One of my 2011 goals is to reduce the contents of our waste bin on collection day. Our bin gets collected every two weeks and last year, after a little drive on recycling in our house, which was really me patrolling the kitchen, our waste reduced and we only ever put out a 50% full bin. This year I want to get this down to 25%, or even lower if I can.
Some of the things I’ve done so far;
- Stopped using plastic bags; I now use a combination of Baggu’s, Cloth bags and Supermarket Eco Bags
- Stopped buying plastic drink bottles; We all drink tap water and use Sigg water bottles for when we are outside the house
- Removed us from all mailing lists to stop junk mail
- Signed us up for paper free billing with nearly every company
- Stopped buying aerosols
Being fairly frugal lends itself to a certain extent to being eco friendly: we buy few clothes, we line dry, we walk instead of drive when we can and we keep the thermostat low, to name but a few.
So how am I going to get the further waste reduction I’m looking for?
Mainly I think it’s going to come from further reducing our grocery packaging and my kids being more on board. Looking at the grocery items I bought last week I can see where changes can be made. I bought packaged vegetables; organic vegetables, but still packaged. This week I’m going to a new to me local farm shop and taking my own bags; I’m not sure if it’s going to be organic or local produce, but I’m happy with either. Now the kids, that’s going to have to be work in progress!
Our council recycled 43% of the borough waste in 2010 and this year, like me they’re aiming for higher.
Further resources:
Is reducing your waste important to you? Have you already reduced your waste? Are you looking to reduce it further?
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
(I’m also louisa @ The Really Good Life – this is my work hat though!)
I wholeheartedly agree that there can be a huge overlap between being eco-friendly and being frugal – it’s how I balance things too.
As well as reducing the potential waste we bring into the house in the first place by doing things like you’ve done, I’m big on reusing and upcycling stuff – and that’s what How can I Recycle This? is about — how can I reuse or recycle all sorts of random stuff to save me having to spend money on something new? I think I’ve saved hundreds of pounds over the years from advice readers have suggested on there!
We’ve been reducing and “Recycle This”ing for nearly five years now and so send very little waste to landfill – but I’m always looking to reduce it further. This year one of my goals is to reduce the amount of shop-bought biscuits, crackers, and other baked goods that we buy in order to cut down on the often non-recyclable packaging.
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Laura Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 10:15 am
Louisa: Thank you for the link to your site……lots of information
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Good for you! Have you seen this article yet?
http://www.sunset.com/home/natural-home/zero-waste-home-0111-00418000069984/
I like some of their ideas. For instance, they have found ways to
utilize glass jars and pillowcases for their shopping. The glass jars
could get a bit cumbersome, but it definitely got my wheels turning on
some ways I could cut back!
I found it through Katy at the Non-Consumer Advocate here:
http://thenonconsumeradvocate.com/2011/01/zero-waste-home-why-do-we-criticize/.
Good luck! I’m excited to hear about what ideas you come up with!
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Laura Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 10:16 am
Listful: yes I had. My food shopping habits really need changing!
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Hi Laura-very well done on your achievements too and wishing you much success with your plans for 2011, take care and nice to hear from you!
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Laura Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 10:17 am
Sharon: Thank you
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Sounds like you are making a difference already. Well done!
One way we really noticed cutting down on our waste was starting to compost our vegetable and fruit scraps.
I had begun to make more meals from scratch and so I was buying lots more fresh vegetables and fruit which was good, but there was a corresponding increase in our waste due to all of the fruit and vegetable scraps.
Now we compost all of these, so our weekly waste is cut by more than half in volume.
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Laura Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 10:20 am
LittleGreenVillage: I’m quite lucky in that my neighbour has a compost bin which shes happy to let me use. With our move I’m hesitant to start my own, although in the future I will
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The biggest impact I could have is to get my younger son potty trained. He’s 2 so hopefully it will happen this year. His daycare won’t do cloth diapers.
We don’t buy a lot of packaged foods, but I do buy a lot of canned goods. I don’t feel so bad about recycling metal because there is an established infrastructure to recycle. A lot of plastic still gets landfilled even if it goes into the recycle bin, so I feel worse about that.
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Laura Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 9:56 am
Sandy: Probably better to stop plastic entering the house, not always easy
Good luck with the potty training..that’s not always easy either 
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Hi Laura,
I like your goals and have a problem with the recycling. We use so many cans for veggies, boxes for cereal, newspaper etc. that our recycling is much larger than trash. I don’t like the on=line bills because I like to have a hard copy for most tax deductible bills and then I just have to print them out on our computer. Inspiring post!
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Laura Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 9:59 am
Thanks Barb! Do you have to pay for refuse/recycling collections?
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I have been making my own laundry and dishwasher detergent. It uses much less packaging
and is about 75% cheaper than traditional products. I also made bath salts and oatmeal bath
products. I am going to try and make bath bombs. I cut my one son’s hair. That saves money
and gas. I don’t use paper towels only cloth. I love using a line to dry my clothes. We try and turn off most everything from 3 – 6 pm in the summer to save energy costs. All books that I won’t be referring to again go to our library for resale, all other household goods go to Goodwill. I buy larger sized packages of food and then repackage them in reusable containers. I also get food items occasionally from barrels and buy it by the weight. It has less packaging. Electronic banking saves gas and stamps which equals about 60 dollars a year. I make my own curtains and pillows. It saves money and I enjoy it. I enjoy refinishing furniture. That way it won’t go to the dump and take up space. I promote local artists and buy their products from art fairs and markets. Not having to truck products around is a good thing. I love reading all the ideas. I think we can all find better ways to do everything.
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