian Bureau of Statistics states that in 2010, each household in Australia is estimated to produce almost 1.5 tonnes of waste and that nearly half of all of that was organic waste and almost a quarter of that was paper and cardboard waste.
Clean Up Australia says this on their website: Australians are the second highest producers of waste, per person, in the world with each of us sending over 690 kilograms of waste to landfill each year (the United States is the highest waste producer). The amount of waste placed in landfill each year in Australia is enough to cover the state of Victoria.
And to think
that there are other countries all around the world producing enormous volumes
of waste. I can’t even imagine how much space it all must be taking up
throughout the entire world.
I learnt a lot from watching ABC's War on Waste and I am so grateful that it has inspired in me the motivation to make changes to what my family send to landfill.
Keep Cups
Keep Cups
I genuinely didn’t
know that disposable coffee cups were not recyclable – I have spent the last 15
years unknowingly recycling all of my coffee cups. Mind blowing. I had a keep
cup and I hadn’t been using it, thinking to myself “well at least the cups are
being recycled”. Now I know better.
I started using my keep cup and purchased a new one so that I would always have one available to me no matter where I am. I keep one in the car and one in my work hand bag.
Since starting to use the Keep Cup I have also made a promise to myself that if I find myself without a Keep Cup then I will forgo a coffee. So far that has only happened once and I did stick by my resolution. I have also convinced my husband to try using the Keep Cup and he has also been trying very hard to use it as much as possible.
I started using my keep cup and purchased a new one so that I would always have one available to me no matter where I am. I keep one in the car and one in my work hand bag.
Since starting to use the Keep Cup I have also made a promise to myself that if I find myself without a Keep Cup then I will forgo a coffee. So far that has only happened once and I did stick by my resolution. I have also convinced my husband to try using the Keep Cup and he has also been trying very hard to use it as much as possible.
Soft plastic recycling
Soft plastic recycling! What a revelation.
I had no idea that soft plastic recycling existed. It turns out that one of my local Woolworths and one of my local Coles supermarkets have Redcycle bins. Redcycle is a soft plastic recycling company. So you can put all of the soft plastics (plastic bags and plastic food packaging) can be placed in large wheelie bins and the plastic is delivered to the Redcycle recycling centre in Victoria where they are turned into other items. This is what they say about it on the Redcyle website: “We bring the collected plastic back to our facility for initial processing then delivered to Australian manufacturer Replas where it undergoes an incredible transformation. Replas uses the material as the resource to produce a huge range of recycled-plastic products, from fitness circuits to sturdy outdoor furniture, to bollards, signage and more. All products are extremely robust, as well as water and termite resistant. They won’t crack, splinter or rot and will never need painting. Replas products are perfect for use in schools, park, public spaces and commercial premises.”
Disposable hygiene items
I have cut right down on my tissue usage by cutting up a pair of my son’s old pyjamas (which were going to be donated) using pinking sheers and have used them as handkerchiefs and little wipes which I use to wipe makeup off the back off my hand in the morning.
I have stopped buying makeup remover wipes and started using a microfiber cloth to remove my makeup. The cloth can be washed and will last for a very long time. I am a little uncertain about microfibre because I have been reading about microplastic pollution, but at the moment this works and seems a better alternative to remover wipes.
I have purchased a menstrual cup which will hopefully eliminate the need for tampons and pads.
Being more aware of what can and can't be recycled
I have really come to realise the importance of making myself aware of what can and cannot be recycled and therefore avoid landfill (at least for a little longer).
I didn’t, for example, realise that aluminium foil could be recycled after use (although in hindsight this was pretty obvious).
My coffee cups is another good example of something I didn’t know could be recycled.
I didn’t know that the tags on bread bags could be recycled and I didn’t know that if you just put those tags and beer bottle lids and other bottle lids loose into the recycling that they are unlikely to be collected by the recycling machines.
I order frozen meals that come in paperboard packaging. It is a different material to paper and cardboard. I am told by the producer of those meals that the paperboard is recyclable in some council areas and not others. I am checking with my local council whether they will accept them. Before this, though, I have been sending them straight to landfill.
UPDATE: They can be recycled in my recycling bin.
THE OUTCOME SO FAR
I have cut right down on my tissue usage by cutting up a pair of my son’s old pyjamas (which were going to be donated) using pinking sheers and have used them as handkerchiefs and little wipes which I use to wipe makeup off the back off my hand in the morning.
I have stopped buying makeup remover wipes and started using a microfiber cloth to remove my makeup. The cloth can be washed and will last for a very long time. I am a little uncertain about microfibre because I have been reading about microplastic pollution, but at the moment this works and seems a better alternative to remover wipes.
I have purchased a menstrual cup which will hopefully eliminate the need for tampons and pads.
Being more aware of what can and can't be recycled
I have really come to realise the importance of making myself aware of what can and cannot be recycled and therefore avoid landfill (at least for a little longer).
I didn’t, for example, realise that aluminium foil could be recycled after use (although in hindsight this was pretty obvious).
My coffee cups is another good example of something I didn’t know could be recycled.
I didn’t know that the tags on bread bags could be recycled and I didn’t know that if you just put those tags and beer bottle lids and other bottle lids loose into the recycling that they are unlikely to be collected by the recycling machines.
I order frozen meals that come in paperboard packaging. It is a different material to paper and cardboard. I am told by the producer of those meals that the paperboard is recyclable in some council areas and not others. I am checking with my local council whether they will accept them. Before this, though, I have been sending them straight to landfill.
UPDATE: They can be recycled in my recycling bin.
THE OUTCOME SO FAR
I won’t go here
with everything I have tried doing. I might try to do a post about every swap
or change I make and the effect it has.
In short,
within 3 weeks of attempting to reduce my waste – I have greatly reduced the
amount of waste we produce that ends up in landfill. We line our garbage bins
with the grey plastic shopping bags you receive at supermarkets. Before I
started making small changes at home, we were producing at least 7 - 8 plastic bags
of rubbish + maybe 2 - 3 plastic bags of nappies a week.
Last week, we
put out 2 plastic bags of rubbish and 2 plastic bags of nappies.
Massive difference.
What I have learned so far from this process is that the bulk of the waste we were producing and sending to landfill was soft plastic – which is now being recycled in the soft plastic recycling system.
Now, I am not
saying that sending it all off to be recycled is the answer. Resources still
need to be used to recycle the material and people/businesses still need to be
willing to purchase items made from recyclable materials. It may be recycled but it is still waste. I do aim in the long term to reduce my waste from a bigger picture point of view.
But for me and for now, it
is a start.
I can see other areas we need to make improvements in – investigating whether there is way that would work for our family to buy less packaged foods and arranging a composting system.
But this
journey towards producing less waste has started and I am pleased by the changes I have already seen in
our house.
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