30 Aug Share waste – are you concerned with excess waste?
There is something else that is rocking my world this week! It is so exciting 🙂
Some of us are quite concerned with what happens to our rubbish after it leaves our houses and goes out into the world to be processed. There are actually some SOLUTIONS, which are both exciting and fun!!
Green waste and food waste – there is a solution
Apparently. the food waste that you put into your garbage bin goes out to landfill and creates methane, which is a toxic greenhouse gas. Not so good!
I am so excited because I found this great website that connects people who are accepting food waste for compost or worms from those who are donating it. So if you live in an inner city apartment or otherwise don’t know what to do with your food scraps (sadly, as of this week I am still in this camp), then you can find someone on this site who will take them from you!
Spread the news, because I am guessing that it will take some time to take off, and although there may not be someone nearby you now, if word gets out there soon might be!
I found someone close by (note to self: email them after this post), and dropped off my compost earlier this week. I am so happy because it has basically cut the waste that I am sending to landfill by HALF!! And no methane (greenhouse gas). So, one 13 L bin every fortnight rather than every week.
Soft plastics and cool garden furniture
The other thing that has been bothering me lately, is that those ‘bio’ or ‘enviro’ plastic bags that are ‘DEGRADABLE’? They actually break down into smaller fragments of plastic, which is actually worse for wildlife and the environment.
But there is some good news! Coles, Woolworths and many council waste facilities now have the capacity to collect soft plastics. This is exciting, because it means all those smaller plastic bags, bubble wrap, mailing bags etc can all be recycled. And the best news? The product from the recycled soft plastic gets turned into cool outdoor furniture!
It is one thing to recycle of course, and another to use the products of that recycling, so I am so happy to hear that it is being put to good use. I have been searching for recycled plastic bin liners ever since they stopped providing the perfect bin liners at the supermarket. But with no luck! It is actually not that common to see products which use recycled plastics, but I will definitely keep my eyes peeled!
Keep Cups for coffee and tea
The other thing that I have done lately is to buy a Keep Cup for takeaway tea. I noticed that during my last semester of uni, I was getting maybe two takeaway cups of tea a week, and it really bothers me that those cups are neither recyclable or compostable, because they are a mix of paper and plastic and can not be recycled.
It is a pretty huge problem, and I wanted to buy a Keep Cup to refill each time I have a lecture or tutorial so that I can enjoy my tea in a responsible way. I love these products, because you can design your own cup with your own colours and design, which is so great. Their warehouse is quite near me, so I could go and pick it up from them in person! But they will send one out to you too!
Innovative solutions
It is pretty exciting to me, to see all the ways that we are getting better at dealing with our waste. It makes a lot of sense to me on a practical level, but also on a conservative level and from the point of view of modern innovations.
It is great to learn more about waste, so that I can be more responsible and send less to landfill. I am actually quite proud of my little apartment complex. I think we have nine units in our block in total and usually we only send out one large green wheelie bin and two recycling wheelie bins a week, which feels pretty good for nine apartments.
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