8 ways to eliminate waste from your home today

8 ways to eliminate waste from your home today

 

At Ela and Earth, we absolutely love our planet and realise there is quite the waste crisis at present.

It is important as individuals, that we do our very best to reduce single use plastics and to be more self- aware of our own personal impact.

While becoming a zero waste or plastic-free household can seem like an almost impossible task at first glance, there are actually so many ways you can make a difference right now.

We have put together 8 easy ways for you to reduce your waste at home, to make a difference to your daily waste footprint. 

1 - START USING RE-USABLE CONTAINERS
Single use plastics contribute greatly to pollution. Using re-usable containers such as glass or stainless steel just to name a few, can really reduce the impact. They are great for carrying food on the go, leftovers and general food storage in the fridge and pantry. We love to save glass jars as well to store various household items in. Your fridge and pantry will also look organised and neat so that is also an added bonus!

2 - DITCH PLASTIC BAGS
Did you know that plastic bags can take at least 500 years to break down? We recommend the use of tote bags, mesh bags, string bags etc. Basically, any bag that can be used over and over again. When you buy your fruit and veg, try to steer clear of putting anything in a plastic bag, or purchasing pre-packaged fresh produce.

3 - NO JUNK MAIL AND CHANGE BILLING
Get strict with the postie and promote your household as a ‘No Junk Mail ‘home. Pop a little sign on the letter box stating ‘No Junk Mail’ to reduce the amount of unwanted catalogues being delivered on a daily basis. Also, we recommend going through all your bills to update and make sure that moving forward, you have chosen the email billing option, rather than the hard copy delivery option. It will often save you a few dollars every bill cycle too, if you change to digital!

4 - COMPOST FOOD WASTE
Did you know that almost half of the food waste in your rubbish bin could have been composted? Compost improves your soils condition and your plants and flowers will thrive from it!

How do you compost? Simply allocate a container to be kept on or under your kitchen bench and collect all the food scraps from your kitchen. Then these scraps will be emptied daily in to your outdoor compost bin.

5 - SAY NO TO PLASTIC BOTTLES
Make a conscious effort to choose products that come in glass containers rather than plastic. Also, buy a reusable drink bottle for each family member to refill with water daily and stop buying bottled water.

6 - DRINK LOOSE LEAF TEA
Most tea bags are not compostable, and of those that are, very few people make the effort to compost them. Drinking loose leaf tea reduces the amount of packaging you’re using and can be directly thrown onto the compost heap after use!

7 - STOP USING CLING WRAP
Cling wrap often ends up in landfill where it takes hundreds of years to degrade. Like plastic bags, cling wrap can end up in the sea and it is easily confused for jellyfish by marine animals and can choke turtles and other beautiful creatures that feed on them. We love the eco alternative - beeswax wraps! They are our favourite plastic-free alternative way of wrapping sandwiches and leftovers, to keep them fresh. Beeswax wraps can last up to a year and are fully compostable. They look pretty too!

8 - UNDERSTAND YOUR RECYCLING BIN
Surprisingly, many people do not fully understand what can or can’t go into the recycling bin at home. It is important to jump online and find out what your local council accepts.

So, there you have our top 8 tips to reducing waste at home.
They are simple and can be implemented today, because there is no need to wait until tomorrow…

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