Sunday 22 January 2012

January 'Green' Challenge

'Recycle, Reduce, Reuse'.

To get started we need to look at our general household waste. Have a look at your waste over the next week, and make note of how much is recyclable, what you might reuse and what can be reduced. Things like supermarket packaging.

After you have had a look around are there any changes you could make? I think one of the most important things about waste is having somewhere to put it! Councils these days mostly offer three bins for General Waste, Paper & Cardboard and Glass & Plastic's.

However if like us, you live in a rural area with no waste management services, it really comes down to your own motivation I am afraid. We have three wheelie bins and recycle everything. Our kitchen waste is shared between the worm waste system, compost and the chook's. The kitchen has 2 scrap bins which can be emptied a couple of times a day depending on what we are doing. We freeze any meat scraps and take out on the tip run. This means that our kitchen rubbish bin only contains what can not be recycled or reused. It can takes us a few weeks to empty our kitchen bin. 


Compost bins: Composting is much like gardening in the sense you can make it as small or large as you like! With so many of us these days living in dense urban areas it can be more challenging to compost and reuse our kitchen waste. I came across this bin a year or so ago, the Bokashi bin has been designed for urban living, small compact and stylish, see for yourself http://www.bokashi.com.au/


The key to this months challenge is to get us thinking about waste. I am not suggesting we all run out and buy a compost bin, but just go about our rubbish with a bit more food for thought.             
Keep me posted on your thoughts and ideas on Facebook and Twitter. Make sure you add some photo's!! 


 Image courtsey of London permaculture-Flikr

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