The Wasteful Waste Less

In many households it is common to purchase too much food, essentially thinking we need more then we will actually do. It is also common to have food that either hasn't been eaten or opened. Expiry dates and best before dates are both your best friend and your enemy when it comes to buying and eating food.   Many people believe that best before dates mean that the product cannot be eaten after a particular day, but in actual fact, the product will probably last and be good to eat a few days after this date. The expiration date, however, shouldn't be eaten any day past the date printed as this can cause serious illness and hospitalisation, and we definitely don't want anyone going to the hospital!   Fresh produce is always an item that people sometimes purchased too much of at a time because it is on special or at a great price. In accordance with "The War on Waste" one bag of groceries is wasted every week. That is a whole lot of food going to landf...

Making waste free cookies are a simple and delicious way to reduce your snack waste. This recipe calls for no eggs and many ingredients that can be bought from a bulk food store. Milk is a difficult product to find with no waste, but don't be scared of that! As long as you recycle your milk bottles properly, you are doing your part.   From creating this recipe and participating in this 'challenge' I have learnt that baking paper is compostable, which means you can use it to save cleaning the dirty trays which mean less water wastage! The only packaging I wasted making these cookies was the baking paper and a cacao packet as I had this ingredient left over in the cupboard This recipe is vegan and refined sugar-free. These delicious soft cookies have none of those nasty artificial ingredients that many store bought cookies have and are packed with loads of health benefits.   So here we go your yummy chocolate chip cookies! This recipe makes 10, so try not ...

This week I ventured out of the big 'bad'  supermarket chains and visited a bulk food store. I went there to buy ingredients for future waste-free recipes . This sort of supermarket or store is "do it your self" where products are priced by the kg and you pick and choose which products you would like.  Using a paper bag you are able to scoop in the ingredients you desire and pay for however much you have. This is a great way to reduce packaging waste, especially plastic packaging. The paper bags used are recyclable so its great for the environment! Walking into the store I found it quite intimidating, I've never been to one before and there are so many products which you can choose. From flours to nuts, chocolate to spices and even nut butter's , oils and syrups.  These stores encourage consumers to bake and cook more products that don't require packaging, this can also encourage a more healthy diet as you are eating less processed foods.  This als...

I don’t know about you but there is something exciting about drinking out of a water bottle or any sort of funky looking cup. Not only does it encourage me to drink more water, but it also means I don't spill anything anywhere. Now for the majority of my adult life (2 years excluding the ending of my teens), I have always drunk from a plastic throw away water bottle. My usual goto was the Pump or Mount Franklin water bottles as they were easy to pick up at work. I've always known how bad these bottles were for the environment but I justified it by only buying one bottle every 1-2 weeks. I kept telling myself I needed to get a reusable water bottle that I could use instead of the plastic ones but if I'm honest, I didn't want to spend money on it (which makes no sense as you spend way more on non-reusable plastic over time) and id always forget about buying one when I was at the shops.   I have now come to realise that this isn't an excuse. When plastic bags are ...

So here we are the day before week one, the starting point of 'attempting' to become more sustainable. Our bins are filled up for the weekly bin collection. Our aim is to reduce this by at least a third, especially the red bin. Our recycling habits in my household aren't the best. We don't really know what goes where when it comes to some items. I think this would be common amongst most households! no one really taught us how to recycle, so in many ways, our habit of separating things into recycling and general waste isn't necessarily our fault. It is something that is quite foreign for most families. Being unknowledgeable about proper recycling makes the issue of pollution worse. As I've learnt from 'The War On Waste' everything that goes to landfill essentially just sits there and doesn't break down or decompose. Not even food waste! If you head to your local council website you will find information regarding recycling, because each ...