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The Start Of Something New?

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 council has different regulations. They have a tone of tips on how to worm farm and ways to avoid plastic.

I have also printed off fact sheets on how to recycle for each bin which is placed in my kitchen for my family to refer to when they aren't sure. I downloaded my fact sheets from https://www.recycleright.sa.gov.au/how-to-recycle
I have set up a small compost bin in my families kitchen to make it easier and to remind everyone to put food scraps into the compost. This bin will need to be taken to the large compost bin in my yard every few days depending on how full it is.

Many of our habits have developed due to convenience. It is convenient to just chuck everything into two bins especially when you're in a rush. It is convenient to go to the local supermarket chain that has everything because it requires little effort. This task will be hard and time-consuming. Yes, separating rubbish properly takes time, going to a better grocery store that offers a 'pick your own' option to reduce packaging waste will be hard and in many ways more expensive by a dollar. But its all about trial and error and seeing what works for my family and for your self and or your family.

Tomorrow will be day one of the challenge. It's kind of daunting to think of the result of not only the first week but the weeks to come. I do hope this works out even if we change one thing, that's better then not changing anything. The aim is to have near zero waste, its gonna be tough but I am excited to see where this takes myself and my family.




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