I got myself a new toy the other day – you may have seen on our stories – an indoor kitchen composter. We feel we need to be better at not only how much household waste we produce, but also then segregating that waste appropriately. Did you know that upwards of 70% of your weekly recycle bin could be kept out of landfill if it was all put in the right bin?
We get a weekly fruit and veg box delivered, and there’s always things in there I don’t know what to do with, so they just end up in the bin. What are those stripy purple things anyways?
The Maze Composter is made of recycled plastic, and essentially you put all your food scraps in and then after a few weeks and everything is broken down you take it outside and bury it or put it on your garden. Food scraps apparently make up 37% of Brisbane's weekly rubbish bin, and I don’t know about you, but I HATE wasting food. Still to this day I never leave anything on the plate and throwing food away just does not sit right with me at all. So, if we are doing this composting and essentially giving back to the earth, I’m totally OK with that.
We also recycle our soft plastics at the receptacle at our local Coles. Shopping bags, biscuit and chip packets, glad wrap and bread bags are all completely recyclable if done correctly. 2 babies and a wife who has a penchant for salt and vinegar chip sandwiches mean we can usually fill a shopping bag in a couple of weeks, so it’s good to know that none of that is going to landfill too.
I picked up some 100% biodegradable bin liners while I was at Bunnings as well, which will go in our bins in the kitchen and in both the bathrooms. I have heard good and bad things from people about these, but I will keep you in the loop with how they go. Surely bags that break down in 90 days are infinitely better than bags that don’t. At all. Ever.
So that’s how we are doing our part this month. How about you? What are some other ways we can improve or reduce our household waste?
Let me know!
ML