Hello, fellow eco-warriors! 🌿 April is 'rubbish refresh' in my annual sustainability calendar. After our first year of tackling changes to lighten our family's impact on the environment, I designed an annual planner (you can download it here). With a theme a month to get you started and space for tracking your quarterly goals, it will keep your improvements going.
Funny thing is, once we'd accomplished some of the big things on the list, each new change for living more sustainability can feel harder and harder because -
We've done the 'chunky' impactful stuff so smaller changes feel less impactful, or
We've done the big motivating things and the next round of changes are, well, hard habits to break (giving up dairy is definitely in this category for me).
Mid Green Family is about tackling changes at home, but first, a quick reminder: Combining our voices, time, and resources for collective action is crucial in tackling the climate crisis. Both collective and individual actions matter, particularly in high-income nations like Australia, where individual choices are baked into our national climate plans. Our individual actions also hone our decision-making skills, extending to our work and activism. Every step counts on this journey!
April has a few good breaks in it - Easter, school holidays, Anzac Day, so it's time to give a little extra thought to our waste practices and ask ourselves -
What can we improve in our general rubbish practices?
Have we been putting anything in landfill that can actually be recycled?
Do we need to tighten up any purchasing that is causing us to have more 'rubbish' than we need?
Do we keep a designated place for the hard to recycle items o everyone knows where to put them?
What have we been stockpiling that can be properly disposed of?
What big goods can go to the council recycling center (electrical items, furniture)?
What hard to recycle items can go the library (batteries, light globes etc)?
What in the garage can be sold or given a new lease of life?
Rubbish practices
I'm not going to dwell on composting and food waste because that's a whole other topic that we talk about frequently. [remembers to go put left over curry in the freezer, returns to post-writing]. This is more about spending the month being that tad more diligent on what goes in the bin.
The biggest problem with our bin is - it smells. As you get better at putting less in landfill, the one downside is the kitchen bin takes longer to fill up, and therefore anything in it is hanging out a good week, sometimes two, in the kitchen and it does tend to smell. The main things besides non-recyclable packaging in our bin is chicken fat / scraps - gross! The benefit - for those who don't love putting out the bins like me - is our curbside bin only needs taking out every three to four weeks!👏🎉
I would love to reduce single-use packaging in our lives more (cracker boxes still in high circulation), until then we're trying to avoid plastics and packaging to the extent possible. Ways we do this:
avoid gladwrap - use containers to store food in the fridge, and beeswax paper
avoid packaging - shop at markets, skip the produce bag (they'll disappear anyway later this year!), bring your own bags or grab a cardboard box,
make more of our own food!
Stockpiling
The best way to recycle properly is to MAKE IT EASY. For me, that means not dealing with it very often! Have a place to gather up the stuff, then once a quarter, every six months, every year even! go get rid of it. We have 'stockpiles' that need clearing out every now and again and quite frankly it's a ton easier than getting rid of it regularly.
Stockpile 1: the battery bowl. Any used batteries go in a bowl next to the front door for us. Why? It's a handy reminder than if we do happen to walk up to the local library, then we can take them with us to dispose of. It's up high - on a ledge near the front door - so out of reach if we do have little ones come to visit. And it doesn't take up much room.
Stockpile 2: the garage. A big box in the garage serves as the containers for change stockpile, with drop point next to the front door - again to remind me to take them to the garage when we head out. There is a stack of pot plants that are currently empty and awaiting cuttings, or ready to be carted to Bunnings who have plastic pot recycling. Anything big, bulky or smelly gets stockpiled in the garage, awaiting these months on the calendar when I do a clean out and clean up.
Stockpile 3: the laundry. This is where scrappy clothes and socks in poor condition go to become cleaning rags. In a cupboard under the sink, we stockpile gift bags, small cardboard boxes, plastic takeaway containers and other items to await crafting and re-gifting. School projects? No worries. This is the home of repurposed paint trays, diorama materials, crafts for a rainy day, imaginative gift wrapping and more.
Stockpile 4: the wardrobe. I have learnt to leave a box (this is one of those canvas crates from an old piece of Ikea furniture) in my wardrobe to discard shoes and clothes that need donating. It means they get out of circulation and it's still visible enough that when its full, I know it's time to walk it down the road to the donation drop-off, or suggest a swap with the sisters.
Stockpile 5: the bathroom. Mecca takes back all their packaging - as I unpack any purchases (less and less nowadays as kid expenses are taking all my money!!!) I shove them into a Mecca bag I keep in my bathroom cabinet. Again, when its full, I grab and take back to store.
With all these handy stockpile zones, I just need to remember to deal with them when they're full or on months like these (April in my Sustainability planning calendar) to go and do a few drop-offs on the weekend and deal with it all.
Given April is also school holiday and easter break time, we do some crafting and tackle into the laundry craft pile. This month we made knick-knack bowls from old egg cartons super fun and we show you how on our insta.
Keeping up with good habits is crucial to maintaining that sustainable lifestyle. Here's the handy summary of tips for staying on top of your rubbish practices:
Reduce your use. First up avoid adding to any of your waste piles in reusing stuff you already have, reducing consumption or going secondhand and avoid packaging waste.
Recycle check-in. We check that we are recycling as much as we can, reading packaging and following the symbols and guidance. We also get familiar with what's around, a local cafe takes compost, the library takes old mobile phones and batteries.
Stockpile. To make life easier, keep stockpile zones for some of the harder to recycle items that need specific drop offs. That could be a place for old batteries, clothes to be donated or any containers for change.
Take it away. It only works if you take your stockpiles to their recycling centres! So a couple of times a year (more if you're really generating a lot!) take a weekend to go and clean out those stockpiles. It's April for us.
🌿♻️ Join the Mid Green Family in April for a 'Rubbish Refresh'! It's time to tackle waste practices and make a difference! From composting to recycling, every small action counts! Let's make our urban homes more sustainable together. #RubbishRefresh #SustainableLiving #ReduceReuseRecycle
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