Reducing Waste

What we consume and the packaging it comes in create a huge amount of waste – over a tonne per household per year! Just one kilogramme of aluminium generates more than 15 kilogrammes of greenhouse gas; a hundred household bricks over 30 kilogrammes.

Recyclable and recycled materials are the way to go in building and buying.

First steps

  1. Buy products not packaging! Refuse to purchase products that use excessive packaging and materials.
  2. Give the flick to one-off use shopping bags. Try to minimise the number of one-off use shopping bags with re-usable shopping bags. Wherever possible, re-use plastic shopping bags to get as much life out of them before disposal or recycling.

Big Impact

  1. Recycle all material possible. Check with your local council or state environmental authority to find what and where you can recycle. Just recycling paper and containers reduces waste to landfill by up to 27%. There are also collection programmes for electronic waste (ie old computers, mobile phones and fridges), chemical waste and car batteries
  2. Use Recycled products
    1. Use paper with post-consumer recycled fibre. Where products have virgin fibre, look for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) logo
      Forest Stewardship Council
    2. Use recycled timber for building and buy furniture made from recycled timbers. Where products have virgin timber, look for the FSC logo
    3. Buy secondhand rather than new items.

What next?

In the longer term you can make your big decisions energy efficient when purchasing such items as vehicles, appliances and a place to live. You can save money as well. For example, switching to solar hot water heating can be a cost-effective way of supplying your hot water as well as reducing a major household source of greenhouse gases.

The future of the planet is in our hands; the future is man-made. Become a Futuremaker and find out more great ways to live sustainably. We can assure a future for all living things, and we can have some fun doing it too!